Goa BJP leaders 'object' to partymen's conversion talks

BJP leaders' remarks on 'reconversion or gharwapsi' of Christians to their 'original' Hindu fold haven't gone down well with many BJP leaders in Goa. Even, the senior party leaders have advised 'caution' on the matter.

After attacking the 'Abrahamic' faiths on Saturday during a speech in Karnataka's Udupi and urging that all "Hindus" who had "left the Hindu fold" for other religions be "reconverted", BJP's youth wing national president Tejasvi Surya withdrew his statement on Monday. Senior party leaders don't want to create ruptures in poll-bound Goa, which has a significant Christian population.

In the face of Karnataka's Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, state home minister Araga Jnanendra had said that politicians need to think about the bill with an open mind as "forcible conversions were like termites".


Goa's transport minister Mauvin Godinho told ET that there was a brotherhood among communities in Goa and what was happening outside Goa - attacks on churches or statements implying their conversions - were "unwarranted and absolutely unnecessary".

Goa's power minister Nilesh Cabral, the BJP's minority face, said every citizen had the constitutional right to follow the religion of his choice and politicians had no business telling people what they should do about their faith. Senior minister Michael Lobo, the BJP MLA from Calangute, said every state has its agenda, but the recent bill in Karnataka was aimed at brainwashing people about how conversions take place. "Conversions have nothing to do with Christianity... The polarising narrative can work in Karnataka not in Goa."

Meanwhile, a senior BJP leader said the party was confident of consolidating Hindu votes as the Hindu population in Goa has moved up to 65% while the Christian population has declined to around 25% in the last few years.

A Manohar Parrikar loyalist said on condition of anonymity that the conversion debate is complicated in Goa, an erstwhile Portuguese colony that has its own history of conversions in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said the BJP leaders were deliberately stoking a communal narrative.