Panaji: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Goa’s Archbishop this month is proof of his “minority appeasement”, a leader of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) said Thursday.
Charudatta Pingale of HJS, which organised a seven-day (June 20-26) Hindu convention near the temple town of Ponda, 35 km from here, also accused the BJP government in Goa of appeasing minorities.
“During his visit to Goa, Modi found time to meet the Archbishop but not the Shankaracharya of the region or any Hindu religious head. This is nothing but minority appeasement,” Pingale said.
Modi met Archbishop Fr. Filipe Neri Ferrao at the Raj Bhavan here. The meeting came against the backdrop of a subtle pre-election campaign by the Goa Church against the BJP, especially Modi.
The campaign has somewhat soured the newly formed bonhomie of the BJP with the Church in Goa, where more than 25 percent of the people are Catholic.
Modi’s meeting with the Archbishop was crammed in between several functions organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the state government and the Indian Navy.