Thank you Mr Lopes FORCE

Thank you Mr LopesDetails

Thank you mr Lopes

letters to the editor

06 Aug, 2015, 02:04AM IST

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Thank you

Mr Lopes 

I would like to thank Mr Lopes and his team FORCE who have really suffered for the brighter future of our children.

 I remember the year 2011  my son was promoted to the Std 1. We like many other parents  were under a lot of stress for being helpless in giving good education to my son in a language accepted globally  and a big relieve came by way of FORCE formation. 

Mr Lopes and his team along with PTAs of various schools were involved with protests in Margao. The then CM’s resident I remember attending every meeting along with the late Mr Alwyn who too was instrumental in getting us motivated and inspiring us to attend the meetings under our school PTA banner.

 It was this FORCE that pressurized the Kamat government to take a cabinet decisión to favour the parents choice. The new government only carried forward this decisión but did not turn it into a Bill. 

The year 2015 my son is on the vergé of leaving the primary school and going to the secondary as many of the other parents children are but we made it a point to attend the chain hunger strike and also met the local MLA and were on the road like the others for our future generations. Our task is not over. We will not rest till the passing of the Bill in the winter session. 

We wish you a speedy health recovery Mr Lopes and we wish you and your team support us till the passing of the Bill and promise the same support to your FORCE. 

Melanie Alvares, Sangolda

Open letter to

Chief Minister

Dear Mr Chief Minister,

The recent assembly proceedings brought to us that according to you, the questions raised by the opposition regarding the illegal and immoral Golf Course project in Tiracol and Casinos in Mandovi are attempts by a few to settle personal scores with yourself.

You are not wrong because every political leader who is entrusted with power by citizens and who cheats them by discarding his party's election time promises and comes in support of a hidden ulterior agenda is bound to feel the same way.

You were not our choice as Chief Minister, but imposed upon us when your predecessor was called to a greener pasture. Of late you have made a laughing stock of the chair of Chief Minister by passing immature remarks over various issues. On the top of it, you have audacity to call upon your party cadre to be prepared for victory in next, next to it and further next elections.

Shame on us, the people Goa who are tolerating your antics up to now, for the last nail in your party's coffin in Goa was hammered the moment Dominic de Tiracol breathed his last.

Today, hundreds of people are flocking our musical protests from Tiracol to Margao to take back the message that real power comes to them when their will and not that of a cartel of land sharks and corrupt politicians is implemented on earth.

Your fall is imminent, and will be a warning alarm to your successors that Goa belongs to the citizens of Goa as a heirloom to protect, and not to them as a luxury to enjoy.

Sudeep Dalvi, Convener, "Save Tiracol Save Goa"

Slap on the face

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a fine of  Rs five lakh on Leading Hotels for illegal felling of trees at Tiracol.  This is a big victory for Goa Foundation and the people of Tiracol and also a big slap on the face of Leading Hotels and also on the CEO of this project – the CM of Goa!

Matias Lobo, Oman

Shelter for 

commuters    

I  was waiting for  the bus going to  Bangalore  in Margao, behind the KTC bus stand.  The buses usually pick up their passengers at this spot.   

 The bus was supposed to come from Panjim after collecting some passengers.  I came by a hired vehicle. It was raining heavily. My reporting time was 7 pm.   I reached in time, but couldn't see my bus. I called the agent and enquired, he told me that the bus was on its way to Margao. I could not come out of the vehicle,  as it was pouring heavily.  There is no shelter around,  where one can stay and wait for the bus.  

Thus I had to wait in my hired vehicle, and pay double the charge as the bus came an hour late. It is my humble request to the concerned authority to look into the matter and build a shelter for the commuters on an urgent basis.

Veena / Vandana Fernandes, Cansaulim

Do not abandon

Goa 

Goa previously was a paradise with complete communal harmony between Catholic and Hindus, with the arrival of Konkan Railway Goa, the smallest state in India suddenly got engulfed by most of the people from outside Goa who took over all our jobs especially in the Government department therefore most of the Catholics started looking for jobs onboard Cruise vessels / Bombay and Gulf.

Now with Portuguese passport and with most of the Catholic migrating to Europe the balance has been disturbed furthermore as the Catholics do not have the majority to counter the growing RSS / BJP clout in Goa this was amply evident when the Catholic Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza was overlooked for the role of Chief Minister when Manohar Parrikar left for Delhi to be the Defence Minister. 

