Sardinha absolves Sangh parivar from involvement in church blast

Sardinha absolves Sangh parivar from involvement in church blast
RAJU NAYAK

PANAJI, JULY 9: Goa Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha's assertion on the floor of the Goa assembly that all evidences gathered by investigating agencies in the St. Andrew's Church blast in Vasco da Gama point to the involvement of the Pakistani ISI has once again reopened the issue of the blast in Goa.

Seen in the backdrop of a recent meeting, held in Mapuca in North Goa and attended by some senior non-BJP politicians and church-leaders this assertion of the Chief Minister, who has an alliance with the state BJP legislative party, aims at dispelling fears among the Catholic community on the involvement of the Sangh Parivar behind the blast.

It might be recalled that some junior Congress legislators had implicated the Sangh Parivar for the blast and given clean-chit to the ISI. Although saner elements in the Congress forced its leadership to dissociate from such rhetoric, the attempts to silently implicate the RSS behind the blast in the light of the general fear psychosis of Sangh-sponsored minority bashing has not gone unnoticed in political circles.

The Sangh leadership, while rejecting the allegations of involvement in the blast, have gone a step further and alleged that the blast was the result of an internal power-struggle in the state Congress legislative Party (CLP).

Senior Sangh functionary Subhash Velingkar, speaking to The Indian Express, said that it was common for the church to blame the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for any instance of violence against it and hence the Sangh was not taking the charges seriously.

Moreover, he said, because it was becoming increasingly clear that the state Congress Party was using the church to force the Congress splinter group from dissociating itself from the BJP. BJP legislative Party leader Manohar Parrikar, while denying his party and the Sangh Parivar's involvement in the blast, proceeded to castigate the church behind instigating violence to suit its ends.

Recalling the recent brutal murder of a policeman in the violent church-supported Anti-Meta Strips agitation, Parrikar said that every church-backed agitation has historically resulted in unprecedented violence in Goa. Parrikar contended that the Congress, which was in cahoots with the church, was scared with the gowing popularity of the BJP in the state and was resorting to diversionary propoganda to gain power through the back- door.

The Chief Minister's statement, while not disclosing details of the ISI involvement, is, however, sustainable given the similarities between the blasts that occured in Goa and the one that was experienced in Gulbarga in Karnataka. While implicating the ISI the Chief Minister is perhaps attempting to absolve the Sangh Parivar of involvement which the opposition Congress party is alleging from the roof tops.