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Remembering Aquino Braganca (b. 6 April 1924), who fought for freedom
of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. An online tribute
http://aquinobraganca.wordpress.com/ (includes many historical
references, some photographs and documents)
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GULF-GOANS e-NEWSLETTER (since 1994)
THE PRODIGAL SON, THE FATTED CALF AND THE HOLY BULL
Apr 4th, 2009 |
BY RAJAN NARAYAN
The choice in the Lok Sabha elections in the south is between the Holy Bull -
Narendra Sawaikar of the BJP, the fatted calf Francisco Sardinha and the
prodigal
son Matanhy Saldanha. The prodigal son, if he is truly penitent, appears to be
the
best choice.
THE COUNTDOWN for the elections to the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa has begun
with the
main contenders filing their nominations. The choice before the electorate in
South
Goa appears to be between the Holy Bull, the Fatted Calf and the Prodigal Son.
The
situation in North Goa is even more farcical with the main rival to the
three-time
incumbent BJP Member of Parliament, Shripad Naik being the main facilitator of
the
Mopa airport, Jitendra Deshprabhu - one of the few so far loyal Congressmen who
has
joined the NCP to contest the North Goa parliamentary seat as the joint
candidate of
the Congress-NCP alliance. The losers in the bargain are the people of Goa who
have
been deprived of the choice of an honest, earnest and conscientious politician
like
Nirmala Sawant, who was apparently the favoured choice of the NCP High Command
for
the North Goa parliamentary seat.
HOLY BULL
THE BJP has always been symbolised by the Holy Bull, not because of the
reverence it
has professed for the cow as Gomata, but also because of its hypocritically
sanctimonious claims to be the upholder of Hindutva. The BJP Holy Bull has a
long
history of seeking to polarise voters along communal lines with its bullshit of
being upholders of the interests of the majority Hindu community, starting with
the
demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya to the genocide engaged in by
Narendra
Modi's mindless goons in Gujarat, in the wake of the Godhra tragedy to the
latest
inflammatory speeches by its newest hate symbol, Varun Gandhi, son of the
notorious
Sanjay Gandhi of emergency nasbandi infamy.
It will be recalled that Sanjay Gandhi, when he was de facto prime minister of
the
country during the emergency, launched a forcible family planning campaign,
which
came to be referred to as nasbandi. If one needed any reminder of the genocide
against the Muslim minority community launched by Narendra Modi and company, it
came
with the arrest of the Women and Child Welfare minister in his cabinet, Maya
Kodnani, who has belatedly been charged with leading a mob which was allegedly
responsible for the death of over a hundred Muslims. Closer home we have seen
the
lunatic, fanatic face of Hindutva in the molestation of young women in a lounge
bar
in Mangalore by the Ram Sene, which is headed by Pramod Muthalik, a veteran of
the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad - one of the key frontal organisations of the BJP.
FATTED CALF
ONE wishes one could recommend the Congress candidates for the two Lok Sabha
seats
in Goa, which will be going to the polls on May 23, 2009. Unfortunately, the
Congress candidate for South Goa, Francisco Sardinha, has not done anything
noteworthy during his tenure as Member of Parliament. He did not even live up
to his
promise of moving an amendment to the bill relating to cruelty to animals to
exempt
Goa's traditional bull fights from the purview of the bill. Never mind that the
Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu managed to persuade not only the central
government, but even the Supreme Court that the equally dangerous and cruel
sport
involving bulls in Tamil Nadu, which is part of the Pongal festival, should be
partly exempted from the ban on cruelty to animals.
Francisco Sardinha, during his brief inglorious tenure as chief minister of
Goa, not
only sold Goa for the proverbial forty pieces of silver but allegedly favoured
devious industrialists and those wanting to set up offshore casinos, allegedly
by
pandering to his lust. There are no two questions about the fact that the
Gambling
Act was amended during the tenure of Francisco Sardinha as chief minister to
issue a
licence to Sunder Advani of Ramada to start an offshore casino where live
gaming
would be permitted, unlike in the then onshore casinos which were allowed to
only
put up slot machines. This does not exclude the possibility that Sardinha acted
under pressure from the BJP in the state and the Centre because the saffron
brigade
headed by Manohar Parrikar was his alliance partner in the government.
