Look at whose cap is being feathered thanks to Goa University's Visiting
Professor programs.

Augusto
........................................................................................

*From Sunday Express Banagloar, August 25, 2013
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Point of View - TJS George

Innovation and challenge in Goa. And
a  historic  moment for CM Parrikar

Goa, like any other state in India, is overrun with negative forces that
create apprehensions  about the future. But,
unlike most other states, a positive spark flickers in Goa now and again.
The state is so completely identified with
beaches and hippies that neither the gloomy side of politics nor the
hopeful signs receive the attention they deserve.
Goa is more than tourists.

How many of us realise, for example, that Goa has a university and that it
performs more imaginatively than any other
university in the country? We are told that the Presidency University of
Kolkata is ready to introduce a course on
"The Enigma of Love" with emphasis on the "theoretical aspects" of love.
Compare this academic  drollery with some
half dozen Research Chairs Goa University has established. The Bandodkar
Chair on Political Economy, the D.D.Kosambi
Chair on Interdisciplinary Studies and the Borkar Chair on Comparative
Literature may appear routine. But two factors
make the Goa University's approach anything but routine.

First, it has also introduced unusual and innovative courses: One on
Western music, another on traditional music and
bhajan, a third on fine arts, painting and cartooning named after Goa's and
India's beloved illustrator genius, Mario
Miranda.  Second -- and this is the crux of the matter -- in a country
where appointments from peons to professors are
made on the basis of caste, cash and ministerial interest, Goa University
got for its Chairs the likes of Madhav
Gadgil, Romila Thapar, Meghnad Desai and Shuba Mudgal.

A near miracle. How could integrity  be honoured so openly and repeatedly?
Evidently the University's authorities put
professionalism above caste, cash, etc. But they would still have been
thwarted if they had to face political
interference of the kind that happens in almost every university in our
country. In Goa University, some officers more
loyal than the King in fact tried to curry favour by telling the BJP Chief
Minister that a  Leftwing anti-BJP
intellectual like Romila Thapar was being invited at the University's
expense. Apparently Chief Minister Manohar
Parrikar said this was an academic issue and he could not interfere.

This is what makes Parrikar different from the rest of his tribe. In an
earlier stint, he had succumbed to Hindutva
extremists and done what was unthinkable in Goa -- cancel the public
holiday on Good Friday. That was a major reason
for the BJP losing the election that followed. Parrikar won last year's
election with Catholic support; the Catholics
were sure that Parrikar had learned from his Good Friday blunder and, more
importantly, they were disgusted by the
criminalities and shamelessness of Catholic ministers in the Congress
Government.

Not only did Congress ministers and their families get enmeshed in murders
and rape cases; the corruption went beyond
limits even by Congress standards. It is a surprise that the High Command
never attempted to curb the open criminality
of its flag-bearers in Goa. Or was it a case of collusion? Not that the BJP
is clean. Curiously both the BJP and the
Congress  today have exactly 33.3 percent MLAs each with criminal cases
pending against them. But no corruption is as
vulgar as Congress corruption in Goa.

A year into his landslide victory, Parrikar is grappling with the realities
of power. Some of his campaign promises
were clearly unrealistic: He is unable to abolish casinos, or save Goa from
miners as promised. His voters will accept
such dilemmas if his  honesty of purpose is transparent. Actually, Parrikar
has an opportunity no post-liberation
Chief Minister has had. His educational and technological background
attracts the respect of even his opponents as
does his relative austerity. He is recognised as an administrator. To be
recognised as a visionary, he must accept
that the governance of Goa has to be in tune with its historical and
cultural uniqueness, not with the
one-size-fits-all ideology of this political party or that. To do justice
to his state, he will have to rise above
partisanship.  Manohar Parrikar, the leader of the BJP, today has the
chance to become the leader of Goa. He should
take the call.

-- 


Augusto Pinto
40, Novo Portugal
Moira, Bardez
Goa, India
E pinto...@gmail.com
P 0832-2470336
M 9881126350

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