Parrikar's 'culturally Hindu' comment gets Catholic flak

Catholics account for 27 percent of the state's 1.45 million people and are a key vote bank.

Panaji:  Catholic politician Francisco Pacheco, whose regional party supports the BJP coalition government, reacted sharply on Saturday against Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's statement last week that Goan Catholics are "culturally Hindu'.

"We are all human beings. Who is what, whether he is Hindu, Muslim, Catholic culturally does not matter," said Pacheco, a legislator from Nuvem legislative constituency.

Pacheco, the head of the Goa Vikas Party (GVP), said he did not agree with what Parrikar had said in an interview to India Ink, the online India section of the New York Times.

Parrikar had said in the interview published in question-and-answer format that "India is a Hindu nation in the cultural sense (Hindus are 82 percent of the population).

"A Catholic in Goa is also Hindu culturally, because his practices don't match Catholics in Brazil (a former Portuguese outpost like Goa); except in the religious aspect, a Goan Catholic's way of thinking and practice matches a Hindu's," he had said.

At a press conference on Saturday Pacheco, a Roman Catholic, said he cannot "agree with the statement" of Parrikar.

Parrikar's comment triggered controversy, especially because Catholics were seen to have voted for the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) during the March 2012 elections, putting an end to the eight-year Congress regime in the state.

Catholics account for 27 percent of the state's 1.45 million people and are a key vote bank.

Pacheco's Goa Vikas Party has two legislators in the 40-member state legislative assembly.

IANS