CONTRADICTIONS OF THE GOAN PEOPLE - III

The Goan issues may be genuine but the responses by Goans are definitely questionable and suspect. Who decides the agenda for people's movements in Goa? Who prioritizes the issues in Goa? How has the BJP's national and communal agenda suddenly become the Goan agenda? How has the BJP's agenda of 'target Digambar Kamat and Congress' become the agenda of the people of Goa? The BJP has to avenge the betrayal by Digambar Kamat. How does bashing Digambar Kamat by the people of Goa solve the problems of Goa? It is definitely not the Goan people that decide the issues. To our knowledge there has never been a serious exercise held across Goa to ascertain the issues and prioritize the problems. There are back door deliberations and conspiracies that get projected as Goan issues but which the common Goan may never be consulted about, or may only learn the real truth after being exploited. What often emerges in public domain is just the partial truth. Emotions of the people get stirred up and not their abilities to reason. People's movements are sometimes used by leaders to attract the attention of powers that be to settle scores or strike deals about which the public remains ignorant. Sometimes highlighting one issue or the other is meant to keep some other more serious issue under cover. In other words, Goa's movements are very often stage managed by vested interests. We see this happening with the medium of instruction issue and the Regional Plan 2021. No one denies the fact that Goa is on the brink of being converted into another stinking sewer of the Indian Union. No one denies that the konkani language is important to maintain Goa's seperate identity. But the concerns orchestrated in public are not necessarily reflected in the private lives of the leaders. There are glaring contradictions. So, should corruption be the priority issue or should it be the rising communalism? Who decides?

One feels disgusted to see the mushrooming of 'Funkott Nagars' on Goan community lands which act as vote banks for the national parties like the Congress and BJP. Names of places change from 'Monte Dongor' to 'Moti Dongor' and new townships take the name of Pundalik Nagar and Kranti Nagar, thus replacing the traditional Goan nomenclature of 'Vaddo'. What are emerging are micro Maharashtras, Gujarats, Orissas, Bihars, Rajasthans and U.Ps within Goa. All interactions in these townships are in the language of the migrants from these States. There is no trace of konkani in these colonies that are interestingly represented by Goan politicians. Goans are told by migrants and intellectually bankrupt Goan thinkers that "All Indians have a right to settle in Goa just as Goans have settled in the rest of the country". But no one answers the question as to how many States in India have been destroyed or disturbed by Goans imposing their language and culture on the local people? The Save Goa voices seem to look the other way at the names of village vaddos being changed at the whims and fancies of migrants. Non-Goan activists within the Goan people's movements begin to feel insecure no sooner the issue of protecting Goan culture is raised. The Goan activists in a bid to appease the migrant activists begin to swallow the truth and push for a status quo. This migrant hegemony cannot be allowed to go on. The politics of national parties cannot be allowed to run riot if Goa is to be saved. It appears that Goans continue to be viewed as Portuguese sympathisers by the Union Government, just like Jammu Kashmir is to Pakistan. That is the thinking what gets echoed repeatedly by the communal Desh Premi nationalists in Goa. Goans fail to understand that the Indian Government is blunting the ability of the local people to wrest political control by infiltrating migrants into the State. Changing the very demography of Goa seems to be a conscious political strategy of national political parties like the Congress and BJP. As long as national political parties dominate Goa's politics, Goa cannot be saved from all-round destruction.

Another set of ambitious Goan political clowns divert people's energies on running after grand illusions of 'Special Status' for Goa, an issue which blows hot and cold depending on the mileage the politicians wants to attract in the election. In public, the Goan people are given the idea that Special Status will involve preserving the land from being bought by non-Goans. But everyone is kept ignorant that Special Status for politicians could ultimately mean Special Economic Status to extract more funds from the Union Government. More funds means more kick backs. So, which Special Status are Goans talking about? This is like Goans being made to fight for konkani as the official language only to be later shocked that konkani means "konknni only in the devanagiri script". The thousands of Goans who came on the streets and that only knew to write Konkani in the Roman script were taken for a ride by the communal konkani forces. The Goan false ego and emotions blind their ability to reason and act rationally and this is the root cause behind Goa's destruction. Special Status was a huge issue in the last Lok Sabha polls but now Congress Corruption and RP 2021 have become the issues for the forthcoming Assembly polls. Who prioritizes the issues for Goans?

Let it not be understood that we are against fellow Indians contributing to the advancement of Goan interests. What we detest is the systematic installation of a Delhi, U.P., Bihar, Orissa or a Mumbai in Amchem Goa. What we condemn is the looking down upon the Goan lifestyle as being lazy and spineless. What we resent is the projection of Goa as a destination where 'Kuch bi chalta hai.' If not what can explain the fact that migrants settled or born in Goa for over 30 years just refuse to speak the local language? What is the reason that religious festivals of other States alien to Goans are beginning to be portrayed as the festivals of Goa? Why is it that the taxi driver who drives you around Goa is a migrant? How is it that a guide who guides you on a tour of Goa is a migrant? All that has progressed is that Santa Inez creek has now been notified as a nullah and grazing lands and forests in the villages as natural cover, industrial estates and food parks. So where is the Goa, Goan and the much hyped progress after 50 years of liberation?

