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GULF-GOANS e-NEWSLETTER (since 1994)
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans/
http://www.goa-world.com
Special Status for Goa
More in:
Panorama
By Mário Cabral e Sá
The Goa Rajya Sabha MP, Mr Shantaram Naik has an undeniable virture: loyalty
to the Congress whatever its fortunes or misfortunes, a rare virtue in this
era of chameleon politicians, who survive on their mimetism. Tell me how
many politicians are in power and I will tell you that Mr Shantaram Naik is
the only one who has never switched his political loyalties.
Mr Pratapsing Rane is a close second. He was handpicked by Dayanand
Bandodkar in one of his many intuitive streaks, so that his MGP would have
well educated MLAs to continue the good work he had done for Goa. His
daughter Sashikala, his heir apparent, was very intelligent. She has a
string of degrees tailing her name, which ends with Kakodkar, the surname of
her former husband - Gurudatt - who she divorced, forfeiting according to
recent SC judgement the right to wear it. She or so D B thought would have
by her side the young MBA Pratapsing Rane on whom she could lean in times of
stress. Besides, there would be a whole line up of young second generation
Bahujan Samajists. Dayanand Narvekar, a promising law graduate doing his
apprenticeship with one of the leading lawyers of Mumbai; Dilkush Desai, a
law graduate too, though not of the same level of finesse as Narvekar;
Shankar Laad, a lawyer who had already made his mark in the Goan courts
where
he was practising; Ramakant Khalap, a lawyer practicing in Mapusa and an
extremely articulate debater; Narain Fugro, strictly speaking a Brahmin and
therefore not really a Bahujan Samaj member.
If so far DB's instincts had never failed him, the worms started to crawl
out of the woodwork the moment he was felled by a massive heart attack.
Pratapsing Rane realised that he was not cut out to be the second string to
Sashikala's bow. And so he left the MGP as decently as he could: he resigned
from Sashikala's cabinet and then from his MLAship. Others followed with
various levels of decency. Only Ramakant Khalap and Babuso Gaonkar finally
remained loyal to their mother party - at least for a while. A stage came
when MGP was reduced to 2 MLAs in a house of 30. Even Sashikala deserted the
sinking ship.
That much said kudos to Shantaram Naik for one, remaining scrupulously loyal
to the Congress and, two, to the Puruxotoma Cacodcar group, which was for a
separate state and Konkani.
Writing long pieces for the press was his passion. Like all aspiring prosers
he began with letters to the editor on all imaginable political topics.
Last Panorama, the Sunday magazine of this paper, carried a full page cover
story arguing - actually it is this memorandum to the Prime Minister, Dr
Manmohan Singh - fairly ably we thought for a special status for Goa along
with the other eleven small states that already enjoy the privilege.
The memorandum (cover story) ends on a rather weak note. "Special Category
status needs to be examined on case to case basis and the State of Goa
should be seriously considered for the inclusion in the category "from that
angle" to enable it "to get appropriate Central grants for keeping its
development on an even keel."
As the late and brilliant bureaucrat and planner Alban Couto often told me,
a point on which I cent percent agreed with him, is that the special status
was Goa's by right. It is Goans who threw the baby out of the tub along
with the bath water.
I had my reasons, Alban had his. Alban thought that soon after liberation
Goan politicians squabbled over its merger - in Maharashtra? In Karnataka?
That, indeed, is a fact, except that a 1966, 5-judge full constitutional
bench of the Supreme Court decided that Goa had been "acquired, use of
force", "an act of war", and not liberated. My point is that a conqueror
has to be magnanimous in victory, even more so because it was a war never
fought, not by Goans in any case. And, therefore, it would be unfair for
the conqueror to punish Goans for a conquest they were never a party to.
Now that Shantaram Naik is an MP, albeit of the Rajya Sabha, of the ruling
party, a man as brilliant as Dr Manmohan Singh would have conceded, fairly
and squarely, that Goa should be granted the separate status, not merely
for the fiscal benefits it will be entitled to, but above all because
having suffered the tyranny of a conqueror (the Portuguese), it would be
doubly unfair to impose on the victims of that tyrant who subjugated them
for 451 years to pay for the sins of the tyrants. They would be heartless,
to say the least.
The PM would certainly concede that to inflict a "war" on Goans was ab
initio unfair. They could not lose a war they never taught. To rub salt on
old wounds would be inequitable and grossly unfair.
If I were Shantaram Naik, I would argue that Goans never really had the
chance to decide on their present, leave alone the future status. If it
wasn't for Krishna Menon's obduracy and the invented reason that the
Portugal would be backed in its war against India by NATO powers - a point
made explicitly clear in NATO papers released after Goa was acquired, Nehru,
the liberal ideologue would have certainly conceded to Goans the right to
decide their future by a plebiscite. He had made it clear in his speeches
before October 1961, when he suddenly hardened up his attitude, to please
Krishna Menon and limited the Goans choice to just one option: to return to
the "embrace of the Mother India."
The Navhind Times.
COMMENTS:
We hail this author [Mario Cabral e Sa] for this very pertinent write-up on
Special Status for Goa.
Goa, we must know, does not need Fiscal Special Status. Goa has never been
a beggar. It is full of resources, human as well as natural. All it needs is
effective legislation to preserve these. Yes. It is rightly said that Goa
and Goans should not have been punished for the acts of occupation by the
Portuguese. But India of Nehru has done just that in order to buoy the
prospects of one man in his elections. Shri. Krishna Menon.
Goa will fight (starting from now, culminating in the 2012 elections) for
this unique Special Status on the lines of Special Status Nagaland enjoys.
Goa needs separate set of laws. Goa needs to ratify in its Legislative
Assembly which of the Indian Laws should be applicable to Goa. Goa needs to
preserve it's land resources as well as it's natural ones like mineral
wealth etc. Goa's major resource is it's beauty, it's golden beaches (which
are being destroyed) , it's clean environmental bliss and more importantly
it's hospitable population. All these are under severe attack and this must
stop.
Thank you Senhor Cabral. We found you in the google's archives and just as
well.
Cheers
floriano
goasuraj
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