AND A FEW more stray thoughts and a few more observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when it became clear that the newly inducted minister, Mathany Saldana will not be able to hold on to the tourism portfolio for long. For a Sunday following the week when the ruling BJP coalition was subjected to acute embarrassment by the wily political strategist, Dayanand Narvekar. For a Sunday following the week when the cat came tumbling out of the bag and the ugly face of the Sangh Parivar stood exposed. For a Sunday following the week when the Campal residents got a foretaste of what would be in store for them if the film festival is held in Goa. For a Sunday following the week when Goa Hitrakhan Manch added an ugly twist to the Baina human rights issue.

And a few stray thoughts on the Judas from Cortalim Mathany Saldanha who was recently inducted into the cabinet. Though Mathany was promised the education portfolio this was held back under pressure from BJP hardliners. Presumably the Chief Minister was also apprehensive that if he handed over the education portfolio to Mathany there may be a revolt in the BJP camp in the ongoing assembly session. So Mathany was given charge of the tourism and sports portfolios which were held by the deposed Micky Pacheco. Mathany has not been happy with the portfolios and the Chief Minister is also now wary of his continuing with the portfolios following negative signals from the powerful travel and tourism lobby. Mathany also embarrassed the Chief Minister by condemning in a muted way the vandalisation of name plates in Fontainhas. Mathany has a vested interest in promoting heritage tourism as his ancestral house is among the houses identified by the heritage committee set up by the government. Never mind that no follow up action was taken on the scheme to assist and aid owners of heritage homes who participate in promoting heritage tourism. The travel and tourism industry distrusts Mathany who in the past had been very vocal about tourism not benefiting the locals and on the contrary undermining the moral fibre of youth.

Simultaneously Parrikar has also been under pressure from the Velim MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues who has been demanding the tourism portfolio. Neri held the tourism portfolio during Parrikar’s first tenure as Chief Minister and was promised the same when the BJP came back to power in the last elections. But Micky demanded the tourism portfolio and Parrikar had no choice but to oblige Micky. Now that Micky has gone, Filipe Neri has stepped up the pressure to get back the tourism portfolio. With Micky having been dumped from the cabinet, Neri is the only minority bastion of the BJP in South Goa. Mathany doesn’t count because the universal perception is that he is unlikely to be re-elected. In the reshuffle of the cabinet that is expected soon after the assembly session Filipe Neri, the crying baby from Velim, is likely to get the lollipop of tourism and sports. Mathany will then shift to the education portfolio which he is very keen on. Whether the Sangh Parivar will allow Manohar Parrikar to transfer the education portfolio to Mathany is to be seen. Parrikar may have no choice in the matter as he is more than ever dependent on Mathany Saldanha for the continued survival of his ministry.

In the meanwhile Mathany Saldanha is alleged to be attempting to settle his personal political scores with his detractors by pressurizing the South Goa Collector and the Director of Panchayats to demolish illegal constructions in his constituency. During the first day of the assembly session Mathany asked a question seeking information on all the illegal structures in the villages of Cortalim constituency and even accused sarpanchs of aiding and abetting illegal structures. Mathany is apparently very sore that the sarpanch even in his own village of Cansaulim campaigned actively for the Congress candidate Churchill Alemao in the Parliamentary elections. Except that Mathany’s new found enthusiasm to demolish illegal structures may rebound on him. Mathany apparently himself has added huge illegal extensions to his ancestral house in Cansaulim.

ASSEMBLY SHENANIGANS

AND A FEW observations on how Dayanand Narvekar embarrassed the BJP and the Chief Minister in the Legislative Assembly. On Wednesday the wily MLA from Aldona who is considered the shrewdest political strategist tabled a resolution to congratulate Filipe Neri Ferrao on being appointed the Archbishop of Goa. Narvekar had actually tabled the resolution in the previous assembly session held in February. The Speaker at that time had held it back. Narvekar re-tabled the resolution, not because of any great love for the church or the minorities, but to embarrass the BJP. The BJP has never been very kindly disposed towards the minority communities even though Manohar Parrikar maintained the pretence of being a friend of the minorities. After the defeat of the BJP candidate in South Goa, the saffron brigade and even the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar have become even more suspicious and antagonistic towards the largest minority community in the state. Narvekar, sensing an opportunity to deepen the polarization engineered by the BJP, tabled the resolution to trap the BJP. Except that Manohar Parrikar is as smart a political strategist as Narvekar. Very shrewdly Manohar Parrikar got one of the staunch BJP MLAs to table another resolution congratulating Narendra Maharaj (Nanij Baba) for being given the title of Dharmacharya by the Sankaracharya of Kanchi. Who incidentally is not even a Goan swami, but is based in Ratnagiri.

