New Delhi: Former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar’s remarks that a DNA test of the relics of St. Francis Xavier should be conducted have resulted outrage, with opposition parties slamming him for trying to disrupt communal harmony.
Former Goa chief minister Churchill Alemao has filed a police complaint demanding Velingkar’s arrest, reported The Indian Express.
St Francis Xavier was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who arrived in Goa in 1542. He died in 1552 on Sancian Island, off the coast of Guangdong province in China. His relics are enshrined in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.
While demanding for the DNA test of his relics, Velingkar had said that the saint could not be called “Goencho Saib (Protector of Goa)”. Earlier he had demanded that the mythological figure of Parashuram was the Goencho Saib.
“The time has come to do a DNA test on Velingkar. People of all faiths – Hindus, Muslims and Christians – have been living peacefully in Goa, but people like him are out to destroy the age-old communal harmony. The sentiments of all the people who venerate St Francis Xavier are hurt when such remarks are made. I have filed a complaint at Colva police station,” former Chief Minister Alemao, who filed the police complaint against Velingkar, said.
So far the police have not registered an FIR on the basis of the complaint.
