Very sad state of affairs for Goans unfortunately. Sent from my iPhone
> On 19-Dec-2021, at 11:13 PM, V M <vmin...@gmail.com> wrote: > > https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-still-the-unique-goa-at-60/405790 > > Just two years after the swift decapitation and annexation of the > 451-year-old Estado da India by Jawaharlal Nehru’s troops in 1961, the > novelist and writer Graham Greene visited the former Portuguese colony. > > In the epic *Sunday Times *cover story that followed, he marveled about > “the uniqueness of Goa” while warning that its destruction was predestined > because “you cannot hang a skull at the entrance [of what was then a Union > Territory] as you can on a mango tree to avert the envious eye.” > > Greene predicted other Indians would pour into the republic’s newest > possession in overwhelming numbers because, back then, “outside Goa one is > aware all the time of the interminable repetition of the ramshackle, the > enormous pressure of poverty, flowing, branching, extending like > floodwater. This is not a question of religion. The Goan Hindu village can > be distinguished as easily from the Hindu village of India as the > Christian, and there is little need to drive the point home at the boundary > with placards. The houses in the Goan village were built with piety to > last.” > > Skip forward intervening decades – today is the 60th anniversary of the > first ceremonial raising of the *tiranga* in my hometown of Panjim – and > there can be no doubt the British author was right in substantial measure. > > India’s smallest state has indeed come under pressure from destabilizing > numbers of would-be migrants from other parts of the country. These > influxes – which only accelerated after Covid-19 - have shifted the > demographic balance decisively to non-natives, who now comprise the > majority (even if official statistics do not always confirm what is clear > on the ground). > > Yet, there is no doubt Greene important things totally wrong, as did others > at the time, including Nehru. They made the mistake of assuming Goa’s > polity would fall in line with national trends. Instead, at their first > opportunity these new Indians voted overwhelmingly against the Congress, > and for newly minted regional forces in the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party > and United Goans Party. > > Goa University history professor Parag Parobo writes in his excellent *India’s > First Democratic Revolution: Dayanand Bandodkar and the Rise of Bahujan in > Goa* that, against the 1961 backdrop, “Goa’s Liberation saw the idea of the > Bahujan Samaj being reinvented. There was a shift from the attitude of > appealing to the government to bring about economic transformation [to] > political mobilization for a collective identity which would acquire > political resources for itself, and a focus on attacking the stranglehold > of the upper castes.” > > Thus, “at a time when the entire country was driven by Nehru’s vision of > investments in industries and higher education as an apparatus of > development, Goa, through [the first chief minister] Dayanand Bandodkar’s > governance, prioritized human developments through schooling and health.” > > This prescient approach, which persisted right until statehood in 1987, is > barely understood and even less acknowledged in the rest of India. > Nonetheless, it laid the foundation for the state’s contemporary successes > in human development, which underline its vaunted quality of life. > > Things changed rapidly after 2000. The famously idyllic coastline > unexpectedly became one of the most highly sought New Year’s destinations > in the world. Goa’s tourism brand soared to global renown, then crashed > once again when the state started becoming paralyzed beyond capacity during > high season. From 2010, when the total number of visitors spiked past 2 > million, it has been a madhouse: 3 million in 2013, 4 in 2015, 5 in 2016, > and both 2018 and 2019 crossed an eye-watering 8 million. > > Those are scary numbers, way past sustainability. Their impact has > devastated the once pristine landscape, with uncontrolled garbage and > polluted water. Another symptom of India’s insatiable appetite for Goa is > its real estate industry gone rogue, with innumerable illegalities along > the coastline, and monstrously oversized apartment complexes on the > plateaus. Meanwhile, in an extension of an India-wide phenomenon, the > state’s urban areas are collapsing under mismanagement. > > Here, as with much of what has happened in Goa over the past 20 years, an > outsized share of the responsibility for the state’s precipitous decline is > due to the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar. In many ways, it is > impossible to disentangle the story of what happened in Goa in that time > from the outsized personality, capacities, whims and vagaries of the man > who was treated as a talismanic good luck charm by Narendra Modi himself. > > Just as the first decade of the new millennium in Goa was filled with > optimistic enthusiasm because of his unprecedented politics of the > possible, the second was an unmitigated debacle of misgovernance due to > Parrikar’s absence, after he took the job as Defence Minister in New Delhi, > and later due to cancer, which took his life in 2019. The moment his hands > loosened on the reins, an uncommonly venal and incompetent cadre has run > riot. Even after Governor Satya Pal Malik publicly complained about > “corruption in Goa government in handling anything and everything”, there > has been no accountability. > > Understanding that the BJP is vulnerable under Pramod Sawant, AAP and TMC > have charged in, sometimes to surreal effect. > In my neighborhood, we have become used to boldface names parading on our > doorstep. Some time ago, I peered out of my office window to see Rahul > Gandhi tooling up on the back of a motorcycle taxi. > > This morning, the stretch of Miramar beach outside my home has been > scrubbed past recognition in anticipation of the prime minister’s visit. On > my usual walk, I was dumbfounded to discover an entire Potemkin fishing > village of museum-quality traditional boats conjured up from nowhere. By > this evening, they will no doubt have disappeared. It seems an > enigmatically precise metaphor for the anniversary occasion. Viva Goa! Jai > Hind!