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ALL n SUNDRY
By Valmiki Faleiro
valmikif at gmail.com
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THE MARGAO THAT IS...
I shall open this column on the place I was born, bred and now based
in. Margao. The latest is the funny result at the municipal polls.
Round two -- election of Chairperson and Vice- was even more curious.
Despite the best efforts of my two 'Manohar' friends, Parrikar and
Azgaonkar, the BJP bagged just 8 of the 20 seats but, thanks to rising
aspirations of Congressman Vijay Sardesai in Fatorda, the top two posts
too!
Which certainly is not, as claimed by some, a sign of
friend (and former fellow Councillor) Digambar Kamat
losing political ground on his home turf. For one,
voter considerations at local and State elections are
entirely different.
And I sure (still) have an ear to the ground. Digambar is firmly
entrenched in his Margao seat. For a very simple reason : In his 10
years as Margao MLA, Digambar has stewarded far more tangible
development than all his predecessors put together -- Anna Sarmalkar,
Babu Naik and Uday Bhembre -- during their 31 combined years in office.
Of course, each in the preceding triumvirate contributed -- and
significantly -- to the destiny and recent history of Goa. Anna
Sarmalkar (also the first elected Municipal President of Margao) will
be remembered for his role in the Opinion Poll -- which prevented Goa’s
becoming a sure back-taluka of neighbouring Sindhudurg. Babu Naik for
planning the end of the 16-year MGP reign in 1979 (Dr. Willy may
dispute this, but I am on first hand knowledge.) And the soft-spoken
but erudite Uday Bhembre, for his role both in the Opinion Poll and the
struggle for Konkani as the State Language.
Let us also not forget that none of the three (except Babu Naik, albeit
briefly) occupied the Treasury benches. In Goa’s then bi-polar
politics, either in the ruling MGP or in the perennial opposition UGP,
and never crossed sides, it wasn't easy to garner any significant share
of the budget for the constituency’s development.
But Digambar, the present in that distinguished lineage, inspite of his
unprecedented development, paid the price for what voters perceived as
arrogance : he 'challenged' the sitting BJP chairperson, Kamalini
Painguinkar, to win without his support. She won.
A mere four months before, Digambar had recaptured Margao with a margin
of 5,000 votes -- from 13,000 cast. Results of civic polls are
certainly no reflection on the standing of the MLA.
Margao results are bound to churn tamasha in the days to come. In any
event, municipalities in Goa are mere toothless giants... (and what can
Councillors do but play power games?) ...as I discovered 20 years
ago. Then, as now, the State Government did everything to undermine
local bodies.
The State Government, then headed by the self-same Chief Minister,
handed over the new market project to the SGPDA, the new bus stand to
the KTC and sewage to the PWD.
At a seminar to mark a jubilee of local daily Rashtramat, I jokingly
observed that Pratapsing Rane could as well hand over the municipal
garden to the Forest Dept., roads and municipal vehicles to the PWD,
street lighting to the Electricity Dept., municipal library to the
Education Dept., sopo and taxation to the Dy. Collector, sanitation and
garbage to the Health Dept. and the historic Margao municipal building
to Archives & Museums. Was there a howl of protest!
MATKA DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN...
Circa the 1970s, there was this kingpin of South Goa’s matka gambling.
During day, he operated out of a banana-selling kiosk in the old (and
existing) municipal market along Margao’s old (but no longer extant
Railway Station) road.
Come 8.00 p.m, save weekends, from a rented office at a stone’s throw
from the South Police HQ, our good ole' daytime banana vendor
telephonically received from Mumbai the legendary Rattan Khatri’s matka
'Opening Number' (and a few hours later, the 'Closing.')
And this in the epoch when Trunk Telephone could be connected only
manually by an eavesdropping operator at the Telephone Exchange. Yet,
the Goa Police, which routinely hauled up small fry to shore up
statistics, could never ever lay their hands on the big shark...
In 1985, the big shark got elected Municipal Councillor in Margao. The
immediate backlash: South Goa cops could no longer and unilaterally
raise monthly haftas and instant bonuses for the saib’s birthday bash
from matka bookies. The latest Margao verdict surely dims prospects
for the men in uniform:
The recent verdict has spewed no less than FIVE matka
guns as MargaoCity Fathers. On both sides of the
Congress/BJP divide. Including one from the sacrosanct
ward and my home turf, the area around the Holy Spirit
Church -- despite its outspoken denizens. Aha!
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>From *Herald* edition dated Sunday, Nov. 13, 2005...
Valmiki Faleiro is a former working journalist, who worked as Staff
Reporter at Margao's erstwhile WEST COAST TIMES and later as Goa
Correspondent with Mumbai's FREE PRESS JOURNAL Group, and the INDIAN
EXPRESS. He was also (1985 to '87) the Margao Municipal President and
currently into business, from which he plans to retire and return to
full-time writing, with a special interest on certain aspects of Goan
history. Email: valmikif at gmail.com
