goanet-digest Tuesday, May 7 2002 Volume 01 : Number 3938
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In this issue:
[Goanet] BB Cafe relocation plans
[Goanet] HERALD: Tuesday Tunes
[Goanet] NCP threatens Parrikar with Rs 5 cr defamation suit
[Goanet] NAVHIND: Goa is an idea
See end of digest for information on subscribing/unsusbcribing.
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Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 00:06:33 -0600 (MDT)
From: "B B Cafe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] BB Cafe relocation plans
Hi, BB Caf=E9 is transplanting its seedlings. There's no longer enough
space for our music, literary and miscellaneous workshop and institution
building programmes to grow side by side in Panaji and so we have taken
on a twin farmhouse complex set in a tranquil forested part of the Arpora
region where these projects can evolve with plenty of breathing space.
The new facility will also have accommodation for visiting professionals;
an outdoor amphitheatre for cultural programmes and house the editorial
offices of our forthcoming literary webzine.=20
All activities ( creperie; tea and coffee house; organic food
store; designer product exhibitions; art exhibitions etc.) currently being
conducted from Panaji will continue from Arpora from next season
onwards. In addition, we have also been invited to open BB Caf=E9 outlets/
product-pick-up-points at Dona Paula (Synapse) and Palolem (Bhakti
Kutir) and so our e-commerce programme (especially for hard to find
children's books; rare teas; handmade papers and organic food) will
continue refurbished from June 15th onwards after a brief break. (
Walkabout Bookshop, Anjuna will also become a BB Caf=E9 outlet/ product
pick-up-point.)
As far as BB Caf=E9 Panaji goes it is no longer possible for us to manage
it personally. There are a few people who have expressed an interest in
running this outlet on a franchise basis, however, and we are still
talking. We will keep u informed as to its fate.
For further information please refer to our website pranaline.com which
will be ready for viewing by June 1st.
All queries should be addressed to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
06/05/2002.
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Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 11:36:51 +0530
From: "Frederick Menezes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] HERALD: Tuesday Tunes
www.oherald.com dated May 7, 2002
TUESDAY TUNES
KRC ticket to polls!?
WANT A TICKET? Be well connected to the staff of the Konkan Railway
Corporation, and you are sure to get one.
It’s peak season now for rail travel, and strangely, people holding
managerial posts, who were recruited when George Fernandes was minister for
railways, are busy issuing tickets not for rail travel but tickets to
contest 20 seats that the Samata Party intends to do in the ensuing assembly
elections.
The Samata Party is all too willing to offer you a ticket. And, if you are
connected to the staff of the Konkan Railway Corporation, then nothing like
it. You are sure to get the Samata ticket.
Reports are that George Fernandes’ party is hoping to contest the assembly
elections in as many as 20 constituencies, to maintain its status as a
national party.
Deciding to contest an election is one thing for George, but implementing
that decision, is quite another. Where will his Samata Party get the 20
candidates he intends to put up from?
But for George it’s no problem. He can always fall back on Konkan Railway
Corporation. After all it was his baby, and he’s dumped hundreds of ‘ayahs’
and male nurses to look after it.
The former railway minister and current defence minister, has deputed a
trusted lieutenant from Mumbai, one Martins, to finalise the list of
candidates.
To implement this plan, Martins who has no Goan political background, only
has Fernandes’ solitary link to Goa — the Konkan Railway Corporation — to
bank on.
One of the senior KRC staff who is entrusted the duty of identifying
candidates, revealed that given the short notice and they being non-Goans,
it has become a nightmare for them to obey to their chief’s order.
All isn’t fair
SO HOW DO you know that you will not get a ticket. Well, we guess, this
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Tiswadi got a clear hint, a while ago.
One of the most reliable partymen and already a veteran of two assembly
elections, this aspirant was literally shrugged aside, during a press
conference, last week.
When before a press conference, the aspirant came to the dais to announce,
how fake names had been inserted in the electoral rolls, by his rival to be.
Well, before he could start, he was told by a party heavyweight to move
aside, so that the press conference could begin. Who said, all is fair in
politics?
