On the agenda is a Catholic Atyachar Virodhi Rath Yatra and a sustained campaign in tribal communities shortly after the new government takes over. The programme against the Christian community is to coincide with the visit of Pope John Paul II to India in November. RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad representatives from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are meeting in Goa on Thursday to finalise preparations for the yatra which will be kicked off from here, Subash Velingkar, general secretary, RSS told The Indian Express.

The yatra will wind through these states before culminating in New Delhi on November 4 when the Pope arrives to attend the Asian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Velingkar, however, pointed out that theprotest programme was the brainchild of the VHP alone and the RSS leaders were only invited to the meeting. Madhukar Dixit, VHP's committee member for Maharashtra and Goa who is chairing the meeting refused to divulge the agenda.

Velingkar said that the sangh parivar would insist on an apology from the Pope for the Inquisition conducted by the Catholic Church through the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, a touchy subject in Goa. As a colony of then Catholic Portugal, the Office of the Inquisition as the institution was known, was well established in Goa. The organisation which operated from Old Goa in the vicinity of the Basilica of Bom Jesus continues to agitate the saffron brigade in the state.

The Sangh Parivar is also a known opponent of the glorification of Saint Francis Xavier, the earliest proponent of conversions, whose relics rest even today at the Basilica.

According to Gomantak, a Marathi newspaper published by the family of VHP general secretary Ashok Chowgule, the rath yatra willinclude a mobile exhibition on the Inquisition with graphic details of the destruction of ancient Hindu temples in Goa by the Portuguese.