Goa has the potential... for bombast?
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Frederick Noronha in The Goan
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My friend Emil shared a WhatsApp message the other day. It
didn't say much. It just contained a long list of (what
looked like) newspaper headings. Each one said something
nice about Goa, about its potential. Or, how this could
become into a land of sugar and spice.
Everyone was promising so many things, it almost
sounded funny. It took me a minute or two to
realise the point that Emil was trying to make.
Then, I caught on.
Who compiled this, I asked. "I did," Emil shot back, "as I
found the phrase 'Goa has the potential' too often used."
Interesting! And see how it reads:
Chief minister Pramod Sawant is telling us that Goa has the
potential become a defence manufacturing hub one day, and a
"startup forum" the next. Vijai Sardessai has been telling
us that Goa has the potential to become a "floriculture state".
Union minister Giriraj Singh has told us that Goa has the
potential to become the "fisheries hub of the country".
Never mind that people of our generation have lived through
the mechanisation of our coast, traditional fishermen's
protests, and the decimation of our fish resources.
Another report in a local English-language daily tells us
that Goa has the potential to become the "No 1 destination
for filmmakers". And, of course, Goa also has the "potential
to" become a big investment destination (Chief Minister
Sawant again).
Experts put it across that Goa has the potential to
become a global board of trade, or a multi-modal
logistic hub (Mauvin Godinho, as industries
minister). To former President APJ Abdul Kalam
goes the credit of seeing Goa as a "potential
state" for the cultivation of cash crops, spices
and medicinal plants. Now, who wouldn't want that?
At another stage, the wise ex-President saw Goa as having the
"potential, courage and God's grace" to transform into "a
prosperous, happy, peaceful and secure State". Then, at
another stage, the ex-President also could see the potential
to become an "IT-rich environment [with tools] such as
tele-education, tele-medicine and e-Governance." (APJ Abdul
Kalam)
Rohan Khaunte has seen Goa's potential "to
double-up as a tourism-cum-knowledge destination".
Meanwhile, the TERI, the Energy and Resources
Institute, has also diagnosed Goa's potential "of
being a global leader in high-value organic farming
and being an example of enterprise-led agriculture".
Savio Rodrigues, the politician-returned expat-media person
and Republic TV's preferred quotable person from these parts,
saw Goa's potential to "have a robust healthcare economy
coupled with rising demand for medical tourism".
The list seems endless. How much one can dig up depends only
on how much time one has to waste. As if to catch up with
the political bombast, such approaches have spread among our
newspapers and op-ed pages too. One saw a "potential for
safe tourism" in Goa, while another writer pushed Goa's
potential to "become an innovation hub".
And finally, there's even one from the
Netherlands-headquartered KPMG, one of the Big Four
accounting organisations worldwide: "Goa has the
potential to focus on well-being through its
lifestyle and traditions." What exactly this means,
could be anyone's guess.
* * *
This might seem like some harmless kite-flying on the part of
our political class. But it is not so innocent.
Over the years, Goa has been sold a whole lot of hype,
promises and dreams. We forget what was said and what was
promised. This tall talk makes us feel good; but no track is
kept of it. Wool is pulled over the eyes of the citizen.
By some coincidence, even while reading the above, I happened
to be going through some of my old books and paper clippings
from some decades ago. What I read there also shocked me.
So many promises were made, and yet so little fulfilled.
In 2002, the Goa Chambers was saying: "Goa offers
the ideal locale for co-locating R&D at a national
technology park to generate homegrown technologies.
Annual venture funding fairs, technology fairs
could catalyse the creation of the new emerging
Indian IT markets."
In 1993, a group called the Haryana Delhi Industrial
Consultants Ltd was promising a "coconut cream project" and
all its benefits for Goa. By 2005, ICAR, the Indian Council
of Agricultural Research was hosting a national seminar on
agro-eco tourism at Ela, Old Goa! But talk comes cheap, and
seminar papers can often have little relevance to real life.
By 2007, Goa was being hyped up as Best Governed
State (west) by Dataquest. The Goa Broad Band
Network was inaugurated. Built on a public-private
partnership plan, it was to "ensure connectivity
from State HQ to district HQ and taluka HQ and then
to each and every household through Optic Fiber
Cables"! Only those who use cyberspace regularly
would know how frustrating it can still be to get
decent Net access, in most parts of the State.
Yet, by 1990 itself, the Goa government was announcing that
the state had been declared as an "Electronic State" and an
"Electronic City" had been set up at Verna plateau.
In a 2007 "cultural policy" for Goa, what was promised
included a "model book city", hobby classes in all schools,
children's film festivals, and much, much more. The bulk of
this remains unfulfilled.
Other fancy projects from the past tell us how wrong we were
in understanding things. For instance, the Mapusa Urban
Co-operative Bank is praised in a book as "a bank which
serves the hummblest of the humble and the wealthiest with
the same amount of concern, respect and responsibility."
Today, we know what is the fate of that very bank!
This is how much we can trust bombast... It is
time both citizen and the media scrutinise such
claims. Tall talk should not be given a free ride.
Or, all of us would turn out losers.
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