Herald, 17 Sep 2008 It’s rain & thunder against communal violence HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, SEPT 16 — Such was the resolve of the people to say no to communal violence that they didn’t budge even an inch when a short spell of heavy rain threatened to disrupt a meeting called by the Council for Social Justice and Peace on Tuesday afternoon at the Azad Maidan, here. People from all parts of the State flooded the historic ground to condemn the incidents of violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka. The meeting, which was organised by CSJP in collaboration with Interfaith Dialogue for Life, also condemned all kinds of violence, including terrorism. Today’s gathering resembled the historic mega meeting held at same venue under the banner of GBA on December 18, 2006 to protest against the Regional Plan 2010. No sooner the first speaker, Ramesh Gauns of Citizens’ Initiative for Communal Harmony, took the mike and was two minutes into his speech, heavy rain hit the historic maidan, but people stood their ground, even as programme coordinator Tomazinho Cardozo made a fervent plea to them not to move. The Archbishop Rev Filipe Neri Ferrao, Fr Loiola Pereira, Minister Jose Philip D’Souza and MLAs Agnelo Fernandes and Francis Silveira and others were caught up in the shower, which stopped after 6-7 minutes. Gauns, who continued his speech on ‘Tracing the origin and design of communal forces in India’ no sooner the rain stopped and the sun came out, said the seeds of communalism were there ever since the freedom movement started. Asserting that violence in the name of religion was a crime, he warned that communal forces were at work in the State too. President of Goa’s All India Milli Council Iqbal Mohiddin maintained that no one had the right to condemn another person’s religion. Quoting from the Koran, he called upon the people to fight terrorism too in the same vein. Well-known cardiac surgeon, Dr Francisco Colaco speaking on ‘Seeking an authentic secular state’ noted that conversions are being used as an alibi to unleash a systematic progromme against the minorities. There was ample proof of this in Orissa, he said and added, “Such violence begins at will and ends when the fascist forces feel they have achieved what they set to do.” The most vocal and brash of all speakers, scientist Dr Nandkumar Kamat, said elections were near and religion and politics made for a heavy cocktail to further shady agendas. “The attack against Christians is not in the spirit of the Constitution which starts with ‘We, the people of India’ and not ‘We, the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, etc of India’,” he chided. Kamat said there was a need to raise the issue with the United Nations bringing to its notice the failure of the Government of India to protect the minorities. “The National Human Rights Commission should investigate the matter,” he stated. Dalbir Singh, retired personnel from the defence forces, and Shaikh Iftikhar from Margao also spoke condemning the communal violence. After the meeting people were requested to participate in a signature campaign to stamp their protest. A volunteer said including today’s signatures they had managed to get more than 80,000 signatures from all over the State.
-- Question everything -- Karl Marx
