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People of Goa continue to defy polarisation tactics. But it no longer feels easy

In a state Assembly where victory margins are often razor thin, no party can form a government without significant minority support.

At a Parshuram Jayanti celebration on 18 April in Goa, a man, who describes himself as “half-YouTuber, half-journalist”, went up on stage and bit off more than he could chew. 

Gautam Khattar, a rabid YouTuber on the “spiritual beat”, best known for making controversial and communal claims, was invited to speak at the event in Vasco. In one part of his speech, he declared that women should not be granted 33 per cent reservation in Parliament. His evidence is that women parliamentarians have never raised issues related to women on the floors of both houses, which is a claim so breathlessly false that it barely deserves rebuttal. But no matter. It wasn’t even the most offensive thing he said that afternoon.

Khattar then turned his attention to St Francis Xavier and labelled him a “terrorist and a cruel ruler”. “Goencho Saib” is considered the patron saint of Goa, and is a figure revered across faiths for nearly five centuries. Khattar had this to say about him: “Now his body has decayed, worms have eaten it; neither his soul remains nor his body. Even his bones were eaten and turned to dust. Yet, I don’t know what kind of festival is held every year, where lakhs of followers of Sanatan Dharma go and fold their hands in reverence toward someone who spent his whole life converting them, who turned lakhs of Sanatan followers into Christians.” 

In an account by journalist Devika Sequeira, a woman walked onto the stage and handed him a handwritten note, perhaps asking him to stop. Khattar waved it away, perhaps emboldened by parts of the crowd that had begun chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. He then asked whether any legislators were present and thanked them for not interrupting.

There were actually three BJP legislators on stage throughout this. The most prominent of those was minister Mauvin Godinho, whose portfolio spans transport, industries, trade & commerce, panchayati raj, protocol & hospitality and legislative affairs. The others were Vasco MLA Krishna “Daji” Salkar, and Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar. No one stopped the speaker, though by some accounts, Salkar might have tried to send messages to the organisers.  

Godinho went a step further and actually praised “Kattarji” from the same podium afterward. He called the speech a necessary corrective to wrongs perpetuated by the Congress, and only offered a limp public statement days later, after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant publicly checked him. Godinho’s defence was that he had tried to intervene but feared creating a law-and-order situation, as though one wasn’t already underway at the microphone.

The remarks have since snowballed into one of the biggest communal controversies Goa has seen in years. Protests have erupted across the state, from Margao to Vasco........

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