WINNIE COUTINHO’S SILENCE, A SIGN OF GUILT Parts of your editorial “ Campaigning, in style ” in your daily, the Herald dated 17th May are factually incorrect.
At the very outset your comment that a section of the media have been gunning for Mrs. Winnie Coutinho is very unfair to your colleagues in the fourth estate. Your newspaper and another local English daily (having an aversion to my name) are the only ones that did not cover the Winnie Coutinho Saga. So was the entire media wrong and your daily the only one that did (in) justice by not reporting the issue. While you have been quick to condemn the ‘media trial’, you apparently forgot the role played by the media in serving justice in the Jessica Lal murder case. In this case as in the others justice would have been perverted by the powers that be, were it not for the public pressure exerted through the media. True, there is a need for systemic checks and balances (that work), the absence of which cannot be an argument for allowing corruption to go unchecked. It is obvious in Mrs. Winnie Coutinho’s case that the checks did exist, but the powerful political arm checkmated it. We brag about freedom of the press but the ‘business partner’ of Mrs. Winnie Coutinho was able to block the news in your daily by his close and powerful links with your paper. This priest who prefers to go by the title Mr. as you may know is a holder of a journalist identity card issued by your newspaper. Every other newspaper including the national and electronic media highlighted the issue as it was obviously a serious matter that the government after coming to a finding that Mrs. Winnie Coutinho was corrupt and incompetent allowed her to continue as Public Prosecutor in the High Court due to the political pressures exerted by two South Goa powerful politicians Mr. Mauvin Godinho and Mr. Churchill Alemao. Mrs. Winnie Coutinho had a right to defend herself. She could have placed her side of the story and fought back. But she chose to stay quiet and slip off into the wilderness by resigning. This is a clear admission of guilt. She knew very well that she had no case to defend Union Minister for Law and Justice Dr. Veerappa Moily’s recently said that persons with doubtful integrity should not be made judges. Mrs. Winnie Coutinho’s name could in no way be considered for appointment as Judge of the High Court and for that matter for any judicial position. I have nothing personal against Mrs. Winnie Coutinho but one has to have the courage and conviction to speak up in public interest even at the risk of getting one’s fingers chopped. Every allegation I have made against Mrs. Winnie Coutinho was based on documented evidence which I have obtained from the Government itself under the Right to Information Act. Your reporter who covers the High Court proceedings would be in a better position to enlighten you more on the misdeeds of Mrs. Winnie Coutinho. You have also referred to the helmet issue. It has been and continues to be my stand that helmets alone will not save lives. We need to make our roads safer and usher proper traffic management to control the number of accidents. By the way I do use the helmet now. You have also referred to the Ribandar Church case where I focusssed on an individual priest. Yes, I did so and had to nail the priest who had molested an innocent 13 year old girl on Christmas eve in the Church premises. In the cocktail of issues referred by you, is my relationship with Mr. Manohar Parrikar. Yes, we may have deferred on various issues but one cannot deny the good Mr. Manohar Parrikar has done to Goa and Panaji in particular. I do not believe in petty politics and have friends and good relations with persons in all political parties You have also referred to the case of the politician’s son. This case was handled by me as an Advocate and not as a campaigner. Every lawyer is within his rights to take up or withdraw from any case. And in that particular case I acted within my rights. You were unfair in stating that in my past campaigns I have been targeting individuals rather than issues. I am happy that as I turn 50 next week I have taken up an equal number of issues over the years. While highlighting an issue it’s bound to hurt some individuals. The recent case at hand is the clean up of the IPL where Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi have had to bear the brunt. You need to weed out the rotten individuals to get to the bottom of any issue. Trust me on this! Aires Rodrigues T1 - B30, Ribandar Retreat Ribandar - Goa - 403006 Mobile: 9822684372