View From The Outer Harbour
By: Thalmann Pradeep Pereira
NO RUSH FOR MATHANY SHOW !
This is the age of multiplexes. But single-screen theatres still abound in Goa.
During our childhood, there were theatres even in some villages of Goa like
Agassaim and Ribandar. There were also mobile theatres going from place to
place, and from school to school. In the theatres, usually there were three
shows: 2.30, 6 and 9.30 p.m. On Sunday mornings, there was the screening of an
English film in what was billed as the "Matinee Show".
Nowadays, too, the theatres do have a matinee show every morning at 11. And
the films are advertised as "Kannada" or "Malayalam" or even as "Nepali". One
look at the billboard is enough to reveal the true nature of these modern-day
matinees.
Though the moral police always prattled about "Bharatiya sanskruti", when
catapulted to the seats of power, they did nothing to stop this thrash. On
the contrary, Parrikar quietly swallowed all his bold and brave talk about
what he had himself described as the "Miramar Sex Scandal". One wonders
whether he will have the courage to deliver on his promise to blow off the lid
on that slur on Goan society, at least today, when he no longer has to "make
compromises" for the sake of clinging to power. Unless, of course, he still
has to make compromises for the sake of preventing a CBI enquiry into his own
IFFI adventure. Or, unless, those in power today have their own little
skeletons to hide and refrain from ordering a CBI enquiry against Parrikar,
under garb of not resorting to "witch-hunting"!
Incidentally, Mathany Saldanha's vow (upon being sworn in as a Minister in
Parrikar's cabinet), that within one year, either the "River Princess" would
go or he would go, seems to have been taken seriously by the gods. Since, at
the end of one year, neither seemed to be going, God must have decided that
Parrikar's entire cabinet should go. And while Mathany himself was left high
and dry with the sword of a disqualification petition hanging above him, the
blessed ship was still floating off Candolim. And its carcass still remains
there even today, after implementation of its officially-sanctioned stripping
under the guise of towing away. The thieves, seem to have fallen apart, and
poor Elvis Gomes seems to have paid the price.
Even after the results of the five bye-elections, Mathany opened his mouth
wide to defend the "development" carried out by Parrikar's government, even as
he invented his new theory about "equi-distance". And then he quietly went and
made his peace with his UGDP colleagues and got them to "condone" his
disobedience of the whip issued by them. The grapevine is that Mathany is now
busy lobbying for the Deputy Speaker's post for himself.
The NDA's national poster-boy George Fernandes who actually worked against the
working class, when he was a Minister in Vajpayee's cabinet, is now seeking to
re-invent himself as the Champion of Mumbai's working class. Just as Advani
tried to re-invent himself as a "moderate" by describing Jinnah as secular.
Both have fallen flat on their faces, in their pathetic attempts. Mathany's
fate appears to be no different.
The theatre-owners of Goa discovered long back that they could keep their
theatres commercially viable, only by screening "Nepali" films. The BJP has
realised at national level that their spurious debate about Jinnah's secular
credentials has no takers. George Fernandes has found to his dismay that the
working class of Mumbai is not prepared to even halt for a minute for him.
The events of the coming days are going to prove to Mathany that in politics,
right-turns are not appreciated by the common folks. He will be left holding a
huge stock of unsold tickets for his "Mathany" Show.
Till the next Monday, then, Happy Thinking!
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Harbour Times" (20-6-2005)