SARDINHA SIN
INDEED Sardinha's greatest sin was to give legitimacy to the fundamentalist
forces
represented by the BJP. It will be recalled that the BJP, headed by Manohar
Parrikar, made a backdoor entry to power by aligning with Francisco Sardinha to
topple the then Congress government headed by Luizinho Faleiro. It is another
matter
that, having got his foot into the government, Manohar Parrikar in collusion
with
another group in the Congress, which included the present Home Minister Ravi
Naik
and the present Chairman of the Law Commission, Ramakant Khalap, toppled the
Sardinha government and captured power in its own right. So much so, Francisco
Sardinha is not only guilty of the sin of permitting offshore casinos in Goa
but the
much greater sin of facilitating the coming to power in Goa of the divisive and
communal BJP.
Which leaves us with the credentials of the third serious candidate in the fray
for
the South Goa parliamentary seat, namely the former member of the Legislative
Assembly and briefly the tourism minister, Matanhy Saldanha. There was a
greater sin
of shock and disbelief when Matanhy Saldanha aligned with the saffron brigade
and
obstinately and adamantly propped up the tottering government headed by Manohar
Parrikar. There was a greater sense of shock about Matanhy aligning with the
BJP
then other Congressmen like Ravi Naik and Ramakant Khalap and a host of others
including the current power minister, Aleixo Sequeira, who was one of the
contenders
for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat aligning with the BJP.
MANOHAR PARRIKAR
IN fact, the first government headed by Manohar Parrikar comprised largely of
Congressmen who had opportunistically defected to the BJP. But there was a
greater
sense of shock and disbelief about Matanhy joining hands with the BJP because
his
historical image has always been that of a principled left liberal. In facth
the
first time I met Matanhy Saldanha was in the late seventies when he was leading
an
agitation against mechanised trawlers who were seriously affecting the
livelihood of
the traditional ramponkars. Life has come full circle for Matanhy Saldanha, who
is
now engaged in the new battle to save the houses and businesses of the
traditional
fishing communities in Goa, which are threatened by the inflexible attitude of
the
Minister of Environment and Forests and the courts in the land to the strict
implementation of the Coastal Regulation Zone rules.
PARABLE
ONE of the most widely quoted parables in the Bible is the one about how the
fatted
calf was killed for the prodigal son. The loyal son was furious as no such
honour
had been done to him though he had been a good Christian and lived a very pious
and
honourable life. Unlike the prodigal son, who had presumably broken every one
of the
Ten Commandments. The logic of killing the fatted calf for the prodigal son
comes
from Christian theology which argues that one genuinely penitent is superior to
several saints. By that logic, if Matanhy Saldanha is genuinely repentant about
his
stupid support to the communal BJP, he deserves the forgiveness of the
predominantly
Catholic-dominated South Goa parliamentary constituency. But to deserve the
vote of
hundreds of his ardent fans, who worked very hard to get him elected to the
Legislative Assembly, he should totally and irrevocably distance himself both
from
the communal BJP and the corrupt Congress.
The BJP does not deserve your vote because whatever masks it may wear, every
time
elections come around the bitter ground reality is that its agenda is to
polarise
the country along communal lines and demonise and target the minority
communities.
Don't be deceived by Manohar Parrikar's opportunistic and hypocritical
statement
calling the Ram Sene a bunch of criminals. Manohar Parrikar is well-known for
his
deviousness and the fact remains that the seeds of the first ever communal riot
that
Goa witnessed were sown when the BJP, or more specifically Manohar Parrikar,
was in
power. It should not be forgotten that it was BJP leaders like Ramrao Desai,
Vinay
Tendulkar and Manohar Parrikar himself who allegedly instigated a mob, not just
against members of the minority community but even against the police. Indeed
the
report of the district magistrate, Nikhil Kumar, clearly indicts Manohar
Parrikar
and the saffron brigade in fomenting the first ever communal riot in history of
Goa.
LOFTY PROMISES
REGRETTABLY, the Congress in the state has failed to live up to its Chief
Minister's
claims that it was committed to the empowerment of the aam aadmi. It is true
that
Digamber Kamat, under pressure from the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, announced that the
Regional Plan 2011 was scrapped, during Pratapsingh Rane's reign as chief
minister.