Water woes
SO THE WATER situation in Goa is very good eh? Ask anybody visiting the Goa
Medical College, Bambolim. Several eye-witnesses claim, that the water
scarcity is such, that even pathological tests have to be postponed due to
paucity of water. Already Panjim and Divar are struck by this menace. About
Altinho and it’s VIP attachments, we do not know. Usually water never runs
uphill, but in this case it might just.
Campaign crossfire
ELECTION CAMPAIGNING IS on. And it is really catching up. And guess how we
know. Well, just this evening, this office just received a complaint
regarding harassment of ‘voters’ of one candidate, by the supporter of the
‘rival’ candidate.
This jointly signed letter is addressed to the Public Works Department by
six persons from Bhatulem, who claim, that on Monday forenoon, a supporter
demolished a public tap there, and that the residents of the area, were now
deprived of water.
Well, more amusing after this, a call was received by the rival candidate,
who implored this diarist to do the ‘needful’.
I scratch, you scratch
IT WAS FOLLOWING a cricket match, that the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar
bowled a googly. Invited as the chief guest for the prize distribution
ceremony of an all journo cricket tournament, Mr Parrikar quipped, "I thank
you all for inviting me here. Usually during elections politicians are not
valued much. Your very calling me here, shows that we share a strong
relation."
That, some journalists do. They really do...
Jharkhand or Varkhand?
AFTER DAYS OF closed-door wrangling, the BJP has finally lost Ramakant
Khalap, and Ramakant Khalap has lost the BJP.
Like unwilling partners, both the BJP and Mr Khalap, dilly-dallied for a
long time before the divorce decree was finally signed on Monday.
But many interesting things took place in the run-up to the final divorce.
This diarist is in possession of definite information that Khalap was
offered several tickets but his most coveted Mandrem.
Pernem, Mapusa, and a few others were offered to him but the silver-haired
politician refused them all. And understandably, given that the veteran of
over two decades, has always represented Mandrem and only Mandrem in the Goa
legislative assembly for five terms.
That is not all, that was offered to Khalap. The BJP reportedly also offered
Khalap the gubernatorial post in Jharkhand in exchange for his "services" in
the party throughout the election process in Goa.
It was a juicy offer indeed, but it was his supporters from Mandrem that
didn’t find the offer very attractive.
"Jharkhand? Where is this Jharkhand? Why don’t they send you to Varkhand
instead?," some of Khalap’s supporters shot back with sarcasm, at him when
he put the offer before them.
For readers who may not know, ‘Varkhand’ is a panchayat in the Pernem
taluka.
Naam mein kya hai?
IF THE Bharatiya Janata Party believes in omens, then their Vasco campaign
could have not started on a symbolically, more adverse note. It’s okay that
it’s former minister, Jose Philip D’Souza, quit in a huff after the
assembly’s dissolution. That event was well tackled by the BJP brass in the
port town.
But, we wonder how the saffron party can take this one..... the name of the
building which houses the BJP’s election office in Vasco is.....guess what?
No...it’s not Vajpayee apartments, or Lal Krishna apartments....it indeed is
‘Sonia Apartments’. Wonder how Vasco’s ‘Parivar Sadasyas’ would digest this
one.
Tailpiece
IN THE TEMPLE of democracy
With idols of clay
The electorate’s a sewer
Thats where the rats prey.
_________________________________________________________________
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Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 09:43:01 +0530
From: "deccan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] NCP threatens Parrikar with Rs 5 cr defamation suit
>From Deccan Herald May 5
NCP threatens Parrikar with Rs 5 cr defamation suit
De Souza could emerge as Oppn consensus candidate vs Parrikar
Devika Sequeira
DH News Service
PANAJI, May 4
As the pace of the election campaign here begins to pick up, so has the
heat of the political debate. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader
and former chief minister Wilfred De Souza has been the first to hit the
peak of the election barometre.
He threatened today to sue Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for damages of
Rs 5 crore (50 million rupees), for attempting to "defame" him and tarnish
his image before the state assembly election.
Mr Parrikar who called Dr De Souza a "liar" at a media briefing on Friday,
claimed the former chief minister had been fined Rs 2 lakh by the Supreme
Court in a contempt case.
