GOA'S SARDAJI GUVS By Valmiki Faleiro Punjab provided Goa’s top three civil functionaries: Governor Dr. SS Sidhu, Chief Secretary JP Singh and Director General of Police BS Brar. All turbaned Sardars. Goa repaid the compliment in part: Punjab Governor, Gen. SF Rodrigues (former chief of the Indian Army) and Punjab ex-police chief, Julio Ribeiro. In the remote possibility that a Goan senior IAS officer is posted to Chandigarh, tiny Goa would have provided the Punjab a Chief Secretary as well. (The IAS man, of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, would naturally go as Chief Secretary of that state – but not as the first Goan. That honour belongs to Ronnie Percival Noronha, an illustrious ICS officer, Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh for a record 11 years, 1961-72. Noronha, incidentally, authored 'Tale Told by an Idiot,' his autobiography.) Dr. Sidhu is not Goa’s first Sardarji Governor. A distinguished IAS officer, Dr. Sidhu’s predecessors couldn’t exactly be described with similar adjectives. Without meaning to offend the incumbent, let’s remember our past Sardarji Guvs. Col. Pratap Singh Gill was here between 16/11/1977 and 30/3/1981. On a visit to Govt Livestock Farm at Dhat-Molem, he spotted a cow with huge udders. The world knows a Sardar’s propensities with udders and milk. In Thailand early-1980s, I learnt that a big Sardarji settlement on the outskirts of Bangkok virtually controlled the milk supply to the capital city. Col. Gill must have loved that Dhat cow. Within days, she was quietly in his Cabo palace grounds. Col. Gill had long been sitting on some mining concession renewal files. The Chief Minister, a mineowner herself, was said to have reminded him about the files. Without effect. An Assembly session was at hand. A question raised the case of The Missing Dhat-farm Cow. The CM is said to have gently briefed the Lt. Governor about the Q. The long-immobile mining files moved that very day! Not the cow. Lots of stuff also got crated to Punjab … mangoes from the Cabo gardens, rosewood furniture by the master craftsmen from Cuncolim-Salcete. When Col. Gill quit, to contest elections from Taran-Taran in Punjab, then Congress MLA Dilkush Dessai, known for his unconventional styles of protest, wanted to stage a farewell to Gill, by garlanding a donkey with sandals outside the then Secretariat. Better counsel prevailed. Dr. Gopal Singh (24/9/1984 to 17/7/1989) presided over Goa’s transition from Union Territory to State on May 30, 1987 – and his own from Lt. Governor to Governor. No one was certain about how he had earned his “Dr.” prefix. What was well known was that following local complaints to Delhi, he could be recalled. That’s when our Gopal went into a quietly orchestrated public relations offensive… Suddenly, most of Goa’s eleven municipalities and prominent village panchayats began ‘felicitating’ the Lt. Governor. At the end of such felicitations, during refreshments, the Governor’s PA would quietly whisper that His Excellency would be pleased to have a complete copy of the photo album and videography of the event. All these, it seems, were collated and sent to the Union Home Ministry – as proof of how overwhelmingly Gopal dear was loved in Goa. I know. I happened to be the Municipal President of Margao at the time. When the Governor’s Secretary – an IAS officer found ‘inconvenient’ by the local administration (in the present case, a man I regarded well) – telephoned to request that I organize a felicitation, I bluntly refused. The suave man was in Margao the next morning. When he explained how local ministers had, besides himself, now also found the Governor “inconvenient,” I went the extra mile to organize a grand ‘public felicitation’ – replete with welcome arches, crowds, Boy Scouts/Girl Guides for a ‘Guard of Honour’ … why, even a full brass ensemble! All meticulously captured on photo and video. Was the guy pleased! But not quite a few days later, when leafing through the photo album I presented him at the Cabo Raj Niwas, he saw that only the upper part of his head and turban could be seen behind the mountain of garlands heaped on the table before him! PS: After Slumdog Millionaire’s day at the Oscars, I don’t answer the phone with “hello.” I say, “Jai ho!” (ENDS.) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ============================================================================== The above article appeared in the March 1, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
