What do Goans think this 44th Liberation Day? Well, they unanimously, look forward to yet another LIBERATION DAY from the forces that took over since 19th December, 1961. In short a Liberation from "Ghantianchem Raj" a sobriquet for governance under the style of "Indian rule " (essentially dictated by British law of divide and rule, besides legislations (laws ) under the India Code which are synonymous to an undergarment filled with holes only increasing the backlog in the Courts of Justice)
After Portuguese rule( 25.11.1510 to 19.12.1961) 451 years -- Old Conquests Salcete, Mormugao, Bardez, Tiswadi, (Ilhas) 1510 to 1961 and New Conquests Ponda, Quepem, Canacona, Sanguem, Pernem, Bicholim, Sattari 1763 - 1961 -----Liberation or call it Conquest Annexation, if you wish, ----- The first blot post liberation was that ----the Caste or "Varna" or "Jati" System as ordained by Manu in his scriptures "Smritis" was put in force albeit in a sublime manner, (actually it commenced clandestinely in 1925 with the formation of the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh and also the Goa Hindu Sabha) in this then Union Territory of Goa Daman Diu, as prevalent in the rest of the country, which got its Independence on 15th August, 1947 from two hundred years of erstwhile British Rule. This meant a "social engineering" wherein a) Brahman, b)Kshatriya, c) Vaishya, d) Shudra, and e) Harijans. Not that such profession . traditional occupation based divisions do not exist elsewhere, but in India this social engineering depending on ones vocations by birth put humans on a VERTICAL ladder. Merit by worth became extinct and those performing lower jobs were scorned at and expected to be subservient to the needs of those at the top Thus the priestly caste the warriors the merchants the artisans labourers the untouchables "harijans" children of a lesser gods were all according to their placement on the ladder of heirarchy expected to serve the priestly caste. Christians too suffered the same though the church preaches a casteless society. But given the facts the Catholics in Goa are essentially converts there is no escape of the caste syndrome. Unfortunately till this date the indigenous people of Goa the "niz goenkars" the Gawdas Kunbi Velip and Dhangars have still not found their numbers represented in the Goa Legisaltive Assenbly while the Scheduled Castes from outside the State have found representation and even jobs in Government. This being the FIRST blot on POST LIBERATED GOA it can and needs to be eliminated totally only by economic, social empowerment and representation to those at the lower rung of the ladder and the ST ****************************************************************** The last Portuguese Governor General Mr Manoel Vassalo e Silva on 15th April, 1961 signed a historic declaration wherein it was finally established that all the over 221 Comunidades (Gaunkaries)in Goa, were to become "absolute owners of their lands" without element of State Grant or Land Tenure which simply meant these village republics being self sufficient -- permitted a "susegad" lifestyle unlike the present stress ridden times due to maladministration and divide and rule policies of the government--are private and are not owned by the State even after Liberation on December 19, 1961, to be succeeded by any Government. Under the U.N.Charter for protection of Indigenous People & in terms of Article 26 of the Draft Declaration on " Rights of the Indigenous Peoples" ------"quote ---Indigenous people have the right to own, develop, control and use the lands and territories including the total environment of the lands, air, waters,sea-ice coastal seas,flora and fauna and other resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used. This includes the right to the full recognition of their laws, traditions and customs, land-tenure systems and institutions for the development and management of resources and the right to effective measures by states to prevent any INTERFERENCE with, ALIENATION of or ENCROACHMENT upon their rights. It is therefore clear that following Liberation of Goa the Union of India or thereafter the State of Goa is NOT the owner of the Communidade (Gaunkari) land as is envisaged in Article 294 and 295 Chapter III.-Property. Contracts, Rights, Liabilities, Obligations and Suits. and 31A. Saving of laws providing for acquisition of estates(ref:http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html).Therefore the the then Goa Daman & Diu Village Panchayati Raj Act 1963 the Goa Daman and Diu Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1964, the Goa Daman & Diu Land Revenue Code 1968 ( a photocopy of the Bombay Land Revenue Code of 1879 ) made applicable to the land owned by the Comunidades without ANY State land tenure relationship with them is unconstitutional and a fraud by successive Governments in Goa, viz; the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party the Indian National Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party which have either individually or as coalitions guided the destiny of Goa thus far. To undo this legal blot there is an urgent need to first retrieve the Communidade land which is yet not encroached and document the same securely regularise the encroachments and recover the costs to fill the coffers of the Communidades. In the absence of a faithful translation in English of the Codigo das Communidades as on 15.4.1961 we need to scrutinize the translated in English copy presently in force one possibility is to make PUBLIC and without further delay the papers on the Communidades prepared by Dr Olivinho Gomes ex Vice Chancellor of the University of Goa --- and funded by the Dempo Group of Companies and later get him to provide a faithful translation of the Code of Communidades (Gaukaries) to