Dr De Souza challenged the chief minister's claim, and produced copies of
the court's March 5 order to prove that the case was still in the process
of being heard and the matter, sub judice.
"Giving the public wrong information to defame me is the worst possible
thing one can do at the time of election," the NCP leader said. He said he
was in touch with his lawyer Kapil Sibal on the matter.
He also sought an apology from the local newspapers, some of which carried
the chief minister's statement verbatim.
At issue here is not so much the intricacies of a four-year-old case filed
against De Souza when he was chief minister, as the political equations at
work behind the scenes for the Goa election.
The NCP is at the moment engaged in talks with the Congress for an
electoral seat adjustment. The party which announced that the BJP's defeat
here was its primary target, has made no bones about the fact that it would
like to see Mr Parrikar go at all costs, and promised to work for a
"secular alliance".
If the NCP plays its cards well, Dr De Souza may well emerge as the
consensus Opposition candidate against the chief minister for the Panjim
seat. Sources close to Dr De Souza said he is up to taking on the
challenge.
Mr Parrikar has won two terms from the capital, a highly literate, urban
constituency, with just over 14,000 voters. But his fondness for
maintaining a tight-knit circle of RSS men around him and in key positions
in government bodies, is believed to have have annoyed many of his former
well-heeled business community supporters here. These are now working
behind the scenes to finalise a consensus Opposition candidate against the
outgoing chief minister./ends
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Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 12:20:00 +0530
From: "Frederick Menezes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] NAVHIND: Goa is an idea
www.navhindtimes.com dated May 7, 2002
Goa is an idea and not a geography or history
By PETER RONALD DE SOUZA
Any discussion on the politics of Goa, in the run up to the elections, must
begin with the recognition of the following four fundamental truths.
The first truth is that there is a class of people in Goa who are more
powerful than the politicians who govern the state. They rule Goa and do so
from behind the scenes. No political party can go against their interests.
Parties may at best cause them some discomfort but can never, never really,
trouble them.
The story of the River Princess illustrates this simple truth most
graphically. To see a huge rusting ship sitting on Candolim beach for nearly
two years, in spite of the state having all the agencies and all the
regulatory structures to check maritime pollution and disasters, tells us a
lot about the impotence of the state. The ruling class rules. All
governments dance to their tune.
The second truth is that the political class, i.e., politicians,
bureaucrats, party functionaries, are a ‘rentier class’ living on the wealth
produced by the state of Goa.
Politics in Goa is a rent-seeking activity. Politicians comprise a class of
rent extractors. They are like the absentee bhatcars who cannot climb
coconut trees, or plough paddy fields, yet live off the wealth produced by
the land only because of an inherited right. The more rent the politicians
can extract from the land, they will extract, and we will have to pay. That
is the law of governance.
The third truth is that one can reduce the rent we have to pay. Democracy as
a form of government has the potential to be the least rent taking. But that
requires, (a) competition among political leaders, this we must ensure, (b)
a media which is vigilant and committed to exposing the abuses of power,
this we must strive for, and (c) an active citizenry who are continuously
demanding, protesting, challenging, exposing, organizing, mobilizing, and
most of all treating the political class as their representatives and not
their masters. Continuous protest is an end in itself. It checks the abuse
of power. It makes the political class and the ruling class more
circumspect.
The fourth truth is that Goa is an idea. Not a geography, not a history, not
a religion, but an idea of living together while living differently.
Itis essentially a secular idea that has evolved through a troubled history.
Multiple influences, from the Arab traders, to the Portuguese colonialists,
to the charter tourists, to the migrant labour, and so on have shaped the
culture of the land. We are a coastal people, accommodative, forward
looking, cosmopolitan, non-aggressive. Our people have gone out from Mumbai
to Mombasa, and brought back traces of the lands and culture they have
visited.
Others have come from distant lands, from Bengal to Bahrain, and
incorporated Goa into their lives. Goa is a syncretic idea and any political
party that seeks to undermine this is a party that looks at a rainbow and
sees only a single colour.
Goa is like the gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan adorned by a diversity of
flowers. Even the roses have a variety of colours. Like a garden Goa has to
be carefully nurtured.
