To Goanet - I have been wandering through online Goan forums on Facebook and elsewhere and am bemused by the tosh that is being written. The exultations have the "Goa has won" chant as a common refrain. We saw a similar thing after the Dec 18, 2006 Azad Maidan rally held by the GBA. Everyone pronounced "RP 2011 dead, Goa saved!" and went back to bangdo & beer. We know where that got us.
This is a very Indian thing. Indians seem to lack the "lessons learned" gene in their cultural DNA. Take the thrashing the cricket team routinely receives when it steps out on foreign soil. Then they come home, play Bangladesh B team on dead pitches, rack up a million runs. All is forgiven and forgotten. I can understand some cause for optimism. Many of the biggest monsters to walk on Goan soil have been vanquished (and may they remain buried deep never to see sunlight again). But Goa cannot afford a memory blackout again. Manohar Parrikar has a very steep mountain to climb and his margin for error this time is very, very slim. You would understand this if you knew the extent of the destruction of Goan landscape firsthand like I do, and the scale of corruption and criminal conduct that went with it. Goa was in virtual free fall the past 5 years. So dance a jig for a day if you must, but come back to reality after tonight. I am not going to get into any statistical analysis of the vote (that I leave to someone like Dr. Anand Virgincar). Critical policy decisions that confront the new incoming administration are what interest me. The entire house along with its foundations is in ruins. Manohar will have to establish priorities. There is no quick road to recovery. To my mind the following imperatives need to be taken up first on a war footing, and in my book they are NON-NEGOTIABLE. I list them in no particular order. 1) Put an immediate stop to all land conversion. Scrutinize all conversions done in the past 5 years, and reverse them where possible. 2) Issue an immediate "Stop Work" order to all large construction projects, those underway and well as those in the offing. 3) Stop all "illegal" mining at once. I put illegal in quotes because this is India, where legal and illegal are interchangeable quantities. The mining issue has to be approached head on, no room here for word-smithing or games. 4) Immediately address Goa's migrant problem. We cannot have ghatis and the Ahuja-Bansals from Delhi or elsewhere come to Goa and stay on (if you want to come, stay in a hotel for 4 days and then go back, thank you). Enough is enough. Goa is not to be turned into another squalid, crowded Indian toilet. Not a single square inch of Goan land to be ceded to slums from now on (or to the Navy, Army, Indian anything). There are many other pressing problems - casinos, Panjim, drugs, Russians, economic policy, education policy and on and on. But without redressal of the four items listed above, you can kiss Goa goodbye. Finally - Manohar should begin his tenure with a gesture to the Catholic community. It must be something meaningful, and not perceived as a political gimmick. Some believed that his apology before the election was insincere and calculated only for electoral advantage. Well, he has a chance now to prove them wrong. There is a large number of Catholics who are skeptical about him but have decided to give him another chance, as the verdict suggests. It is these people that he needs to address (there will always be a small number who will hate him no matter what - these he can, and should, ignore). As we wait for Manohar to assume office, I am reminded of my favorite epigram, an old Buddhist piece of insight: "To every man are given the keys to the gates of heaven. The same keys open the gates to hell." Regards, r --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------