While I have no different opinion from Antonio Menezes on Alvaro Loyola Furtado, I sometimes ask myself with benefit of hindsight whether Goa would not have been better off as a district of Maharastra if the Opinion Poll had gone the other way.
Here are several reasons: a) On the corruption scale, Maharashtra Police are less corrupt than Goa Police. Besides unlike Goa, they strike fear in criminals and their case solve rate is much much higher and quicker too. B) Their politicians are held to account not only by the press in the state but also by the active and militant sections of their society. C) Maharastra politicians have a lot of private respect for Goa and its citizens - more than Goa politicians have shown so far to their own people. D) Goa would not have been filled by boorish and uncouth politically well-connected moneybags from northern India. More cosmopolitan, law abiding and educated people would have populated the place. E) Goa through Maharastra, would have had the clout with Delhi that it can only dream of as an insignificant nobody state. That would have earned the territory several advantages. F) Goa would have no electricity issues being part of the Maharastra surplus-power grid. Antonio Menezes writes: Dr. Alvaro was above all a humble aristocrat from the village of Chinchinim. He has many achievements to his credit. But for me, personally, he was the giant Salcete politician who helped garner valuable Opinion Poll votes particularly in Salcete. I may add that he never aspired to have a statue of himself. Roland. Toronto.
