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Church has an unenviable role to play in Goa polls CAMIL PARKHE |  Tuesday, 24 January 2017 AT 12:56 PM IST          goo.gl/U8KSVY Goa ,  assembly polls ,  catholic Church ,  role , As the campaign for the Goa State assembly has picked up, the role of the Catholic Church in the politics of the tiny coastal state is being debated once again. The Catholics in Goa are an important constituent in deciding the poll fortunes in many assembly seats and the Church can directly or indirectly influence the pattern of voting in the polls. That is the reason all the political parties in Goa have been keeping a close watch on the signals sent out from the Bishop’s Palace located at Altinho in Panaji. It is a fact that the Church in India has always reiterated that it is a apolitical institution and that the faithful are always free to vote for or contest on behalf of any political party. The Church in Goa is also not an exception to th...

Ex-Goa RSS leader defiant as BJP struggles to retain Christian vote bank Sakal Times CAMIL PARKHE |  Wednesday, 7 September 2016 AT 09:37 AM IST       blog ,  in my opinion ,  Subhash Velingkar ,  RSS ,  BJP ,  Goa election ,  assembly election ,  Manohar Parrikar , Camil Parkhe ,  Sakal Times Although this is not the first time that an RSS leader has defied the organisation, the gauntlet thrown by ex-Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar is indeed unprecedented in many ways. Velingkar’s defiance has put RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP President Amit Shah in a quandary and at the same time, puts a question mark over the fate of Goa’s ruling party BJP in the imminent State Assembly polls. The unrepentant stance of Velingkar and his supporters has placed both Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on a sticky wicket. Soon after he was unceremoniously removed from the post of c...

It’s RSS versus BJP Goa govt battle on language row Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE |  Wednesday, 4 May 2016 AT 11:47 PM IST       Goa ,  language row ,  Camil Parkhe     http://goo.gl/JAiu3a Language has always been a sensitive issue in Goa even when this tiny territory was ruled by the Portuguese over 450 years. Now, the latest row is over the medium of instruction in government-funded schools. For the past few months, Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), an association affiliated to the Sangh Parivar, has been spearheading an agitation to seek an end to government grants to the English medium schools. The BBSM wants the government grants to be given only to  schools having Marathi or Konkani as the medium of instruction. It is pertinent to note that a majority of the English medium schools receiving government grants are church-owned schools. The issue of medium of instruction in school has threatened to become a majo...