PANAJI, Jul 20 (TOI) : Goa Congress party spokesman Durgadas Kamat has filed a complaint with Panaji police against BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy for a post on his Facebook fan page over admission of HIV positive students in a Catholic school.
Strongly objecting to the post that states: "The Goa church loves everyone except HIV kids," Kamat demanded that a FIR be filed against Swamy for "attempting to create and promote enmity against the Catholic Church".
He said the post is clearly an offence coming within the ambit of Sections 153 and 153-A of the IPC and as it is in cyberspace, an offence needs to be registered against the BJP leader under Section 66A of Information Technology Act.
The complaint states that by accusing the church of loving everyone except HIV positive children, Swamy "has tried to give a communal and political twist to a very sensitive issue by trying to portray the church in Goa as not being sensitive towards HIV positive orphans".
The issue pertains to admission of 13 HIV positive students from a community care centre run by Catholic nuns in Sanguem taluka. As nearby schools did not admit the students, a school in Sulcorna run by Salesian priests volunteered to admit the children but as parents of other students objected, they were not admitted. When parents objected to the children's admission in another school, this time in Rivona, the children were denied admission here too.
The controversy in the last three weeks is over the admission of 23 orphans who grew up with the HIV positive students in the same community care centre.
Stating that the BJP leader has made an insensitive statement without knowing facts, Kamat pointed out that the community care centre where these children are being taken care of is run by church institutions.
Kamat in the complaint said that the post on Swamy's page is trying to influence public opinion against the minority community "and communalize and politicize a sensitive issue under the garb of public service".
Panaji police said they have received the complaint and are studying the matter. As for the sections of IPC and IT Act mentioned in the complaint, an official at the Panaji police station said, "We will have to talk to our superiors."