Kudos to Jose Maria Miranda for his letter in Herald August 4, 2015 for pointing out the fact that the likes of  Vishnu Wagh is all set to make more dents in the harmonious relations between Catholics and the Hindus. I would also like to appeal to the Catholics not to abandon Goa for fresher pastures aboard i.e Europe where you lose all your rights as Goans because you will then have no identity in Goa or aboard. Stop migrating and get involved in making a future for yourself and your children in Goa itself which has lots to offers provided you all are willing to work hard. 

Please get more involved in joining politics and police force of Goa to maintain the balance and peaceful Co-existence.

Anthony Rodrigues, e-mail

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Alina saldhans reiterates her stand in oppose marinas

I read with hope the news item on Alina saldhans reiterates her stand in opposing the marinas.  It was the late Mathany saldhanha who was instrumental in getting the catholic voters change their views about the BJP. He would fiercely propagate the saffron brand when on stage during the campaigning of 2012. Such was a situation that on the last day of campaigning he was all out with praising the BJP and give a big list of good that they will do to our Goa, if they come to power. The very next day before leaving to Delhi a top leader of the BJP declined the possibility of giving Goa special statues to Goa saying “If you ask then all others will ask too”. But still Late Mathany went with them. May be he trusted his friend whom he supported all his political years more than anybody else.  With his demise there was nobody to question the Party as and when they went against the wishes of the voters. Mrs  saldhana did not get the desired respect she should have got for being the widow of a person who had gone all out in getting the saffron party elected. Now that she has taken up the late crusaders causes and liking for the environment Goa we can expect  some kind of solace  to the environmental issues bull dozed by the govt. Hope she will get the special status for Goa.

                                                                            

Hinduvta's killing Hinduism - MEGHNA PANT

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Mar 20 2015 : Mirror (Mumbai)

BY INVITATION - Hinduvta's killing Hinduism

MEGHNA PANT





Why Hindu extremists must stop the mindless violence against Christians in India now

In 2010 I visited The Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata to pay homage at Mother Teresa's tomb. Along the road towards the building were swarms of the sick, disabled, disfigured, the mentally ill, the aged, and the homeless.A leper put his hand out. I took a coin from my purse. I meant to place it on his outstretched palm. But on leaning over, I cringed. I try to be kind, each day a little more, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't touch him. So I tossed the coin in his direction, avoided his reddened eyes and quickly walked away in shame.
I entered the Mother Teresa's sober tomb and my shame worsened. While I shuddered at the thought of touching a leper, she had embraced those with the disease. She had given shelter to hundreds of destitute while living in austerity that was in deep disproportion to her fame. Only a person in possession of a great sense of service to others could have spent her entire life like this.
Five years later, RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat claimed that the primary objective of Mother Theresa's missionary work was conversion.
Three weeks later a 71-year-old nun of a convent school was gang-raped near Kolkata by six men. It was one of India's most shameful moments.
I have spent a big portion of my life around Christians.My school, Villa Theresa, was Roman Catholic and St Xavier's, where I went for college, was run by Indian Jesuits. We sang `Jana Gana Mana' in the morning, followed by The Lord's Prayer. We went to the school church and sat on the pews listening in rapture to stories about Saint Francis of Assisi and Shivaji.We prayed to Lord Jesus and we prayed to Lord Shiva. Diversity was a way of life, not an effort at brainwashing or conversion.
The Christians in India are a small minority. At 2.5 per cent of the total population, they are significantly smaller than other minorities, like say the Muslims who are 14 per cent of our populace. And even in those small numbers, they have given India its most prized asset: Education.
And what is India giving back to them?
In recent months many acts of violence have taken place against the Christian community, including burning of churches, re-conversion of Christians to Hinduism by force, distribution of threatening literature, and defacement of Bibles. This week, around the same time as the nun was raped, a cross at a church in Haryana was forcibly replaced with a Hanuman idol.
The ongoing violence is a matter of great national shame, especially in our country that has a history of tolerance.Worse still, most of it is politically motivated. According to media reports, much of it stems from fringe elements of Hindu organisations such as the Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. They're doing this to avenge Christian missionaries and their alleged `aggressive conversion drives' which they think have forced good Hindus to covert.
Forced conversions? Look at our population figure. Does it look like we're running out of Hindus? Read our law. Article 25 of the Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Conversion is an individual choice. If a person wants to convert their religion, their shoes, their refrigerator, it is their choice. It is not the business of the state to check whether someone is spreading their mat or crossing their heart or ringing a bell.
Yet, since December 2014 the VHP and RSS have been conducting re-conversion ceremonies of Christians to Hindus for their ghar wapsi (homecomings) campaign, and attacks on Christian institutions are becoming more frequent.
Instead of leading by violence, the first call of the weak-minded, why don't fanatics lead by example? Make Hinduism a religion that attracts those in need of faith.Instead of disparaging dead saints and denigrating charitable work for the poor, look after your people by providing basic education, decent living conditions and selfless service to those in need.
These extremists are emboldened because they expect Christians not to react.After all, Christians in India are generally viewed as a peace-loving community. Christians don't regularly attack our temples, bomb our malls or rape our women.
But against the power of evil, even the good fold into a Faustian pact. If such attacks continue then at some point the Christian community will react. At some point they will snap. Julio Ribeiro tells us that they're already feeling under siege. So what will they do? It will be sad if Christians also become the bad guys. It will be shocking if Christians also start seeing violence as necessary in the name of a higher good. It will be even worse if they take back what they've given so generously to our nation: Their educational institu tions that shape the brightest minds in India and give the youth a moral rudder, and their charitable institutions that provide selfless service to the needy. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Prime minister Modi, the finest thinkers of our nation have said attacks on Christians increase each time your party rises to power; back in 2003 and again since 2014.
You remember what it's like when your government is accused of allowing sectarian violence, religious intolerance and bloodshed to spread?
We are happy that you are finally speaking out against these acts of religious fanaticism. We know that you are as concerned about extremism as we are. But that is not enough. You have to do something to stem the violence. You have to take punitive action. You have to stop the aggressors.
Don't let this unconverted Hindu woman be shamed in front of her Christian friends. Don't let the rights of religious minorities in our predominantly Hindu country be forsaken.
Stop this madness now.
If not you, Mr Modi, then who?
Meghna Pant is an award-winning author, journalist and columnist.

