Lead article published in OHeraldo on May 27, 2024
Bachao! Bachao! Goa khatre mein hai! Almost two decades later, after the much hyped accomplishments of the anti-RP agitation in 2006, the same cries of ‘Goa Bachao’ continue to reverberate with no respite from the ground being snatched from beneath the feet of the Goan people. What raised many eyebrows was the timing of what appeared more like a ‘bachao abhiyan’ season 2 episode, which coincided with the LS election campaign, when the people’s focus was being drawn towards broader issues of a threat to federalism, freedom of speech and the Constitution.
Was it possibly an election strategy, a diversionary tactic from the main election issues, some urgency in settling political scores or blocking business competitors, or, to influence some judicial proceedings?
Those familiar with the Save Goa struggle may recall how eventually a roaring tiger was reduced to a puppy on a leash led by professional and business considerations. If land conversions which were stalled by the scrapping of the RP2011 still continue to be pushed forward in 2024, then it calls for a serious introspection by Goans to assess the effectiveness of civil society responses to such destructive laws and policies. Unfortunately, the debate is restricted to nothing beyond statistics on land zoning changes to amplify the threat to Goa’s land and environment, expose political beneficiaries and monstrify some ministers. It is not known whether any participatory soul searching, assessment or evaluation has ever been undertaken by civil society to understand why its interventions to protect Goa’s land and identity, over the last one decade or more, have practically led to nowhere?
There is an interesting quote attributed to Elvis Presley which reads, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”
To make sense of the noises around a threat to Goa’s land and natural resources, it may be helpful to rewind a little to the past. How the rhetoric of ‘power to the people’ by implementation of the 73rd and 74th Constitution, which had been employed to whip up an emotional frenzy and garner support for the anti-RP 2011 agitation in 2006, was diluted no sooner a new government was in place.
The tune soon changed to defending the government’s right to ‘spatial planning’ and denying the Constitutional right to local bodies. The challengers were co-opted into the formulation of the RP under the same corrupt planning system and structures. The icing on this cake of betrayal was the enacting of ‘The Goa Land Zoning and Building Regulations 2010’, which clipped the power of local bodies in processing land development and construction applications, indirectly denying the right of Gram Sabhas to deliberate on this subject.
Thereafter, it has been merry making as usual for successive TCP ministers and their department. The credit for this should go to none other than the Goan whose ‘good faith’ and ‘something is better than nothing’ mental state has sustained the Save Goa narratives, which beat around the bush without addressing the root cause. The public has submitted to an entertainment of shutting the windows under various sections like 16, 16A, 17D, 17(2) and 39A, while the door for mischief is left wide open by keeping
in force an archaic and obsolete Town and Country Planning Act, 1974 and other correlated laws.
The tears shed and curated debates around the great Goa land grab may not necessarily be above a ‘conflict of interest’. A hotchpotch of political, academic, professional and business interests circulating as ‘people’s movements’ has reduced the sentimental Goan to nothing more than a number for the cameras at public gatherings. Let’s not forget how, in 2008, the village groups protesting against mega housing projects and the influx of migrants in villages were condemned by some ‘bachao’ nobility who defended these massive gated projects as a housing necessity and the rights of Indians as brothers and sisters to settle anywhere. The Save Goa tunes have repeatedly changed from green to red depending on whose political, business and professional interests are served or denied by the government.
The public may hardly be aware about a model framework titled ‘The Goa Development Planning Act’, which was presented to the government in 2010 as an alternative to the antiquated TCP Act, 1974. This proposal was the outcome of several consultations with experts undertaken by a Church body under the guidance of a renowned and experienced Planner, who is also the son of the soil. It attempted to bring the Goa TCP laws to be in consonance with the Constitutional Amendments, and put in place a participatory planning process which includes the Village Panchayats and Municipalities in spatial planning as spelt out in Article 243ZD. The framework was put out in public domain, but for obvious reasons received no response nor mention from concerned civil society forums. Perhaps, it was seen as a threat by a flourishing RTI and PIL industry partnered by politicians, professionals and the builder lobby. It could deny the scope for manipulations within the TCP system to by-pass local self-governance by those in the building industry. The Church is now only needed to supply the crowd for public meetings.
This is not to deny that the crisis around Goa’s land and identity is not real and serious. But the salvation of Goans lies in freeing themselves from a nostalgic stupor of the missionary past and understanding the snares in a mercenary political and economic present. Social work, now social entrepreneurship, is not necessarily about free lunches. With no ethical boundaries set for social activism, such branded ‘public interest’ and ‘people’s movements’ may have an undeclared price tag determined by the market size and an illegible fine print to dodge accountability and transparency.
(The writer was a Counsellor at a Drug Prevention and De-addictionCentre in Goa)
https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/Divided-We-Walk-Unity-A-Stranger/221837?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0NNTkf_oGZSQRlovksHx4QqhpXxL_U6kb9o6MdAZNXrn3eQ40ktTyZjXg_aem_AYuNR4GmzsUx3WEvCghamJE7_ts4c2UNArTmxHRdQC2lDHJGsOf6mF3jNOYvYM9fMRLVTMjM8TvucewkqjOcOKuB
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