At a seemingly innocuous meeting in Mumbai recently, Fr Gregory Lobo, secretary of the Archdiocesan Board of Education, Fr Joe D'Souza and Fr Xavier D'Souza (both parish priests), appealed to the community to vote for the NCP. Surprising, because the Congress I has been the traditional choice of the community. The declaration of support by the priests came after a meeting they had with NCP leader Chaggan Bhujbal at his house earlier this month. Promptly, theArchbishop's House issued a note claiming that priests were not allowed to speak of their personal choices of parties, much less influence voters and that the church would not endorse such appeals.

Soon condemnation from the community followed. Said Hansel D'Souza of the Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS): ``The priests have grossly exceeded their brief. They represent nobody but themselves.'' Incidentally, the BCS had also been approached by the NCP.

In fact, the Congress-I had also approached Hansel. ``We asked for at least two seats in the assembly. We are a community of 7.5 lakh in Mumbai. And we were expecting the candidature of George Abraham for the Santacruz assembly seat,'' he said. Bennet Castelino, of the Forum Against Christian Exploitation (FACE), is amused at the controversy. ``Catholics are a leaderless community, unlike others. Any fatwa from either the Church or organisations like the BCS will not cut ice with us,'' says he. Fr Gregory Lobo, when contacted about how he went to Chhagan Bhujbal'shouse, said that he was invited by Fr Joe D'Souza, who was in turn invited by Javed Khan, former minister and now candidate of the NCP from Washim Lok Sabha seat, for a meeting of the ``minority cell''. Fr Joe D'Souza, when contacted, refused to be drawn into the controversy.

Just as this controversy seemed to have rested, news of an `arrest warrant' against the Bishop of Nashik, Rev George Ninan, came in. The Bishop had apparently said at a press conference at the end of a seminar, that Christians should vote for secular forces, and that the NCP was his personal preference. And the police was quick to act prompting the National Commission for Minorities to claim that Rev Ninan was being harassed by the police for airing his anti-right views.

However, according to Himanshu Roy, superintendent of police, Rev Ninan was accompanying James Massey a member of the National Commission for Minorities on an official visit to Ahmednagar where Massey addressed the press conference. According to the dutyconstable's report, said Roy, Massey did exhort the community not to vote for the BJP, and to support the NCP.

This, according to the police, was a cognisable offence under section 125 of the Representation of Peoples Act, and that Massey and the bishop were not arrested only to avoid a communal flare-up.