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Selma wrote:
"Have Goans lost all honour and decency that we must make spurious allegations
without any proof? Come on Soter, surely you are better than this."
Soter says:
Selma dear, before you shoot your mouth, or at least in this case your key
board, please take pains of doing some research. Your spurious conclusions
about me only further exposes your ignorance about affairs in Goa. Dr. Anil
Desai has given you a hint but has been kind enough to respect my desire for
maintaining restraint as he well knows that I do not believe in being part of
the social marketing, again a malady of western economy.
Selma further wrote:
"For someone who has been at the forefront of the panchayats in Goa, what
mechanism of accountability is there for these institutions? I have in the
course of my life, seen panchayats destroy villages. I have rarely seen them
build anything constructive. I'm sorry I have a very poor opinion of panchayats"
Soter asks:
What accountability is there in our State and Union Governments? If there does
exist anything, then the same applies to local self governments. I have seen
Panchayats work in some parts of India and so do I believe they can work in
Goa. I met Sarpanch Savitha Rathi from Rajasthan, personally visited Popatrao
Pawar's village of Hiware Bazar, Anna Hazare's Village of Ralegaon and
Rangasamy Elango's (a former scientist in ONGC) village called Kuttumbakam. I
had a glimpse in my childhood of how the communidade used to operate until the
Government of Goa disrupted its administration. Do you want to know even more
from where stems my conviction and belief in grass-root governance?
Selma even further wrote:
"The Mahatma to me is a living saint. India will not see another man like him
in my life time. But he lived 50 years ago. He operated in the framework, he
was familiar with."
Soter says:
Here again Selma dear, you are speaking out of ignorance. Please read 'Hind
Swaraj' written 100 years ago in 1908 and then only I would entertain a
discussion about Mahatma Gandhi's relevance today. If you are not satisfied
with this, I can prescribe you even more convincing literature of other
luminaries.
Selma writes:
"I despise ruining people's reputations over the internet. I despise them with
all my heart. That is what I am against. Nothing else. In the five years I have
been here, I too have been human and have inadvertently hurt people but the
mark of a human being is to know shame, introspect and take corrective action."
Soter says:
If this is so, what right do activists have to ruin the reputations of
politicians like Babush Monserate and others. Are the accusations made with any
proof? Are activists some holy cows? When it comes to certain affluent strata
we do not have the right to make accusations then what right have these very
people to accuse others of having saffron agendas, corruption and so on? This
is a type of typical elitist mindset which claims that India's problem is the
poor, and not the rich.
Dear lady, truth hurts and I think I have enough experience in my 35 years of
socio-political struggles, for your information, to understand the politics of
Goa's movements. If at all Selma has not yet got the proof of the fraud from my
postings since 2007, it is her problem not mine. Soter is not 'bekar' to be
wasting time on internet. Please do your homework lady. That is the problem
when Goan people are only busy marketing Goa's past history and reading present
day's 'Stray Thoughts' manufactured by a migrant.
-soter
