High Stakes at Sanvordem By V. M. de Malar
It always happens like this, the thugs of Sanvordem knew exactly what they were doing because they were following a blueprint. The same tactics were used when Gujarat burned, when Mumbai was seized with riots; they're part of a gameplan that has been utilized in several parts of the country. Recent events here pointed in this direction, we should have seen the writing on the wall. Because the terror tactics and mob mentality are being deployed here in earnest now, Sanvordem is a carefully chosen test case. Civil society faces a choice in Goa; stand up and repudiate the mob, or look away and open the door for much more serious incidents. It happened exactly like this in Mumbai, in 1992, it's all meticulously recorded in the Justice Srikrishna Commission report (which prominently features the testimony of two heroic Mumbai journalists of Goan origin, Rajdeep Sardesai and Naresh Fernandes). The city was already tense, matters got much worse after the Ayodhya mosque destruction, when complicit police allowed rampaging Shiv Sena mobs to conduct triumphalist rallies that wound through Muslim neighborhoods, and culminated in slogan-shouting and menacing speeches. Justice Srikrishna found these "communally provocative in their militant exhortation to Hindus that they were insecure at the hands of outsiders (Muslims). The police appear to have condoned itÂ…" In Mumbai, as in Gujarat, the manipulators adhere to a transparent lie that the violence was an understandable "backlash" in response to heinous provocation. It's provably false, but the argument has resonance in our badly educated, deeply polarized, society. It's a selective, dangerously perverted, discourse, and the communalists argue it by rote, in every communal incident that has taken place in recent years the people with blood on their hands have blamed the victims for allegedly being provocative. The state, our lumbering government machinery, has too often been content to accept this line of least resistance. And so Goa, where we are blithely told that the victims of our first modern- day pogrom brought it on themselves. The usual empty excuses are everywhere; we're told that the destroyed mosque was illegal, had no business to be there in the first place. We're told that the terrified victims were actually aggressors, and we hear wild talk about swords and gunmen from Bhatkal. Finally, the same old bogeyman again, we're told that the terrified victims are outsiders, and that this is the natural outcome of constant "infiltration" as though Goa is at war with Karnataka and the Ghats are the Line of Control. It's all a tissue of fabrications; it's all blatant political grandstanding meant to obfuscate a simple reality. This was an organized test case to see what mob tactics can achieve, since legal ballot efforts are going nowhere. It's partly our own fault, because we have meekly succumbed to mob tactics recently. The BJP goons who rampaged briefly in Panjim last year should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, the horde that dangerously blocked the Mandovi bridges a few weeks ago should never have been allowed to get away with it. It's become commonplace now for chest-beating politicians to threaten to take the law in their own hands. This Sanvordem incident just raises the stakes, now the mob isn't content with just blocking roads and inconveniencing everyone, now the manipulators of the mob think they can get away with much more, just like their extremist friends in Gujarat and Mumbai. It has to stop here; we have to stop this creeping menace before it gathers momentum. This is not a religious issue, that is a red herring. This is not even an insider/outsider issue, that is another red herring. We have a straightforward law and order problem, with increasingly marginalized politicians trying to muster muscle power because they have less and less legitimate political power. We must make sure that they do not get away with it. This is the time for Chief Minister Rane, and his band of merry opportunists, to get something right. The government has to investigate Sanvordem thoroughly, restore the property of the dispossessed, and prosecute the criminals to the fullest extent permissible. The stakes couldn't be higher; our civil society is at risk. (ENDS) http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=382 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above article appeared in the March 10, 2006 edition of the Herald, Goa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE AUTHOR: VM is an early Goanetter, who put his money where his mouth is and returned to settle-down in Goa in late 2004, while in his thirties. VM regularly writes for the Goa and Mumbai media. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.goanet.org