A concerted effort is being made by a section of the vernancular press in Goa
to defame the Church by reporting canards about a compromise between the Church
and Government on the issue of RP-2021. Last week, one vernancular newspaper
had claimed to have unearthed a contradictory stance adopted by the Church that
was seeking to get land use change in the RP-2021 for its property in Old Goa.
This week another vernacular newspaper claims that a compromise solution has
been arrived at between the Church and the Chief Minister over the RP-2021. The
report claims that the compromise involves an agreement of the government for a
land use change for church property. This orchestrated propaganda has to be
seen in the background of a slanted and misleading opinion against the Church
of one P. Timble and such others in the print and electronic media.
This tactic of a distraction by the Digambar Kamat government is not new. When
a pilot project for participatory planning initiated by the Task Force for
preparation of RP-2021 was short-circuited by vested interests in 2009, a
similar campaign of misreporting of facts was resorted to by an English daily
even after furnishing facts to show otherwise. The report tried to portray that
the Civil Society groups involved had backed out because they did not agree to
submitting accounts to the Government on the money which will be given for the
project. Shockingly, a shameless Editor of that news daily defended the report
as being the truth.
After the disappointing response to the 16th December meeting against the
RP-2021, certain vested interests who were hoping to exploit the situation for
political gains are now venting their frustration against the Church by
spreading false propaganda. This propaganda stems from the same destructive and
misguided forces which oppose English as the medium of Instruction and claim
that 'Church means Congress and Congress means Church'.
- Soter D'souza
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