These four truths must be the starting point of all evaluations of the
promises that politicians will make in the next three weeks. The last one,
of the idea of Goa, was prompted by a comment made by the present acting
Chief Minister, Mr Parrikar who informed the state that this year was the
only year when Goa’s ‘true culture’ was presented at the Republic day
parade. ‘True culture’ Mr Chief Minister! Does that mean that all the
trophies we got in previous years were based on a portrayal of a ‘false’
culture? That the national selection committees had been fooled. That all
previous contingents from Goa had gone to Delhi to mislead the nation.
When a Chief Minister talks of a ‘true culture’ there is a chilling message
for believers in diversity. Imagine a rainbow with only a ‘true colour’. But
more about that later.
Now for an evaluation of governance in Goa. The answer is clear. No party
has been able to give us good governance. In the last fifteen years there
has been a steady erosion of our democratic institutions and conventions.
In addition to this, erosion of democratic practices, there has also been an
atrophy of the developmental activity of the state. I have no place to go
into all the details here. A simple cataloguing of the ills of governance
will make the point: jumbo cabinets, repeated defections, a questionable
dissolution, a bad precedent setting expansion of the contingency fund,
political blackmail of political opponents and allies, violation of security
norms by politicians at airports, destruction of urban habitats, etc and
most of all taking orders from extra-constitutional authorities.
The news item that appeared the other day in the papers is a measure of how
far we have fallen. I read with sorrow (not because Khalap had resigned but
because Parrikar stated without apology) that the resignation letter of Mr
Khalap from the Council of Ministers to the Chief Minister had been
forwarded, not to the Governor for acceptance, as is the convention, but to
Mr Pramod Mahajan for acceptance. Who is Mr Mahajan? What is his de jure
status in the system of Cabinet Government in Goa. What does Indian
Federalism mean? Both the Congress and the BJP take their orders from a High
Command. In the former case Delhi, in the latter Nagpur. How about these
parties taking their orders from the ‘Low Command’. From us. Send Khalap’s
letter to his constituents, Mr Parrikar. But are you listening?
Let me now talk about just one aspect about the performance of government
these last few years. Let me talk about education about which I know
something. About the University. Both Mr Luizinho Faleiro and Mr Manohar
Parrikar have publicly attacked the University. This is unbecoming of a
Chief Minister.
For a Chief Minister to use the language they did, ‘white elephant’, ‘degree
producing machine’, etc about the only university in the state, about an
institution that has given a whole population of middle castes and classes
an avenue for upward mobility, about an institution that has more women
students then men in most faculties, and thereby by that single fact
contributing to women’s empowerment, about an institution that has been
rated highly by the UGC evaluation committee, about an institution that is
producing knowledge about Goa that is sorely required, about an institution
that gives an aspiration to 18000 young persons, is terribly sad. Mr
Faleiro’s comments were based on a lack of understanding. Mr Parrikar’s on
too much understanding.
He repeated them on every occasion, and most offensively at a function when
retiring teacher’s were being felicitated. So much for Guru dakshina!
And one final word. Sitting in Goa amidst a population of tourists, migrants
non-resident Goans, Bengalis, Tamils, Kannadigas, Chitpavans, Deshasta
Brahmins, Marathas, Kshatriya Marathas, Gomantak Marathas, Chardos,
Shasticars, and so on from caste to religion to language to food habits to
dress to taste in music etc; all I see are minorities. And so I am puzzled
by the statement of the RSS that “The minority must remember that it exists
on the goodwill of the majority”.
Must the lovers of Bharat Natyam be warned that they exist on the goodwill
of the majority. Or the lovers of fish. Or those who enjoy football. Or
those who listen to Ustad Bismillah Khan. Or those who wear safari suits. Or
those who wear white kurtas. All I see are minorities. Many flowers in the
Mughal garden of India. Where is this imagined majority? Show me such a
group and I will show you difference. Isn’t this diversity the real Goa?
Then where do statements about ‘true’ and ‘false’ culture of Goa belong? To
the dustbin of history where they truly belong
(Peter Ronald de Souza is Professor and Head of Department of Political
Science, Goa University).
_________________________________________________________________
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End of goanet-digest V1 #3938
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