Arise Goan brethren.....herald 15.03.2015

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Arise Goan brethren, your land needs you




I t is Sunday evening and the sun is still quite high in the sky. A group of senior citizens sits at the corner of a beach. They can’t go any further as a hotel has blocked access to the rest of the sandy shore. Once upon a time, in their youth, these men had played football on the sand and drew the ramponn bringing in fish they sold making their living off the sea and its resources. Today the beach is off limits and the fish have disappeared from the sea.



Further inland, an elderly woman hesitates to speak to her neighbour. She is unsure whether the family living in the gated complex just across from her house speaks Konkani. Most of the residents in the complex don’t know the language. When she first came to live in this area there were only trees in front of the house and she woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Today, she wakes up to the sound of car horns blowing.



In government offices a non- resident Goan lady runs around as she attempts to get justice. In her absence her parcel of land has been usurped and she gets little help and even less sympathy from an indifferent administrative machinery. She has to then go to the media and get her story published before anybody takes notice.



Goa has changed. Unquestionably and even perhaps irrevocably. From the quiet, peaceful land where neighbours borrowed sugar, tea leaves and cooking oil, where they shared their fish, sweets and cycles, where they sat on their balcao and hailed everyone passing by, to a land where neighbours are strangers, and the only thing they share is the air they breathe.



Long years ago, when the Portuguese still ruled Goa, a Goan journalist reporting on the situation in the colony, returned to Bombay and wrote a book he titled ‘ Sorrowing Lies My Land’. Today, a 100 years old, that journalist, Lambert Mascarenhas, will in a few days from now be collecting the Padma Shri Award. In a free land he has been recognized, but how much has changed from the days in the 1950s when he published his novel? Is Goa laughing today? Or is it still sorrowing? In a land where narcotics are sold openly, where gambling is legalized, where women are constantly rescued from prostitution, where fields sprout up concrete jungles, where bribes are the only way to get a file moving in a government office, can there be laughter? There is music, the loud strident blast of the electronic version, but missing is the soft soulful sound of the guitar being played on the streets. In the villages little boys still go fishing with rods and lines, in the cities their compatriots are fishing on their electronic gaming machines. The little girls are still sweet and lovely, but the monsters that lurk are more frightening than ever and even the schools are no longer safe for our daughters.



Goa is definitely not smiling. Why should it? The land is bleeding. Populated by three times more people than it was five decades ago, its green hills ravaged by indiscriminate mining, its pristine shores ruined by tourism, and the land in between a messy network of potholed roads the glaring evidence of corruption.



What has the Goan given back to his land? For centuries he lived entirely off the land but with a tender attachment to the red soil. He tilled it, sowed his food and nourished it again for another cycle of growth. But that stopped.



For the last few decades the Goan has been only living off the land, exploiting it but giving nothing back. Mining, tourism and real estate, the three main industries are exploitative of the land. They use the natural resources but give the land nothing in return.



It is time to curb this overexploitation.



