August 22, 2008
To, Shri. S.S. Sidhu, Governor of Goa, Raj Bhavan, Dona Paula - Goa. Via Fax-2453510 & 2451271(confirmed receipt) Your Excellency, Subject: 'Open Letter' Re: Insensitive and Arrogant Raj Bhavan staff. It is with sadness in my heart that I am writing to your Excellency, so that you may take note of how things stand as far as the behaviour of the staff employed at the esteemed Raj Bhavan is concerned. I am specifically naming two officers of your staff, namely Shri. Nikhil Kumar, Secretary, and Major Manish, the' Aide de Camp' [ADC] I shall want to take you back to the day of your recent oath- taking ceremony as the Governor of Goa. It was my privilege to have attended this function as the special invitee of the Raj Bhavan along with other distinguished dignitaries. I must draw your kind attention to the oral request I made of you when I shook your hand and welcomed you to Goa, which exchange I shall want to quote and unquote, so that you may remember. Quote Welcome to Goa, your Excellency. I am the General Secretary of a small political Party. And I must warn you that Goa looks very beautiful from the outside, especially during the monsoons. But the fact is that Goa is very filthy/dirty from the inside. We need your Excellency's help to clean it up. Unquote GOA SU-RAJ PARTY - PAGE 2 Coming back to the topic of this communication, it is in connection with the very clean-up operations that I had talked to your Excellency as above, that on 4th August, 2008, I visited the esteemed Raj Bhavan along with five members of the family including the mother, brother and sister of Shri. Dominic Savio Coutinho, who died recently under tragic and mysterious circumstances at his residence in Canacona, South Goa, allegedly murdered. The family members were in Panjim to meet with the IGP, Shri. Kishan Kumar at the Police Headquarters, the meeting having been arranged by me, to find out as to why the F.I.R. was not being filed, in spite of the tell tale evidence being available that Shri. Dominic Savio could have been murdered due to rivalry/dispute regarding property matters. Under the aegis of CITIZEN' [OF GOA] INITIATIVE, and as the Convenor of this Initiative, I had made a letter-representation to the IGP, marking copies thereof to various other officials including your Excellency, requesting speedy initiation of serious investigations into the mysterious death of this young lad through the Crime Branch before vital evidence was lost, apprehending possible heavy POLITICAL PRESSURE. It was in order to hand-over (or rather to in-ward) the said copy of the letter-representation that I had gone to the esteemed Raj Bhavan along with the family members of the deceased Dominic Savio Coutinho in the hope that they could, if possible, get to see you. The Secretary, Raj Bhavan, Shri. Nikhil Kumar explained the impossibility of such a meeting at short notice without prior appointment and suggested we approach the ADC to fix one for later. The ADC in turn got himself familiarized with the situation at hand and promised to get back to me with the appointment date as soon as possible, after making sure that the copy of the letter-representation to your Excellency was registered in the inward register. Since the family members of the deceased were calling me on every day basis to enquire if the appointment was procured, I was in constant telephonic touch with the Raj Bhavan, only to be told that Your Excellency was not available, was in Delhi, one thing or the other, with a promise to get back to me if I would I leave my contact number. etc, of which I was beginning to get tired knowing fully well that these were the usual delay tactics. On 19th. August, 2008, I telephoned the Raj Bhavan several times and sought to speak with the ADC. I was told on numerous occasions to call again and again citing reasons that the ADC was busy. Tired of getting lame excuses, I asked to speak to Shri. Nikhil Kumar, the Secretary, since I had known him when he was previously holding the charge as the Collector, North. To my astonishment, Shri. Nikhil Kumar spoke to me arrogantly when I explained to him the day's events and how my efforts to obtain an appointment with Your Excellency, the Governor of Goa were mishandled. I must say that there GOA SU-RAJ PARTY - PAGE 3 ensued a heated argument ending in my telling the Secretary that he should allow me to talk to your Excellency, direct. My next call to the ADC [Major Manish] was received with more arrogance to the extent that Major Manish chose to remind me that I was talking to an army man. A rather excellent atmosphere has been vitiated for nothing at all to the extent that I am beginning to think if it is worth-while having a 'God Almighty' Governor as the head of the State at all, in a purely democratic system of governance like ours, and, if the Governor's staff is allowed to act high and mighty towards an ordinary citizen who is beset with difficulties. And I am sure that your Excellency will agree to disagree with me on this point. As the General Secretary of a registered political party, I would request your Excellency to bring your staff down from the high and mighty horse for once and see that they are adequately apprised in the manner of dealing with ordinary tax-paying citizens of Goa. Your Excellency, there are certain precedents having been set in Goa during the long erstwhile Portuguese military dictatorship rule, and I would like to apprise you of just two to reflect on the humane side of the governance that is sought by Goans vis a vis the Goan psyche. Precedent No. 1: In a private meeting with the Governor (Commandant) Fernando de Quintanilha da Mendonca Dias, Advocate (late) Antonio Bruto da Costa, a Goan, was slapped in the face by the Governor. Military commandant or not, Adv. Bruto da Costa is believed to have returned the gesture with blows which sent the Governor to the floor. The best part is, no case was made against Adv. Bruto Da Costa. Precedent No. 2: A Goan gets by-passed in a government job selection routine. Believing that he was terribly wronged, putting it down to 'favoritism', he writes a simple 'open' post-card about the wrong-doing , addressing it to none other than 'Antonio de Oliveira Salazar' in Portugal, and promptly forgetting about it after the heat of the moment. Come three months later, the Governor of Goa was ordered to institute an inquiry which ultimately landed the job to the victim. Glad to say that the person is still living to give this testimony. Having said so, it is my fervent request to your Excellency to kindly make time to meet with the family of the deceased Shri. Dominic Savio Coutinho at your earliest so that they GOA SU-RAJ PARTY - PAGE 4 may catch-up with the confidence that they are losing fast, in Goa's Justice System, and, especially the Police, knowing that they have placed their trust in your hands as the Head of the State, which unfortunately, your staff tend to wrongly believe as a position of 'God Almighty' here on earth and on Goan soil. They need to be reminded that their job is not only to keep themselves busy with the itineraries of making arrangements for the site-seeing trips and/or intense entertainment and entertaining activities of the Governor of Goa but also to give ear to the grievances of the people of Goa and put their sensitive requests in front of the Governor to be decide upon. It is one thing to have our elected representatives behaving like Gods Almighty, already, once elected. But we need the Governor, who is the head of them all, to at least be seen to be sympathetic towards the common people with serious problems. I shall not be wrong in suggesting the holding of 'Governor's Open Courts' where common people could put forward their grievances to the Governor collectively if it is too much for the Governor to see/meet them individually. Otherwise there is no meaning in this rank throwing 'Tamasha' all at the cost of the tax-payer which is going around in the name of 'Democratic Governance' where the aam aadmi loses on all counts. Sincerely, Sd/- (Floriano C. Lobo) General Secretary, Goa Su-Raj Party Tel: (Res) 2470223 Mobile: 9890470896 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PS: This Open Letter is sent to all Goan as well as National newspapers including the Internet distribution lists , to the President of India, PMO, Governor of Punjab and all other relevant institutions and associations for kind information only.