Goa of Our Dreams: Living Within a China Wall by Arun Sinha
I moved to Goa to join this paper 15 years ago. A large part of me moved to Goa because of my professional passion but a little part also came for the beauty of it. Out my office window I could enjoy a view of the sea-tickled Mandovi. There were hardly any cars parked outside my office building, and very few cars moved up and down the Bandodkar Marg edging the Mandovi promenade along which I drove between home and office. Today, everything has changed. Buildings have stolen my beloved Mandovi from me. I can't find a place to park my car outside my office. I can't drive down the Bandodkar Marg thinking of anything else but 'safety on road means safe tea at home'. My heart longs back to the Goa of the early nineties. I can only imagine how heart must be wailing of those Goans who have seen the Goa of the eighties, seventies, sixties and even before. The browning of Goa is sickening. The overcrowding is unbearable. I have always thought that there is something genetic from the time of evolution in the human species that makes everyone of us; be we of whatever race, feel the happiest and homeliest in an environment such as a river gently flowing by wooded hills. However, I know that the Goans who have today risen to protect Goa are not merely genetically outraged but also concerned about the survival of Goa they knew of. Goans feel estranged by present-day Goa, including me who was not born a Goan. There are many of those, not born Goans, who have lived here for much longer than me who must be feeling the same. I don't think this is only nostalgia. You often hear old people-no matter of what race-telling you of all the good things that existed in their times and which no more exist. Today's Goan cry is not just such sentimental reminiscences of the good things past. It is a passionate call to save Goa. Although I am one with them with a banner in their procession-because my Mandovi was robbed from me-I am still confused about what saving Goa means. Does it mean freezing Goa, as it exists today? Does it mean stopping all human activities that cause browning and overcrowding of Goa? No industry, no commerce, no tourism, no airports, no flights, no railways, no highways-a China-Walled island of sparse population and a great landscape? I am yet to meet two people who have the same formula for saving Goa. And I am yet to meet anyone who can tell me what to do after saving Goa. Many, I know, won't be happy when I say saving Goa is a fuzzy dream. A misty, woolly, hazy dream. I in my editorials and my reporters in their interviews have often asked the saviours of Goa: "Can Goa grow without development projects?" And their answer has been the same-misty, woolly, hazy-"See, we are not against development." Beyond that, nothing. No blueprint. Nothing to guide us what to do after saving Goa. Sometimes I feel the NGOs are more populist than politicians. "Let the people decide," the politician says. "Let the people decide," the NGO says. In actuality, they both make the decisions they want to make. Look at how decisions are made by the NGOs. Do they convene gram sabhas and ask them to make the decisions? It is the committees and sub-committees of the NGOs-and in many cases, the professional vigilantists who own NGOs as organizations of one man or woman-who make the decisions. All in the name of the people. By the people, for the people, of the people. Just as the politician does. NGOs are today in Goa, I think, enjoying power. They are enjoying their status as a superpower. They can veto any project. Government is scared of them. Now, a vigilant civil society and a socially sensitive intelligentsia are what make a good and responsible society. If they are not there, government will become arbitrary. Parliamentary democracy will become parliamentary autocracy. However, while making a responsible government and society, NGOs cannot remain socially irresponsible themselves. I am with NGOs on all their vetoes. But I have a reason to ask them: What next? Where does Goa go from here? How does it progress? As far as I know, NGOs have not rejected the capitalist model. All these years, in all their speeches and writings, civil society activists and intellectuals have not provided an alternative model of development. They have portrayed unscrupulous capitalists as demons but not found anything fundamentally wrong with capitalism. Some capitalists in their eyes represent the devil but capitalism is not rejected by them as evil. During conversations with many activists who are my friends I have noted one passion common among them. They want to set the limits of development. Goa should develop only this much, and no further. In other words, sustainable development-who quarrels with them on this! But they are not clear how this sustainable development will take place. They do not have any design for Goa's future. They do not have a vision for Goa. Nor do I claim to have a vision. The situation is terrifying. Politicians, I may agree with the NGOs, are a gang of thieves who should be the last to be expected to have a vision for Goa. But the NGOs have no vision, either. Goa can only be adrift toward a fearfully uncertain destination in the absence of a model. Goa's future looks to be unsafe both in government and non-government hands. What do we do now? As a journalist who has watched the Goa scene for many years, I can only draw attention to one big piece of harsh reality. Goa cannot live on its own within a China Wall. Goan economy has never been self-sufficient-not even during the Portuguese or pre-Portuguese times. The Portuguese left Goa as an island of poverty and illiteracy. Central government investments in infrastructure and quantum growth in mining, industry and tourism and the satellite enterprises contributed significantly to the high indices of income, literacy and health that Goa today is famous for. Let us look at history: The Portuguese put up a China Wall, but that could provide Goans only a hand-to-mouth existence. The result was that for many Goans, the greatest dream was escape. Many of the Goans who we find in Mumbai or in many countries today are descendants of Portuguese China Wall-breakers. When I see those fishermen and farm tenants in the tourist belt who were poor and malnourished during the Portuguese times and have progressed to have a better house and educated and healthy children; and when I see those middle class Goans worming their way through the body-jammed Panaji Market for green vegetables that come every day from Belgaum, I am the last to believe that isolation is the best way to save Goa. Goa was always dependent on other regions for food, other needs and employment. Today we are many times more dependent. Larger and larger number of Goan youth are seeking opportunities for employment and self-employment outside agriculture and fishing. Where do they go? One of the major fears driving veto on all projects is the phobia of migrants-both from poor and rich classes-swamping the natives. The NGOs' strategy to choke the migrant flood is to choke growth. No growth, no migrants. But no growth also means no growth for Goan youth who are no more doing agriculture or fishing. Who is thinking about them? If we don't, they will break the China Wall and fly.
