CM Pramod Sawant to meet Goa Archbishop later this week

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that he would be meeting Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Filipe Neri Ferrao within next two days.

Sawant told ANI that he would be meeting the Archbishop either on Thursday or Friday, depending on the appointment given by him (Archbishop).

Goa Chief Minister, however, refused to reveal the agenda of the meeting and refused to comment on whether the meeting was in regard to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)

"I am going to meet him, that is what it is," he said.

The Chief Minister's decision to meet the Archbishop comes days after the religious leader issued a statement demanding to revoke CAA.

In a statement, the Archbishop had appealed to the central government to "immediately and unconditionally revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and desist from implementing the National Registration of Citizens and the National Population Register."

The statement further read, "The very fact that CAA uses religion, goes against the secular fabric of the country. It goes against the spirit of our land which, since times immemorial, has been a welcoming home to all, founded on the belief that the whole world is one big family."

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.