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POLITICS ON-STAGE: HEAT TARGETS GOA'S RULING IDEOLOGY >From Pamela D'Mello Panaji: Four shows into his new play "Bhagvya Maticha Manus (Son of the Saffron Soil) and its already stirring a hornet's nest within some circles. Enfant terrible of Goa's Marathi stage, former editor, writer cartoonist and iconoclast Vishnu Surya Wagh has this time taken his sharp comment straight into the realm of contemporary politics. His latest production, also featuring himself, is a scarcely disguised take on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the "compromise and get ahead" politics of the BJP --- elsehwere in the country and in Goa, a state the party has ruled since October 2000. The two hour long play depicts the ultimate disillusionment of a "Rashtriya Sankritirakshak Sanghantana" worker --- a conscientious medico called Shantanu Sarang. After years of selfless work with the organisation, he finds that his former mentors have become intoxicated with the spoils of power and wealth, their espoused "high principles" dumped in the new era of political fixing and coalition politics. "I wrote this play because the party is in power. Though people have begun to see their real face, not many would like to talk about it" says writer Wagh, former editor of the Goa based Marathi daily "Gomantak". "Like in any organisation committed to ideals, a section of their workers are now beginning to feel isolated. Their preachers no longer practice what they have been preaching about patriotism and the new culture in politics" , says Wagh, whose own political search has taken him from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, the Congress to the fringes of the Shiv Sena Goa unit now. Staged by the Sri Krishna Sangathi troupe, Wagh's production is currently doing the rounds at temple feasts and sammelans, and has stayed low profile thus far. By contrast, his 1996 production "Tuka Abang Abang", was banned by Maharashtra's then Shiv Sena government. Wagh's dramatic interpretation was that the works of the seventeenth century Maharashtrian social reformer, Tukaram, were actually destroyed by the then Brahminical elites, who ultimately murdered him. This was seen as highly controversial and "against the myths that were woven around Tukaram after his deification". "I don't write to be controversial, but to create public opinion, to make a statement about something I feel strongly about," says this former student of history and linguistics, with 20 plays in Marathi and Konkani to his credit. But controversial he remains --- as maverick in his politics as he's brilliant in his creativity, even critics acknowlege. Still in his late thirties, Wagh has worn many hats --- student activist, cultural activist, former vice chairman of Goa's prestigious Kala Academy, associate of Goa's Bahujan Haturli math -- to add to his many other roles. His second script this year though not yet dramatised, is no less contentious, depicting the rebellion of a young swami at an upper caste math, who tries to change the way things are done, but faces opposition from mahajans. "Vairajya Math" is Wagh's comment on the running of the two 'upper caste' maths in the state, who he says remain aloof from the lives of common people and the ills of society.(ends) _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