It is true that, under pressure from various NGOs including the SEZ Virodh
Manch,
Digamber Kamat wrote to the Centre to cancel the licenses given to the SEZs and
directed the Goa Industrial Development Corporation to cancel the illegal
allotment
of land to the SEZs, which has again been exposed by the latest report of the
Comptroller and Auditor General. But the ground reality is that the Regional
Plan
2021 has not yet been finalised.
The ground reality is that the demand for the inclusion of the Planning and
Development Authorities and the Village Panchayat of Taliegao within the
purview of
Regional Plan 2021 has not been accepted. The ground reality is that the SEZs
continue to be in possession of the land allotted to them and the Union
Ministry of
Commerce has not yet cancelled the permissions given to the four SEZs, which
were
approved both by the state and the Centre. The bitter ground reality is that
the so
called aam aadmi Chief Minister subverted the Supreme Court judgement for the
benefit of one khaas aadmi. The aam aadmi Chief Minister has compounded this by
retrospectively exempting quarries from having conversion certificates which,
in
effect, means that the hills of Goa will continue to be decimated at an even
faster
pace than in the past. So it is difficult for us to recommend that the voter
should
support Congress candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
NORTH GOA
THE position is reasonably clear in South Goa. If the prodigal son Matanhy
Saldanha
is genuinely repentant for aligning himself with the BJP and gives a public
assurance that he regrets his mistake and misjudgement and will never again
align
with any communal forces, may be the voter should consider forgiving him his
past
transgressions and offer him the fatted calf even if it means rejecting
Francisco
Sardinha, who is eminently 'rejectable' in any case.
The North Goa scene is a little more complicated. Why has the NCP fielded a
candidate who has been part of the Congress party all his life and has never
defected to any other party? First we need to understand why it is so important
for
the NCP to contest the elections in Goa. The requirement for being recognised
as a
national party is that it should have a presence at least in three states and
should
poll a certain minimum percentage of the votes cast in each state. The NCP
insisted
on being allotted the North Goa Parliamentary seat because, besides Nagaland
and
Maharashtra, the only state in which the NCP has some presence or clout is Goa.
The fact remains that, though the NCP State President Dr. Wilfred D'Souza could
not
retain his seat, the NCP won three seats in the last assembly elections in Goa
and
has two representatives, namely Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco and Revenue
Minister
Jose Phillip D'Souza in the cabinet. It was, in fact, Mickky and Jose Philip
D'Souza
who lobbied with the NCP High command to give the NCP ticket for the North Goa
parliamentary seat to Nirmala Sawant. But powerful, vested interests within the
Congress, which includes Cumbarjua MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, who is part of the
Babush gang in the Legislative Assembly, were against the ticket going to
Nirmala
Sawant. The NCP was in a dilemma. It was formally allotted the ticket for the
North
Goa Parliamentary seat in the seat sharing arrangement between the Congress and
the
NCP. But its candidate, Nirmala Sawant, was not acceptable to its alliance
partner,
the Congress.
The compromise solution that was allegedly engineered by the Civil Aviation
Minister, Praful Patel, was to offer the NCP ticket for the North Goa
Parliamentary
seat to Jitendra Deshprahu, provided he resigned from the Congress and joined
the
NCP. The Congress had nothing to lose because Deshprabhu is not a member of the
Assembly and cannot affect the delicate balance of power in the Assembly. It is
alleged that the NCP, or more specifically the Civil Aviation minister Praful
Patel,
decided that Deshprabhu should be the candidate for North Goa in return for his
contribution in facilitating the Mopa Airport, in which both the NCP chief
Sharad
Pawar and the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, have allegedly vested
interests.
It is a case of Hobson's choice in the case of the North Goa Parliamentary
seat. We
are not in favour of voters supporting Shripad Naik, though he is a humble and
simple man, because he is, at the end of the day, part of the saffron brigade.
Nor
are we in favour of Deshprabhu, who has not made any significant contribution
to Goa
in all these years in public life. The best bet in North Goa may be comrade
Christopher Fonseca, who is the only one who has been fighting the causes of
the
working class in the state.
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