It is time the Goan wakes up from his slumber and fights for his land.



In life you don't always get what you deserve. You get what you bargain for, what you fight for. Goa too has not got what it deserves. It deserves a better breed of politicians, a breed that will feel with their hearts, think with their minds and do with love for the land. That won’t happen unless you fight for Goa, defend your land, the land that is slowly dying for you.



In any culture the children inherit from their ancestors, they are preferred when it comes to rewards. Why shouldn’t it be so with Goa? Shouldn’t jobs in government go to Goans on merit? If there are qualified and experienced Goans, shouldn’t they be given preference. Otherwise they will be forced to migrate abroad in search of the elusive job.



Goans have fought many battles and won them, but the war has not ended. A single victory in a battle does not win the war.



The Goan fought for Konkani and Goa won the battle to make it’s mai bhas the state’s official language, and then won the battle to get the Indian government to include it into the VIII Schedule of the Constitution.



And then? The war hadn’t ended but the soldiers slowly deserted the field and today fight among themselves. Today the battle is not about Konkani but about the script.



Isn’t this, the act of dividing the people, also the work of corrupt politicians? Another battle is looming ahead. The battle for the very survival of Goa. Not too long ago, the state wrote to the Centre and sought special status for this land. The government, then headed by Manohar Parrikar, wrote: “ Over a period of time, unrestricted migration into this tiny state is threatening to make the Goans a minority in their own state. The apprehension is that by 2021 the migrant population will outnumber the local Goans.” The year 2021 is less than six years away, making the threat all the more real and alarming.




But what has happened after that? Are Goans going to sit and allow themselves to be outnumbered? Are they going to only listen to the promises of the politicians and fail to act when they are broken? Isn’t this the same government that promised to move offshore casinos out of the River Mandovi? Politicians have fooled the Goan for years. There have been promises but little or no delivery. The time to reverse that is come.



Goans have to come together to save Goa. Your voice has to be heard, your demands acceded to, your aspirations fulfilled.

Mother theresa

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self centred politicians

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The run up to the lok sabha elections have always been fought on issues at the centre but this election saw a different turn on events where in the people who were jubilant of their victory following the church  circular in 2012 were all out in condemning a similar circular of the church in 2014. The baits were thrown at the power hungry and self centered politicians from salcette to compete against each other in pleasing the big boss. Who in turn will bestow upon them the plum posts and take back their court cases. Catholic MLA s were pushed in the front line and asked to shrew as much of venom as possible to show the church down. It seems that a flamboyant  MLA even stoop to such a low that after opposing the church went a step forward to undervalue his  constituents to  as low as Rs 300/- to attend a meeting and 500/- to vote in favor of  the ruling party. All these MLAs were fighting a battle amongst themselves to show their solidarity to the Boss who will distribute the crumbs after the election results. Hope these fellas never get what they have desired for themselves Let the power of the 27% Catholics teach them the correct lesson if not in this election then 2017 is not far away.

In Bardez it was a different kind of technique used to bring out the voters. First the scare that attendance will be taken at the venue of Modi’s  rally that made the women benefactors of different schemes turn out in large numbers and then at the elections the scare of cancellation of names who do not vote in favour of the ruling dispersion was put out in the public using the oldest word to mouth communicators. Then not to forget the last minute utterance by the head of the state to regularize the illegal houses built by non Goans on communidade land reserved for Sons of the soil. It is a plight that politicians are degrading the power of the genuine voters and at encouraging all types of illegalities just to gain control in the state policy making.  They are not bothered to see the mess they are creating for our future children who will inherited Goa infested by slums created by these self centered politicians.

Mr Mahesh Murthy on Modi

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Mahesh Murthy

So why do so many of us really love Narendra Modi? 

I've been thinking about this as I've been posting my thoughts here and seeing responses not just from fake BJP accounts (you can easily make them out, they're young, male profiles, using someone else's picture and their accounts have been created in the last few months) - but also from people I know and respect.

0. But before I start, some hygiene issues: First of all, I'm not getting paid to do this. One of my companies - and I have over 40 investees, by the way - has done work for BJP and AAP, and of course, the BJP spam accounts will shout that I'm being paid to do this. The truth is this, I'd love to be paid to do this. Except the darn Aam Aadmi Party folks have no money for me. @Arvind Kejriwal, if you're reading this, dude, paisa hai to bhej de yaar. Public demand hai.

Good. Now to why some people think Modi is the great white (or wheatish) hope for the country.

1. First, we're all pissed off at the Congress. Anything, we think, is better than that bunch of thieves and dynastic robbers. So we're all looking for a saviour. So much that we don't even talk about the Congress in this election - we've already written them off completely.

