In Goa, Amit Shah will have to offer answers to Christian BJP MLAs

Panaji: When BJP president Amit Shah lands in Goa later this week on a two-day visit, he’d better pack some answers along with his change of clothes.

Goa’s ruling minority MLAs, several of them from the BJP, are putting together a laundry list of questions for Shah, over ‘ghar wapsi’, the beef ban and other ominous noises made against minorities by several fringe elements, both within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allied outfits.

Under pressure from their Christian constituents, who account for more than 26 percent of the state’s 1.5 million population, BJP’s Christian MLAs as well as Christian legislators supporting the BJP-led coalition government in Goa have been sitting on pin cushions, ever since the controversies about ‘ghar-wapsi’ (re-conversion) and anti-minority comments made by several BJP MPs and Hindu right wing leaders surfaced after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government assumed power at the Centre in May last year.

BJP president Amit Shah will arrive in Goa on a two-day visit beginning 28 May, where he is expected to address a series of party-meetings and a public rally in the state capital, as part of the one year anniversary of the NDA government.

During his visit, Shah is also expected to discuss party-related affairs with the local MLAs and office bearers, which is where BJP’s vocal minority leaders like Michael Lobo BJP MLA from Calangute constituency in North Goa insist they will raise the communalism bogey.

“Definitely, I will take up several issues with him. There are many organisations affiliated with the BJP or you can say different arms of the BJP, who are making statements against the minorities. India does not belong to one community,” Lobo told Firstpost.

Lobo, who is also the North Goa district president of the BJP, is not the only one suffering such insecurities, but he, along with the party’s Aldona MLA Glenn Ticlo, are one of the few willing to speak on record about their unease vis a vis the perils of rising majoritarianism within the BJP.

“I’m not sure I’ll be there when he’s coming, but if I am, the issue of the many statements made are a cause of concern. In Goa of course we have no problem, but in other states there are these persistent issues that worry the minority community. We want the BJP to focus on development,” Ticlo said.

Another Christian BJP MLA said that the least they expected from a party which campaigned using a development plank in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was to reprimand those trying to whip up communal sentiments.

“What disappoints us is that many like Yogi Adityanath, Sakshi Maharaj and Giriraj Singh are MPs and directly under the Prime Minister’s command, but there seems to be no stopping their anti-minority comments. What is the message in it for us,” the MLA said on condition of anonymity.

In Goa, the rise of the BJP is directly proportionate to the trust it has deposed in the state’s minority communities especially Christians.

In the past the party, with the help of precarious alliances had cobbled together governments on three occasions (none of the governments lasted full distance).

But in 2012, it was veteran party leader Manohar Parrikar, now Defence Minister, whose master social engineering strategy of allotting six out of the 28 seats contested by the BJP to Christian candidates and supporting other Christian candidates in key constituencies, which helped the BJP to romp to an unprecedented simple majority of 21 seats in the 40 member state legislative assembly.

Currently, there are six Christian MLAs in the BJP’s legislature wing. The cabinet of the BJP-led coalition government has three Christian ministers, which includes Deputy Chief minister Francis D’Souza. Another Christian member of the cabinet, Francisco Pacheco of the Goa Vikas Party, was forced to resign after his conviction in a 2006 assault case was upheld by the Supreme Court last month.

However, despite a healthy legislative strength as well as clout in the cabinet, there is a sense of uneasiness creeping into the ruling minority legislators, whose association with the BJP, in light of the raucous communal noises made by its own party MPs elsewhere in the country, may prove to be a bane rather than a boon in the 2017 state assembly elections.

Ghar wapsi controversies, beef bans, Pakistan jibes, slurs against Mother Teresa and other unchecked comments against Christians and other minorities are already giving MLAs like Caitu Silva the jitters.

“There is the constant threat of ghar wapsi which is taking place in other states. If that comes to Goa there will be a war,” Silva said.

(The writer is a Goa correspondent for the Indo-Asian News Service)