Panaji: In its first major show of opposition against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Council for Social Justice and Peace, a social wing of the influential Catholic Church in Goa, hosted a rally slamming the CAA, NRC and NPR.
“The CAA, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register are aimed at dividing the fabric of the country and it should be opposed at all cost,” Fr. Savio Fernandes, Executive Secretary of the Council, said at the public rally in Margao, which was attended by several thousand people.
Several opposition politicians and civil society activists, also participated in the protest rally, the first organised under the aegis of the Goa Church, which had been non-committal on the issue for several weeks while protests took place in several parts of the country.
Among key attendees were Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao, and State Congress president Girish Chodankar. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has backed the CAA and said that no one in the state would be affected by its implementation.
Catholics account for nearly 26 per cent of the state”s population and the Church, apart from being a religious guide, also plays a socio-political role vis a vis its sizeable flock in the former Portuguese colony.