I feel JoeGoa has jumped to assumptions which need not necessarily be true
about people's concern for issues about Goa.
Why should people of Goa only be expected to attend a GBA rally and not
other rallies? Who decides what is political, secular, ..........in Goa's
interest?
Information gathered shows that people had mostly come to Panjim at their
own cost on 18 Dec. 2006. Who claimed 20000 for bus transport?
How much support did GBA ensure when similar public meetings were
organised by the Ganv Ghor Rakhonn Manch and other groups against mega
projects in villages?
What has been the stance of GBA from June 2007 in ensuring that a new
participatory planning process is in place for Goa? It is cheering the
RP2021 which is prepared under a body and law that does not recognise Gram
Sabhas. You declare the RP first or change the laws first, which is
logical? What do mere press notes and words like 'participatory' or
'73rd/74th Amendment' mean after looking at the overall stance of GBA
which appears to be dictated by real estate interests?
Who drew the crowds in 2007 and thereafter who claimed the credit and was
promoted as the hero by vested political interests? Who termed uprisings
in Gram Sabhas as anarchism? Who supported real estate development as a
need for Goa? Who christened non-goans as goans?
What has GBA done to take views of people from across the board,
irrespective if they are members or not, to chart out a participatory
course of action and philosophy on planning processes? Should people of
Goa follow like goats what is dictated by a bunch of controversial
architects, engineers environmentalists, and political agents?
December18, 2007 was a participatory effort of several goans, many of whom
worked behind the curtains without recognition, but were systematically
shunned thereafter because of their hard stand against the TCP Act and the
present process of planning. Inflated egos from the success of the rallies
in 2006-07 bit the very hands that fed them and played God and match maker
for Digu. The masses are not asses as some elitist luminaries think.
-Soter
