Politicians please don't hijack the old Goa Protest.
Kudos to the young advocate and the full team of the Save Old Goa Action Committee who are fighting this long battle against the illegal construction at the vicinity of the heritage site at old Goa. This being a peoples movement had its own advantage of showing the govt the power of the layman. The coming together of Goenkars from all walks of life ,religion and from every nook and corner of the state on 21st November was love for Goa. Any genuine peoples movement that too in the election season cannot be taken lightly by the administration and the present Govt. Thanks to the three prominent Goan activists who too managed to highlight the issue on the closing day of the IFFI.
Keeping the movement apolitical was the forte of this peaceful protest and had forced the political parties to give statements blaming each other for the fiasco which will at the end will bring out the truth. The Save Old Goa Action Committee should not allow their struggle which they have pain Strikingly build up from scratch to this level where the demolition of the structure is evident be hijacked by any current or aspirant political parties for their benefit. Peaceful Satyagraha by the masses minus the politicians will have a desired result than getting political support examples are a many like the Melavli protest of our own locals in our state or the farmers protest being the latest to bear the fruit for their struggle.
Finally the Niz Goankars has a Niz Goankar's party to vote for.
The announcement of RG 's entry into active politics is a moment of pride and hope for all Niz goenkars. The Goa Su raj party has been in the fight to save Goa since inception and the founder known for his fight for Goa's special status The handing over of the party baton to the Revolutionary Goans by Mr. Lobo has indeed instilled confidence in all the Goans to carry forward the battle to save Goa for posterity. RG has always tried galvanizing the Niz Goenkars to address core issues plaguing the state. R G faced a lot of hardship for the last 7 months in the process of party registration, the hindrances kept coming. Thanks to the plan B where a already registered party came in to provide RG the power to contest the 2022 elections. This has indeed given a fillip to the supporters who were eagerly waiting for this announcement. This election time we choose a Goan regional party GSRP that will work for local people, take decisions that will be in the interest of Goa and Goans.
Letters to the editor (12 October 2021) https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Letters/Letters-to-the-editor-12-October-2021/181155#.YWV1bqItAks.twitter
12 Oct 2021 | 05:36am IST
Letters to the editor (12 October 2021)
Regional outfit needed for Goans’ interest
Does a proud self respected Niz Goenkar need the freebies that the politicians are promising? This shows the mentality of the political class wherein a carrot dangling exercise is being undertaken by most of the insecure political parties who think the otherwise susegad Goan will fall for.
For a true dignified Goan this coming election is not to collect the free goods and services offered by these parties but to vote for the betterment of every Goan child born or yet to conceive to the present generations. Politicians promise the sky that is their forte we as voters have to unite to safe our beautiful Goa for posterity. Our land, our rivers our mountains are being destroyed in the name of development. Land bank kept by our ancestors in form of comunidade has been looted for vote politics. Our women are not safe. Nature destroyed, education system needs total revamp and job oriented. Local Goan businesses, small time farmers, artisans need support and guidance. We have tried and tested the National Parties having their head offices in Delhi but to our dismay the views of the local Goans have fallen on deaf ears. The myth of voting a same political party ruling the centre is also busted since more damage to our motherland has been done during this type of combinations of same party govts ruling centre and State as the State govts become meek to confront the centre on important issues.
Time we Goenkars put in our faith in a Regional Party that will have a Goan heart and mind when taking important decisions pertaining to our little State and people. Big States have regional parties that work for the local people and are weighed well at the centre when it comes to important decision for its people. This election is all about saving whatever little is left of our beautiful State and to pass the same to the future generation which the true Goans can do by voting the right person and party. It’s a state election having local issues.
Time for a revolution, we Goans leaving aside our affiliation to old parties choose a new leader from amongst us someone well educated and has the charisma and vision for Goa. It's now or never for our little Goa and its lovely people.
