Book of Integration Council New - Ministry of Home Affairs

We are holding this meeting at a time when terrorism and communalism are the biggest
challenges facing our country today. As everybody has said terrorism has no religion,
no caste, no creed and during terrorism only the innocent persons belonging to each and
every religion, caste and creed gets hurts, is harmed and that is why, everybody is of the
opinion that terrorism has to be dealt with stern action and the iron hand, but at the
same time that does not mean that few people are belonging to one community, that is
why the community should be targeted. Utmost care has to be taken, there is no ill
feelings created in a community, just because some of the people involved in the activities
belong to a particular community. As far as communalism is concerned, communalism
always pollutes the mind of the people and this is done through a deliberate process
of mental slow poisoning. It spreads hatred between two religions, which otherwise
co-exist harmously. Like many faces of mythological king Ravana, communalism has
also many faces but as the late Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru rightly said “Communalism
of majority community is worse than the that of the minority community. This is
because it is sold in the name of shadow nationalism.” What India can’t afford is
communal Nationalism, India needs secular patriotism. Sir, Goa, which I represent, is
historically known for its communal harmony. We were ruled by Portugese for 450
years. We are probably one of the only State in the Country which has uniform civil
code. Here on the day of Id celebration, Catholics and Hindus visit their Muslim
brothers to eat biryani, when there is Diwali celebration, Muslims and Catholics come to
Hindu’s houses for eating Poha and when there is Christmas celebrations, we go to the
Muslims and Hindus go to the Catholic Friends to eat, what you call baby corn and
other sweet dishes. It is in this State where the Chief Minister of the State host Id Milan,
Diwali Milan and Christmas Milan at the official residence of the Chief Minister which is
attended by the people belonging to all communities, all religions. But lately, we have
noticed that efforts are also being made to have a communal virus in this beautiful State.
Recently some incidents have come to our notice, where a Statue of Bhagwan Mahavir,
in the wild life sanctuary, named after Bhagwan Mahavir was damaged, by a group
which till today, we have not been able to catch them. It was damaged, with an effort
to bring a polarization in the society. On the day of the Dussehra this year, just few days
back, a small idol was descretated by some groups in the night and the next day
was the Dussehra Festival, with a sole intention because we have hundreds of such
small structures in the villages, where we call them, village protectors. Each and
every citizen whenever he passes there, stays there, prays to these and he has
utmost respect in the villages. Now 2-3 incidents have taken place where such
types of Idols have been destroyed, without any motive. There is no motive of
theft, there is no motive of robbery but the sole motive, create a divide between
Hindus and Muslims and Catholics and create again a communal feeling in the most
beautiful and peaceful state of Goa. People when they come from outside and retire
in my State, they decide to reside in the State of Goa. I have a classic example, a
former Governor of Goa Shri Mohammad Fazal, who was the Governor of
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