Robert Castellino has sought clarification on a few issues raised by him in his letter on Mopa, the chief being whether I am functioning as official spokesperson of the Church. It is a pity that Mr. Castellino has obviously not been carefully reading GFDO statements for the last one year, before coming out publicly with such a question, because then he would have seen that every statement made by me has been in my capacity as GFDO Convenor, so where is the question of me speaking for the Church? My being a clergyman, does not deny me my citizen’s right and duty to vote. So, as a citizen with a conscience, why should it deny me my right and duty to form an opinion on community issues and express and propagate it? This is my constitutional right.
Despite my publicly clarifiying time and again that Mopa is in fact an issue for the entire Goa, since it is closer to Sindhudurg rather than most parts of Goa and will adversely affect the tourism based economy of the entire state, Mr. Castellino has inexplicably raised this issue for reasons best known to himself. Perhaps he is not aware that expert reports of ICAO and ADPi have clearly stated with facts and figures that Goa’s air traffic projections are insufficient to sustain two airports. For the last one year, GFDO has been raising this dual airport issue, backed by solid justifications, facts, and figures from expert reports. It would be good if Mr. Castellino would channelise his energies productively by asking Mr. Parrikar why he does not show respect to Goans by explaining to the people of Goa if GFDO and the reports submitted by experts appointed by the government itself are wrong. He should also ask Mr. Parrikar why for the last year he has refused to concede to GFDO’s repeated requests for a public debate on this issue. Mr. Castellino should understand that organisations like GFDO can only place facts, figures and opinions before the people. No one, not even the Church, Temples or Mosques can force an individual to vote against his or her conscience. That is why it is very sad to read that a Professor like Mr. Castellino has publicly stated his willingness to blindly follow another person or body, even at the cost of disregarding and negating his own God given heart to feel, mind to think and conscience to act upon. Fr. Eremito Rebelo
