The time has come for Goa's secular forces to wage an all out attempt to abort Goa's Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s sneaking ambition of embarking Goa's last phase of saffronisation.
It would be in India's interest that the communal BJP is razed to dust in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. The opposition has to think of the bigger picture and interests of the country. They must bury their personal ambitions and egos and unite to give the saffrons a thrashing at the polls. Only this will ensure that the temples, mosques and churches coexist in communal harmony. Goans have been patient and surprisingly have stood by meekly whilst Parrikar has systematically saffronised every department of Goa's administration. However, Goa will definitely pay a very heavy price for this complacency. It may be too late when we wake up to the ground reality. All the Chief Minister's talk of good governance has been a hoax. For good governance he should have governed with a small cabinet and wound up those corporations which are financial catastrophes. But the Chief Minister chose to set up more corporations to make place for his chums to get the plums of office. Mr Parrikar has cunningly on the one hand been carrying out his secret agenda and on the other hand deceiving Goans by announcing all sorts of sugar-coated schemes most of which have ended in disaster. He has laid an outstanding number of foundations stones and announced a record number of projects which after generating public attention have been consigned to cold storage. Mr. Parrikar may be an IIT but you don't need too much education not to be fooled by the few gardens and benches Mr Parrikar has installed while he does the bigger damage to Goa which unfortunately some Goans cannot sense. The Goa's Public Service Commission ( GPSC) which recruits to the Goa Civil Service is packed with three hard core saffronites. The Chairman Mr. Avinash Vaze had been sacked as Law Officer of Goa Economic Development Corporation years ago for reasons known to all. Today all interviews held by the GPSC are a mere farce. If you subscribe to the RSS ideology and still better if you belong to Mr. Parrikar's sect you walk through. The future for the minorities and secular minded candidates is sealed. Goa's Bahujan Samaj have to continue to live in a world of dreams which may never come true. Today Matka is ravaging Goa and two of Mr. Parrikar's Ministers have high stakes in this illegal business. The Chief Minister knows too well that the day he cracks down on Matka his chair may crumble so Matka continues unabated and by now the Chief Minister may have been tempted to be a beneficiary of the trade himself. He has gambled all the way to the Chief Minister's chair in any case. Mr Parrikar had assured Goans that no Government servant would be given an extension on attaining the age of retirement. He has been religiously flouting this rule to comfort and accommodate his own flock. The latest beneficiary is Dr Dhume, Dean of Goa Medical College who on retirement has been given an extension in service denying the rightful promotion due to other deserving doctors. Dr. Dhume was fortunate that he was born to the same thread the Chief Minister comes from. Many are called but few are chosen! Today Goa's freedom of press is in dire straits. The Chief Minister has been able to systematically target and blackmail almost every newspaper. Recently all Government advertisements in a Marathi daily were stopped. Only after the management gave a written apology and undertaking not to publish anything against the Chief Minister was normalcy returned. When the Chief Minister addresses newspaper or journalist functions he espouses them to be free and fearless but thanks to Mr Parrikar's skillful and very shrewd maneuvering today the Press room is congested with Mr Parrikar's pimps with just a few true professional journalists holding out. These would however be ultimately recognised by society in the long run for safeguarding the journalistic values the press is supposed to uphold. Today almost the entire Goa administration is saffronised. A visit to the Secretariat will say it all. A few of the residual minority and secular forces continue to hold office much to the utter discomfort of Mr Parrikar and his communal and casteist outfit. Parrikar owes it to Goa that though he was born in a secular state, unfortunately he is doing everything possible to corrode Goa's secular identity through the RSS ideology that his maestro's L.K. Advani or Mr Pravin Togadia preaches. Not forgetting his other Guru the Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr Narendra Modi … of Godhra fame. Aires Rodrigues Ribandar ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
