Beyond the Grave: Looking Back at Indira Gandhi The Devil, Indira Gandhi The Angel, And Her Baby - CRZ!
For the week which passed (17/7/21-14) when I was alive on Planet Earth. Indira Gandhi was a monster and an angel. Is it possible to be both? Maybe, she is the finest manifestation of so-called Hindu philosophy in recent history - truth is beyond both - good and evil. Now, this is the biggest problem for Western philosophers and thinkers who have been struggling to reach an agreement on the issue of good and evil for more than three thousand years - and, not as yet, arrived at a conclusion. To the Hindu mind all this talk has not only been a tremendous waste of energy but is also a laughable activity - good tiatr. The late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi the devil introduced the Emergency when she saw she was losing her grip on power. She took over the role of a dictator, threw the constitution into the rubbish bin, and started to believe Indira was India! A grave mistake indeed which she came to regret later and which the Congress Party, a great critic of the BJP has tried unsuccessfully to hide with little or no success. The late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi the angel was the one who took on Pakistan the bully! The better half later came to be known as Bangla Desh. You could say, she killed two birds with one stone. Indira Gandhi the angel’s greatest contribution to this day was her concern for the environment. In 1991 she took the initiative to protect the environment not only for aesthetic but environmental reasons. She did not want artificial and industrial development to destroy India’s coastline, and our lovely beaches. She is the biggest stumbling block in the way of people who want to destroy the coastal environment. Even after her death. To this day, people from all Indian political parties who care for the environment thank Indira Gandhi the angel for her vision. With Goa undergoing coastal erosion on a large scale we need to heed Indira the angel’s voice before it is too late. But will our greed allow us to listen? Industries have polluted our sea and rivers; factories and tourism have also affected the livelihood of the traditional coastal fishermen to a large extent, and driven Goans to the abyss as we are now eating formalin laced fish. At one time our fish were dying from industrial pollutants - and so we have made some progress! Where and when will it end? Our government needs to explain to the public the significance and importance of CRZ. Recently, the flooding in the Panaji area appeared as a hint of a soon-to-come deluge which brought back the story of Noah’s ark afresh in the minds of people who live in Panaji - our most prized city. A lot of people nowadays are either worried or concerned except the politicians and the builders. What needs to happen for these two groups to take environmental problems seriously? Goa’s fishing community and people who grow and take care of coconut trees along our coastal beaches are the legitimate stakeholders within the 200m zone and need to be taken seriously. And not big hotels who want to use the fragile beach environment to make big money from wedding and party events even if it means destroying sand dunes - and the environment.
