Opposition giving communal turn to IT notice to Church: BJP

Panaji: The BJP on Tuesday accused the opposition and a section of the media of trying to create anxiety among Catholics by trying to politicise an Income Tax department notice to the Goa Archbishop.

The notice last week requested officials of the Archbishop's House, which is the apex administrative authority of the Catholic hierarchy in Goa, for an account of the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

"Opposition parties and a section of the media in Goa are trying to create a communal rift in society, by trying to impute political motives to the IT department notices which has been issued to several other orgainsations, religious and non-religious," BJP state spokesperson Nilesh Cabral told a press conference. 

Last week, after the notice was served by the Mangalore circle of the IT Department, several parish priests claimed that the Catholic Church in Goa, a state where Catholics account for more than 26 per cent of the population, was being singled out and harassed. 

Goa falls under the IT department's Mangalore circle. 

"This is a routine order. There is nothing malicious about it," Cabral said. Goa goes to polls in early 2017.