PANAJI: Chief minister Pramod Sawant said religion and politics should not be mixed and there should be no division between religions for votes in Goa.
“Why is there division in Goa? Why is there a fight between religion for politics? Don’t we have MLAs and ministers (from the minority community)? Have we never made them ministers and MLAs? We have not done injustice to anyone. Did we shut down anything? We have not spoken against anything,” he told
TOI at this newspaper’s office.
Sawant’s statement comes in the backdrop of the circular from the archbishop of Goa and Daman, Felipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao, to all parishes, priests and Catholics asking them to vote for secular candidates who would uphold values “enshrined in the Constitution”.
Goa goes to vote on May 7.
The CM said he welcomed the archbishop’s statement and reiterated that BJP was the “most secular party”. He said he had held closed-door meetings with priests and requested them to vote for the party.
Sawant also allayed fears over Goan land being sold to outsiders and the loss of Goan identity. “Goa has completed 63 years of liberation, and nobody has attacked its identity. No one will conquer Goa. The Portuguese had conquered Goa and that’s enough,” he said.
He also said his govt will ensure that no paddy cultivation land is converted for any other purpose. “If we want to preserve Goan identity, we have to preserve agricultural and orchard land,” he said.
Sawant said the opposition raises the three linear projects and the Mhadei issues just for the sake of it. He said Congress has made the Mhadei into a political issue, but his fight for the Mhadei started even before he joined politics. “I will continue to fight for the Mhadei. To save the Western Ghats, we need the Mhadei. There will be no diversion of the Mhadei,” he said.
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