CONTROVERSY: Rajan Narayan in Goan Observer (Stray Thoughts)
VICIOUS CAMPAIGN
AND a few stray observations on the spill over of the vicious
campaign being carried out by the BJP and Manohar Parrikar
stooge, Rajan Parrikar, to the print media.
For quite some time now, Rajan Parrikar and Soter
D'Souza have been carrying on a vicious campaign
against Dr Oscar Rebello, the former convenor of
the Goa Bachao Abhiyan.
They have been accusing Dr Oscar Rebello of having all along
been an agent of Digambar Kamat. Which is ridiculous because
all the decisions taken by the GBA were by consensus. The
decision to join the Task Force set up by Digambar Kamat to
draw up the new Regional Plan was agreed to by all the
members of the core committee of the Abhiyan, including Soter.
The co-convenor Sabina Martins, who now acts as the convenor,
had acknowledged that she had written the letter to the
chairman of the Task Force, withdrawing the representative of
the GBA from the Task Force, under pressure from the saffron
brigade. It may be recalled that the decision was taken
without the consent or even informing the convenor Dr Oscar
Rebello, who was out of town.
Whenever attempts were made to subvert the formulation of the
Regional Plan 2021, Dr Oscar Rebello has strongly protested.
As for instance when the Digambar Kamat government sought to
exclude the government and public sector organisations from
the purview of the Regional Plan, Dr Oscar Rebello was among
the first to protest.
Similarly, Dr Oscar Rebello also objected to the notification
of the Building Regulation Rules, which were contradictory to
the letter and spirit of the land use patterns recommended by
the Task Force. Dr Oscar Rebello needs to be commended on his
guts in acknowledging and admitting that Digambar Kamat has
failed to keep his promises to the GBA.
If Dr Oscar Rebello is supposed to be guilty of
sabotaging the new Regional Plan, then every member
of the GBA, including Soter and the saffron
brigade, are equally responsible of colluding with
the Digambar Kamat government. Dr Oscar may be
accused of being naive, but to accuse him of being
a Judas is blasphemy. It is unfortunate that other
members of the GBA have not come out to denounce
the vicious campaign being carried out on the Net
against Oscar Rebello, which has now spilled over
into the print media.
SATURDAY CLUB
AND talking about Dr Oscar Rebello, I must clarify that when
he referred to the Saturday Club in our last issue as among
the most influential groups in the state who have been
consistently defending secularism, he was referring to the
informal group of citizens who have been at the forefront of
several causes.
The Saturday Club meets on Saturday evenings, or rather,
Saturday nights, which is why unwittingly the Saturday Club
was referred to as the Saturday Night Club. The Saturday Club
is very far from being a night club as commonly understood.
There is no techno music at the Saturday Night Club, which
should have been referred to as a Saturday Club. There is no
dancing or merry making.
The Saturday Club is a group of staunchly secular concerned
Goans, mostly from South Goa, cutting across religious or
caste barriers, who meet every Saturday to seriously discuss
issues of concern to every Goan.
They do not only debate issues, but many protests
against immoral and illegal acts by the government
and communal groups have emerged from the
discussions and debates of the Saturday Club.
I can vouch for this as I have had the privilege of attending
a few meetings of the Saturday Club. I hope this dispels any
notions that the Saturday Club is a nightclub like the
notorious nightclub Paradiso or any of the other nightclubs
which have now started calling themselves lounges, which
assault your eardrums and tolerate -- if not encourage -- the
consumption, if not peddling, of narcotic substances...
[Excerpt from Goan Observer, January 9-15, 2010.]
