VASCO: Former Velsao-Pale-Issorcim deputy sarpanch Roquezinho D’Souza on Thursday said that priests interfering in politics should instead contest elections and stop preaching politics during mass ceremonies.
D’Souza said that a few priests have been trying to influence politicians in different constituencies, thereby unnecessarily drawing the wrath of the people at the time of defections. He appealed to senior religious heads to act against them.
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According to D’Souza, when people go to a church or a temple they go to listen to the word of God and not the political sermon of a priest who is aligned with a particular party. D’Souza said that it was wrong in the first place to allow politicians to take an oath in front of temples, churches and dargah and secondly priests double up as political influencers urging people to vote only for a particular political party.
D’Souza said that in the past a priest was involved in a war of words with a Minister’s staff during a panchayat by-poll while, a priest came from Verna to Cortalim to tell people to support a BJP-backed candidate in the Assembly polls He too managed to get a Congress ticket for a candidate, who got elected and has now defected to BJP.
