Panaji: Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Rev Filipe Neri Ferrao, has urged the central government to “immediately and unconditionally revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act” and stop quashing the “right to dissent”. He also appealed to the government not to implement the proposed countrywide NRC and the NPR. However, Goa BJP’s general secretary Narendra Sawaikar asked why the Archbishop was opposing CAA when “crores of people including Goans” were supporting the new law.
Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media, a wing of the Goa Church, in a statement on Saturday said, “The Archbishop and the Catholic community of Goa would like to appeal to the government to listen to the voice of millions in India, to stop quashing the right to dissent and, above all, to immediately and unconditionally revoke the CAA and desist from implementing the NRC and the NPR.”
The CAA, NRC and NPR are “divisive and discriminatory” and will certainly have a “negative and damaging effect” on a multi-cultural democracy like ours, the church said.
There is serious concern that it will result in “direct victimisation of the underprivileged classes and the countless undocumented people who will suddenly run the risk of becoming stateless and candidates for detention camps,” it said. (PTI)