be used in the Courts. ****************************************************************** The third aspect is the DUAL LEGISLATION IN VOGUE in post Liberated Goa. Be it the Common Civil Code or other legislations which are based on Continental Law. It must be mentioned that the Continental law is most suitable to this State if not the whole country. But there are legal practitioners today post liberation who wish to thrive on the dual legislations. Some of the legal practioners who are conversant with the Law of Portuguese origin have kept it as a guarded monopoly being familiar with the Portuguese language though the legislation has undergone multi-fold changes in Portugal and its archipelagos. To the Goa Government except for lip sympathy on auspicious ocassions it has not endeavoured even after 44 years to have the Laws of Portuguese origin translated in English. Therefore it is best to repeal all erstwhile Laws of Portuguese origin or restrict its use until such time the new laws incorporating the Laws of both Portuguese and Indian origin are prepared. The first such piece of legislation is The Goa Succession and Inventory Proceedings Act 2004 which is now before the Select Committee, of the Goa Legislative Assembly. ****************************************************************** The FOURTH important need is the rectification of the harm done to Goans by a section of the Hindu Brahmans -- eclipsing clandestinely on 21st November, 1981 Konkani in Roman script which was in vogue since the advent of the Portuguese in Goa, as against the one now recognised by the Goa Daman & Diu Official Language Act 1987 as official ie Konkani in Devanagari script as postulated by an Advocate Mr Manjunath in 1939 at Karwar and revived by Shenoi Goembab of Bicholim. This needs to be done either by an amendment in the Offical language act without any financial implications or by seeking the assistance of the President of India under Article 347.**Special provision relating to language spoken by a section of the population of a State. This is because the dwindling population of Christians in Goa 3,59,568 persons,just 26.68 per cent of the population of the State, have become second class citizens in their own land as in matters of employment and budgetary support from the Goverment of Goa, for cultural purposes mandos dekhnis tiatrs books in Roman script, educational purposes, for religious purposes say church choir instruments -- unlike the lavish funds given for sangeet sammelans, nataks , bhajans etc they are denied the same because Konkani only in devanagari script has official recognition thus far and the Government can give only doles and not budgetary funds that too owing to political expedience and not as our legitimate right ****************************************************************** The fifth is the demand for GOANS FIRST --- the policy of the Government should be first to train the Goans before bringing in the Industry, (the fifteen year domicile was a flop as once the industry fulfilled the repayment of loans subsidies from the Goa Government there was no binding on them to take sons of the soil. The Goa Government as a major employer should be compelled to adopt the GOANS FIRST employment policy even at the cost of losing their vote banks, to avoid the changing demographic composition of the state which is now expedited by the advent of the Konkan Railway which (would have been beneficial for the development of central and ghat talukas like Ponda Sanguem Quepem with a 21 km diversion from the present route between Karmali and Bali made Goa a corridor of the Southern state Kerala when the Souther Railway conversion from meter gauge to broad guage would have fulfilled the need of Goa's natural Harbour Panaji The local churches of Goa are deeply concerned about the declining population of Christians in Goa and feel that unless something is done to check the decline, Christian population would vanish from the state altogether. ****************************************************************** Finally the present crop of legislators law makers and other elected representatives are essentially of a artisan agricultural or mundcarial "mind set" or non goans (for whom Goa is their El Dorado) who have not tasted wealth. Their education notwithstanding they are gullible and bereft of any knowledge to understand the nitty gritty of governance in a "liberalised privatised global economy " they have thus been attracted only to material gains and have no interest of the State at heart. They believe in the ideology " if you cant beat them join them " and they have joined hands to make Goa a "Party Zone" with indigeneous Goans ( excluding their own mothers sisters wives and daughters) enticed to entertain the tourists International and national "GOA 365 DAYS" Not only that with irrigation, water harvesting, given a LOW BUDGETARY SUPPORT agriculture suffers and hence land that was made available without a ceiling to the cultivators are now being encouraged to be kept fallow and sold to the highest bidder irrespective of the fact that the non goans and those with black money real estate sharks have invaded the state and dictated draconian legislations and ordinances to pursue their agenda of raping Goa. This can be arrested with empowering the Village Panchayats thro' Gram Sabhas and special meetings of Municipalities so that people not elected representatives decide the fate of Goa and Goans. ****************************************************************** This is the agenda for the second liberation of Goa and let us accomplish it by 19th December 2006 -- Together we can make it happen. GODFREY J I GONSALVES BORDA MARGAO GOA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Clean water saves lives. 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