2. The thing is, we don't see deeper that the hidden figure behind the Congress' corruption - Mukesbhai - is the same guy who has since decided to support and bring in a BJP government, one that will again jump to its whims and fancies, till you get tired of it too, 5 or 10 years from now.

And Ambani has done it indirectly, through the media he owns: First Post, First Biz, CNBC, Lokmat, Awaaz, CNN IBN, NDTV, ETV, 9x and more.

And directly too, via his cousin-in-law, if there be such a term - Saurabh Patel - running the Petrol, Energy, Mines and Tourism industries in Gujarat - all of the more corrupt ones. The Mining Scam in Gujarat is a Rs. 2,000 crore loss to the state government, and the gas price scam is Rs. 25,000 undeserved crores every year in Mukesbhai's pocket.

3. So if you're seeing those childish orange ads on TV saying BJP is against corruption, you should laugh. They're not just terrible ads, they're also terrible lies.

The BJP is as much a front for Reliance and other large chor businesses as the Congress is. And it's just as corrupt. As some of the factoids say - 37% of BJP's candidates - the most of any party - have a criminal record. It beats even the Congress in this norm.

4. The next big reason for Modi love is, many of us think, wow, "Development" and "progress". "Modi really developed Gujarat - I want India developed". Again, the truth, as everybody has pointed out - is that nothing spectacular has happened in Gujarat in all these years of Modi rule.

Sure, Gujarat has done one or two things well, it is average or below average on loads of other things, and it is terrible on one or two things. You could perhaps grade the state government as a "C" on its report card. Average to below-average.

Many states, Bihar included, did far better. What you're seeing is a PR campaign, well-funded, and with a lot of print and TV fluffing it up. Oh, by the way, the HT owner - a Congress MP - has his child married into the Ambani family too, if you're looking for even more conspiracy fodder here 

5. Then it comes to leadership. "Man, what a commanding presence this guy is, what a leader." Well, Modi certainly seems to have turned India into a Presidential form of government, with every message - including "Ab ki baari" being about him and not the party or its principles or its candidates. While I don't have an issue with egoism itself - I personally dislike egoistic folks, but others seem to like such people - perhaps one should ask, who is leading him from behind, and where is this gent going to lead us to?

Is this leading to more money for Reliance? More freebies for Adani? The manifesto just came out today and it seems to be saying "We'll do quite a bit of what the Aam Aadmi Party says, plus in addition we're going to screw the Muslims".

6. Which probably brings me to the point that few seem to talk about. "Modi showed the damn Muslims." Many of my Hindu friends say it after a drink or two. It's some matter of pride, perhaps. Maybe Modi-love is really about Hindus taking revenge centuries after the Mughals screwed us over.

Which is also the perhaps the reason why the rabid RSS and even more rabid VHP have pushed Modi down the throats of the once-apparently-secular BJP. (Yes, yes, some fake account will come by and say "sickular" as though being secular is sick. Dude, it's in our constitution. You've heard of that thing, right?")

Modi is a RSS man, and will support every RSS belief. Being gay is a crime. So forget about Section 377 being repealed in the BJP tenure. Women being equal to men cannot be tolerated, because that idiot Manu said so in his Smriti. The country can't eat beef, because of some silly chant like "gaai hamaari maata hai", even though were were traditionally a beef-eating country.

All of this is just a Hindu version of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. And it's just as nauseating. This is Hindu Sharia - rule by the demented old farts in khakhi chaddis, and nothing else.

And remember, Modi's rise started only after the direct support, shielding and protection of the Hindus who killed over a 1,000 innocent Muslims in Gujarat. That wasn't a Hindu movement - it was a goonda movement in the name of Hinduism. That let him take the "Hindu Hriday Samrat" crown away from the equally racist Bal Thackeray. That made him the RSS's new point man for the Hindufication of India.

When it comes to that, I really have only one defence or alternative to suggest. If you're a rabid Hindu who believes India should be Hindu and the rest of Indians - Muslims, Christians, or even Atheists and Agnostics like me should not be tolerated, then say so openly. Carve out a different country for yourself, man - and go there.

India's constitution doesn't support you and your beliefs.

And don't tell me you're a patriot. You're not. You're a Hindu zealot.

Sure, you can love Modi. You can even make him one of the darn Shankaracharyas if you like. But you can't vote for him or the party he represents.

If you want to be Indian, then shed the religious slant when it comes to public life, private life and government.

And shed it when it comes to voting for who will lead us. Religion has no place in politics.

Cheers