There is of course no comparison between the appointment of Filipe Neri as the Archbishop and the conferment of a title on Narendra Maharaj . Titles like dharmacharya are distributed like confetti by the Sankaracharya. But the resolution moved by the BJP MLA on the instigation of Manohar Parrikar gave the speaker the ideal excuse to disallow the resolution congratulating Filipe Neri on being appointed the Archbishop. The speaker, to the agitation, real or feigned, of Congress legislators, refused permission to move the resolutions on the grounds that the house should not get involved in religious matters. The speaker made a pretence of being even handed by refusing permission for both the resolutions on Filipe Neri and Narendra Maharaj. The Chief Minister added his own twist to the drama by making it out as though the decision had been taken in the interests of maintaining secularism. He is reported to have pointed out that if the resolutions were allowed there may be several similar resolutions tabled seeking to felicitate scores of other Hindu religious leaders. He is reported to have pointed out that while the church has only one head, there are dozens if not hundreds of Hindu religious groups and followers of each baba or guru may want to file resolutions felicitating them.

To which of course Pratapsing Raoji Rane is reported to have quipped that Hindus would not mind other leaders also being felicitated. The fact of the matter is that the BJP, including the Chief Minister, are furious about the church’s endorsement of the candidature of Churchill Alemao and its directive to the minority community to vote against the BJP in the Parliamentary elections. There is no way the BJP could have allowed a resolution congratulating the Archbishop to be passed. Which of course suits Dayanand Narvekar and some of the other Oppositions leaders admirably. They have achieved their objective of exposing the hostility of the BJP towards the minority community and minority institutions. Not that Dayanand Narvekar is a great secularist. In fact the most tragic part of the whole farce which was enacted in the Legislative Assembly is that both sides are trying to polarize the religious groups in the state for their own petty personal selfish ends. We only hope that the Church and the secularists will not fall into the trap being laid by self-seeking politicians. Any kind of communal polarization either by the BJP or the Congress goes against the essential spirit of Goa which is one of communal harmony and fusion.

CAT OUT OF BAG

AND A FEW stray thoughts on the ugly face of the Sangh Parivar in the state. In the immediate aftermath of the vandalisation of street signs and house plaques in Fontainhas the Chief Minister’s initial reaction was that he was unaware of the incident. Subsequently the CM claimed that no action could be taken because there had been no complaints from residents. Even when it was pointed out to him that what had been damaged was public property belonging to the Corporation of the City of Panjim, the Chief Minister persisted in his evasive attitude. When the issue came up in the Assembly the Chief Minister even went to the extent of lying brazenly. The Chief Minister misled the house saying that the nameplate of 31st January Road was on the Mushtifund building and not on the road opposite. Implying that the Mushtifund Trust was party to the vandalism. The Trust, of course, has ridiculed the idea that it had anything to do with the vandalism or that it aided and abetted the vandals. Though the Chief Minister had been claiming that action would be taken nothing has been done. Contrary to his claims, the Commissioner of the CCP, Sanjit Rodrigues, has yet to file a complaint.

The cat came tumbling out of the bag when the BJP president Rajendra Arlekar strongly defended the acts of vandalism. Arlekar who obviously has a fertile imagination even went to the extent of claiming that retaining Portuguese names was tantamount to glorifying rapists. And in a chilling echo of the strident and fanatic Shiv Sena and Sangh Parivar propaganda, the BJP president went to the absurd length of claiming that the fact that Goans were cheering for Portugal in the Euro Cup was a sign that they were anti-national. This is reminiscent of the BJP’s claim that Muslims cheer Pakistan in sporting encounters between India and Pakistan betraying their anti national mindest. Except that Arlekar seems to have his facts a little mixed up. In the Euro Cup, India is not involved. The tournament is restricted to European nations. If the Goans had cheered Russia instead of Portugal, would that make them sympathizers of the communists? If they had cheered the English team, Arlekar would no doubt have accused Goans of favouring the former British colonialists and being anti-national. What the whole ugly episode and the rantings of Arlekar prove is that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar in Goa have decided to drop the mask of secularism and step up the insidious campaign against the minorities. And clearly the vandals of Fontainhas had the support and the benediction of the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. Arlekar has always been Parrikar’s man and would not have made the statements he did without the sanction of the Chief Minister.

SHAPE OF THINGS

AND A FEW stray thoughts on how Campal residents have got a foretaste of the shape of things to come. On Wednesday all approaches to Campal, except for one, were blocked. The whole area was cordoned off much to the irritation and agitation of local residents. Initially the residents thought that the blockade was temporary for a film shooting in the area. When an agitated resident called up the Chief Minister, he claimed to be unaware of it. But apparently the Campal residents will have to live with the blockade for the next three months at least. All approaches to Campal have been blockaded apparently by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC). The work of laying new service lines for electricity and water supply to the Kala Academy has begun and the area has been blockaded because the GSIDC will soon be digging up all the roads. Soon Campal, which is already reeling under a malaria epidemic, will look like war-ravaged Iraq or Afghanistan.

And a last stray thought for yet another Sunday. We are shocked and disturbed by the response of the Goa Hitrakhan Manch which we always thought was a sober organization working for Goan interests. Unfortunately, the Hitrakhan Manch has sought to trivialize the tragedy of Baina by converting it into a Goan-non-Goan issue. The Hitrakhan Manch, which is supported by several leading Konkani writers and activists, have reportedly warned the Kannadigas against making trouble in Goa and for Goans. The provocation was a protest march by a group of Kannadigas against the rape of Baina. Surely Kannadigas have a right to protest against what happened in Baina. And how is protesting against the human rights violations in Baina anti-Goan? Is the Hitrakhan Manch playing the Chief Minister’s game of divide and rule?

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