Goa bans communal harmony lecture after anonymous letter

All it took was an anonymous letter sent to the Collector’s office to ban a lecture on communal harmony by noted commentator Dr Ram Puniyani at Kare Law College in Margao.

All it took was an anonymous letter sent to the Collector’s office to ban a lecture on communal harmony by noted commentator Dr Ram Puniyani at Kare Law College in Margao.

The lecture “Communal Threats to Secular Democracy in India” was organised by the Citizens Initiative on Communal Harmony. SDM Nathu Periera said the anonymous letter had objected to the words “Ideology of right wing Hindutva is growing at a serious state leading to a feeling of insecurity among minorities” in the invite.

The Government has now filed a case under Section 299 A, which deals with spreading communal hatred, against the Citizens Initiative on Communal Harmony. “It is totally ridiculous. Some Government officials are playing into the hands of communal forces,” said Albertina Almeida, who heads the organisation Bailancho Saad.

“We told the SDM that Hindutva does not mean Hindu. We even told him that a recent Supreme Court order had said that Hindutva did not mean Hindu, but he did not relent,” Almeida said.