January 16, 2023
The Opinion Poll is an over celebrated event in Goa, though the verdict may be seen as a victory by the anti-merger section of Goans. However, the bitter truth is that an Opinion Poll was necessitated because the Goans could not rise in one voice on the issue. And this double-faced goykarponn has remained a constant irritant which has scared the post-liberation history of Goa. The Goa story after 1961 has been about a double engine which has been pulling in different directions on issues depending on which section is raising them. The bhatkar-mundkar tussle was the first sign of a fissure in Goan society. The opinion poll did not suceed in ensuring a Goa which would be driven by one engine and this ugly truth resurfaced on the official language and script issues and the Konkan railway alignment struggle. Goa's identity is a fissured identity and all it would take to expose this hypocrisy is a political proposal from the minority community and hell will break loose. Let us not mistake behind that smile of harmony is a hidden dragon of majoritarianism which is growing in size. The double engine driven by the fundamentalist-industrialist coterie has been preventing a united Goa Without a single engine to pull along one vision the days of Goa as a State are numbered. The commissioning of Mopa airport and the diversion of Mhadei are just the beginning of this transition towards acheiving the erasure of a unique Goan identity which the opinion poll had stalled.
-Soter D'Souza
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