The Accidental Activist - What lies ahead? By Venita Coelho
'If the Government continues to ignore the people, if industry continues to exploit Goa without a thought of consequences - then the revolution will come. And it will no longer be in the hands of the moderates. We will not be in charge. ' These are the words of Dr. Oscar Rebello at the GBA Rally against the Cidade Ordinance. They disturbed me deeply. Revolution? Rebellion? Naxalism? Surely not in Goa. I have had a ringside view of the rise of activism in Goa, and now I am personally beginning to wonder at where we are headed. Frederick Noronha said correctly 'The one achievement of the Digambar Kamat government has been to turn more than half of Goa to activism.' For the first time people are actually sitting up and asking what is this strange skewed idea of development which will devastate their villages but make the rich even richer? Over the last two years I have watched activism take hold and gain momentum. And I have watched the government and industry do everything within and outside the law to take rights, land and power from the common man. In the case of Cidade they hurriedly pushed through legislation that will only benefit a few. With the amendment to the Panchayati Raj Act they have quickly curtailed the powers of the Panchayat. And, as we are discovering with the SEZ saga, they have bent rules and played unfair every step of the way. Bad governance, corruption, injustice. In every area of India that is wracked by Naxalism, these three have been pointed out time and again as the catalysts for people turning to violence. We in Goa every day see bad governance, encounter corruption, and now have injustice pushed through by legislation rubbed into our faces. Here are the scary facts on Naxalism in the rest of the country. 15 out of 28 states in India have a revolutionary movement going on. The government admits that the number of Naxal affected districts is 165 out of a total of 602. In every state the movement began over the same issues - corruption, bad governance and injustice. We have all three in Goa. We also have activism on the rise, with ferment in the villages. Right now the GBA is the moderate face of activism. But as Dr. Oscar warned 'if government and industry do not make a change - the moderates will no longer be in charge'. The anger will spill over. The battles will become a war. And the moderates will no longer be in charge. I worry that this is no longer a far fetched theory. I quit thinking the revolution was far from Goa the day I went to the South to the mining areas. There the war has begun. With the police, administration and every governmental power ranged against the poor who are fighting to survive. The people there are clear it is a fight to the finish and they are fighting against all odds. Only they have no weapons in their hands. The government is systematically stripping all legal weapons from the people's hands as well. Babu Azagaonkar's statement that the amendment to the Panchyati Raj Act will help people is the most ironic joke. What it does is take away powers from the Panchayat and over ride the Gram Sabha. Now slowly it is beginning to dawn on the villages that they can expect no help or redressal from the government. They are alone in their fight against mega projects, against land being turned to industrial areas, against land being taken from them at a stroke of a government pen. In many ways the Cidade Ordinace could turn out to be the straw that broke the camels back. It demonstrated that not even the highest court of law could deliver justice. That could be hijacked by the Government easily. With belief in justice gone, with no redressal available, with bad governance and corruption the order of the day - where do you expect people to go from here? Dr. Oscar warned Industry that they could no longer wash their hands of what they had made Goa into. Their reckless exploitation of land, their greedy manipulation of politicians and government were all coming home to roost. The anger is rising and the fact is that no one is stepping forward with either solutions or answers. The government which is meant to do both has reduced itself to a tool of industry. Bad governance, corruption, injustice on one hand. And growing anger among people who are slowly becoming more aware. Activism is poised at a critical juncture right now. If the government and industry do not step up to do what is the right thing- the situation could tip over into a nightmare. And the moderates will not be in charge. (ENDS) =========================================================================== The above article appeared in the March 31, 2009 edition of the Herald, Goa