Goa is a tragedy story of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Academic education and university degrees do not necessarily give Wisdom or Prudence. Specially the one imparted by migrant infested Goa University. Goans have an abundance of university qualified clerks but is afflicted by a bankruptcy of thinkers and reformists. Goans are what is called 'ded xanne' (over smart). The foreign educated NRI has emerged as another class among the Goan xapotirs that claim to be the sole possessors of the Truths and solutions. Every Goan seems to know much better than the other about what is good for Goa. So while Goa has many groups claiming to Save Goa, what one only sees is that the path to recovery looks bleak. That is why we see no Goan intellectual worth of being accepted as an ideologue or a social reformist around whom the Goans can rally without fear of being betrayed and sold for thirty pieces of silver. It is the communal and destructive Goan that gets crowned as a social reformist and mass leader based on how he has pandered to the egos of the influential class and furthered their economic exploits. All that Goans can enjoy is the pleasure of seeing social disruptors and communalists being bestowed with a gun salute or awards from Goan Trusts. The so called knowledge economists are on the pay roll of the mining and real estate lobbies. That is how researchers discover gold deposits in Goa. That is why we see the communal polarisation over the script for konkani and the medium of instruction in schools. Those Goans who know the truth do not have the courage to question or their opinions get blanked out from the local newspapers. Every workshop or symposium held in Goa is a demonstration of how ignorance gets projected as wisdom. How petty selfish agendas are projected as the problem. That is how the Goa Government hires migrants to organise a Think Fest at the expense of the Goan people. Goans are made to lick and lap the migrant views in Goa's newspaper editorials and reports. Goans may have served in top positions across India and the world. But back home probably the Feni and Fun just fails to generate that desire for reason and selfless dedication for the future of Goa.

Where is that Goa which was claimed to be liberated in 1961? A visit to the Goa University will reveal the gang of migrant professors and administrators that have got themselves entrenched in every department. The handful of Goan professors in the university either turn out to be castigated as molesters or are incompetent. Humiliation has caused a flight of Goan academicians from Goa. So what Goa inherits in its prestigious seat of learning are the remnants from Hamara Bharat. Take a round in the Goan markets and at the tintos. All we see is a migrant economy that imposes itself on the Goan people. The local vendors are driven onto the road sides to be harassed by migrant market inspectors of the municipal councils. Goa's vendors have now become illegal squatters and hawkers. But we have Goans running after dreams of Special Status and RP-2021. How can Goan culture be expected to survive when the seat of learning and the economy is in the control of migrants? If at all anything must be protected, it is about ensuring that politics and economy remains in Goan control. Goans need to take the example of north eastern states. But are Goans ready to slog it out or will they prefer to let out their shops and offices to migrants for a huge sum of rent and then hang around bars or yap at symposiums and workshops on how to Save Goa? Will Goan youth be content with being hired by migrants as entertainers on river cruises and in hotels? Will they be satisfied with being employed by migrants in Casinos and discotheques? Are Goans going to be content that the illegal mining operators give them a token allowance to keep the quiet?

Putting Goa back on track will involve the ultimate sacrifice in the first few years. Goans will be blackmailed with economic embargo imposed by neighbouring states. Funds from the Union Government will be scarce in a bid to raise the level of frustration among the people. The police will be used to hound the Save Goa sympathisers and threaten them. Saving Goa will mean sleepless nights and even foregoing of one's daily wages. Are the Goan people ready for all this humiliation? Or, are we going to aim for mere cosmetic noises and tokenism that will keep Goans eternally entertained and be exploited politically for votes? The battle to save Goa cannot be won with a one-day show of strength at Azad maidan or Lohia maidan. The battle to Save Goa cannot be fought only in the off season from June to October and thereafter forget everything from November to May to make their quick buck. The Goan struggle has to be relentlessly pursued in every village and in every Gram Sabha. Retiring over a drink after 6 p.m. and yapping after that till next morning on how Goa needs to be saved is not going to resolve anything. Goans will have to slog it out if they are going to regain control of their economy and their political future. Goans will have to learn to cooperate and support each other economically. The market spaces will have to be recaptured, food production will have to be regenerated within the State, and Goans will have to be ready to sweep their own streets and clean their own public toilets. Goans will have to boycott migrant shops even if it means going without satisfying some needs. The false glamour projected by real estate and tourism around Goa needs to be deconstructed. Is the Great Goan Ego ready for this?

-Soter