Ministers dreaming of Hindu nation have no place in India, says Christian priest

Panaji, July 26: Ministers dreaming about a "Hindu nation" should be taken to task by the government and have no place in India, according to Fr. Maverick Fernandes, head of the Goa Church's charitable wing.

Fernandes, who on several occasions has been the voice of the powerful Roman Catholic Church in Goa, also said that comments like those by Co-operation Minister Deepak Dhavalikar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza about India in the context of a "Hindu Nation", only exposed their ignorance and that they had no place in India.

"... if a minister has said such statements, he has to be taken to task by the government. Because he is going against the constitution of the country," Fernandes said.

"We have it very clearly mentioned in the preamble (of the Indian Constitution) that we are a secular nation. Anybody dreaming of such desires should be taken to task because their place is not in this nation," Fernandes said.

His comments come soon after two Goa ministers made national headlines over their remarks related to India as a Hindu nation.

D'Souza Friday had said: "India is a Hindu country. It is Hindustan. All Indians in Hindustan are Hindus, including I, am a Christian Hindu."

D'Souza is one of the senior-most minority members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa and has been the party's poster-boy as far as the Christian community is concerned.

Christians account for nearly 26 percent of the state's population. On Thursday, Dhavalikar while speaking during a congratulatory motion in the state legislature, had said that India could well be on a path to becoming a Hindu nation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Both comments had triggered an uproar in the state's political and social circles, with the Congress legislature wing staging walkout in the state legislative assembly Friday in protest against the remark.

Fernandes says the remarks only go on to expose the "ignorance of the person" who made them and that the ministers were straying from the oath they had sworn to protect the Constitution of the country.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

Comments