The political clock is ticking fast. We all feel the heat. We are drawn into the battle against the clock. The time is running out and we are also running out of ideas and visions. We seem to be almost trapped into a frozen time and are being pushed to the future much like the famous science fiction of the 1980s, Back to the Future. The illustrious science fiction depicts the hero Marty McFly as thrown back fifty years behind the time when an experiment by his scientist friend, Doc Brown goes awry. Marty finds that he is placed fifty years behind time and has to make sure that all events that brought him into being have to fall in place so that he can safely return to normal life. His time travel tying of the knots and bolts that will bring him back to normal life is the dramatic plots that unfold in the mind-bending fiction under our consideration. Travelling through time in a modified DeLorean car, Marty meets the younger versions of his parents, his father, George and his mother, Loraine. The plot thickens and shows that he has the task to make sure that his parents fall in love so that they marry and he is born. Otherwise, his very existence is in danger. Besides, Marty has an even more daunting mission to return back to normal time to save his scientist friend, Doc Brown.
We in Goa seem to be trapped like Marty. All political parties and politicians understand our condition and are promising us a future. There is no one future that is placed before us. There are competing futures. Each of them is almost promising the moon so to say. Much like the hero Marty of the science fiction, the Back to the Future, who is condemned to a life that is fifty years out of time with normal time, we too feel that time is out of joint. Marty who has to align the events of the past that had brought him where he was before being trapped by the time machine, also feel that we have to align everything so that our precious Goa is saved from destruction. Our plight seems to align with the fate of Marty who has to engineer events to make his parents meet so that he is born and is set free from the trap of the time machine. Unfortunately, much like Marty who inadvertently prevents his from parent’s meeting, thus jeopardizes his own birth and existence, we in Goa also seem to be setting up a politics that seems to threaten the future that we all like to belong to in Goa. Our condition is akin to the famous Shakeschilli of our Hindi textbook of yesteryears who we know happily sat on the branch that he was cutting. Therefore, without being cynical we have the challenge to introspect whether we are digging the grave of our own future.
We seem to have refused to learn our lessons from the past and are only mesmerised by the glitter of the promised future. Our plight is that of the hero of the science fiction trapped in the past in as much as we desire to get back to the future that we imagine as safe for Goa and us. What we lack is the scrutiny of the promised future and the critical ability to separate the grain from the chaff. Our desire to alter the present is praiseworthy. We have been struggling to get back to a future for a long time. Like Marty, we have been trying to join the dots so that the future of promise dreamed by us becomes real. Drawn by the weight of this future, we had put faith both in the Congress and the BJP in the past but the future of promise that we all aspire seems to remain a distant dream. Unfortunately, even when we tried to change things and tried to send BJP packing during the last election, we had to put up with a rude shock when BJP robbed people’s mandate playing the number game faster than the winning horse of those days.
Everything that we try to get back to the future of our dream seems to go awry. The Congressification of the BJP through the import of the Congress MLAs applied salt on our already bruised wounds. Things do not seem to align for the future of our dreams and like the hero of the fiction, we are in desperation. The Goa of our dreams appears to be more threatening than ever before. Everything is fast aligning only for the destruction of Goa, Goans and Goan-ness. What masquerades as development has reduced Goa into a corridor for the economic elite to prey on our natural resources to accumulate wealth. Unfortunately, Goans are not just facing a development-induced development that leaves us behind as it marched ahead, we are indeed facing prospects of a tragic extinction of what is left of Goa. Hence, we feel the imperative of a lost future. Several among us are claiming that this is the last real chance that we have to save Goa. We can clearly discern that this sense of loss and urgency of shaping a future that will save Goa is felt by the right-thinking Goans. We cannot see the same in all the political parties. Several among them are offering freebies like water and electricity and jobs but only a few are trying to save us from a development that is de-Goanizing Goa and Goans.
It has also become difficult to see how what is masking as development is a hiding place for all destructive forces of Goa. The nationalization of the rivers is cover for privatization and ‘coalolization’ of our rivers. Hence, it is important that we find ways to reverse this destructive tide through active socio-political resistance. We indeed have the challenge to resist the social engineering and brainwashing of the political parties that do not carry Goan interest. What Goa needs for now is a good alliance among the political forces. Only an alliance might block the anti-Goa forces that are preying on our resources. We do not just have to blindly embrace promised freebies and jobs. What we need the most is a politics that will save our Mhadei, save Goa from becoming a coal hub, save our coastline as well as river banks from going out of our hands in the name of private interest that masks as national interest. If the political alliance fail, maybe all that we as people are left with is a challenge to build a profound unity among us Goans so that we can truly act as enlightened voters. We have the challenge to choose unity on the essentials, liberty on the non-essentials and charity and honesty on everything else. This means we have to unite around Goa-centric issues and have a large heart to allow liberty for everyone.
