[Goanet-News] As Protests Escalate, Ownership of Controversial Bungalow in Old Goa Quietly Changes Hands (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)
Devika Sequeira devikaseque...@gmail.com - DO CHECK THE PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE http://t.ly/XJNK PHOTO The controversial Old Goa bungalow facing the river with the century St Cajetan's Chapel in the background. Photo: Devika Sequeira Citizens, politicians and even the Archbishop raised their voices against the bungalow. With elections due soon, the government had to act. Faced with legal challenges and mounting public hostility, BJP spokesperson Shaina N.C.'s husband Manish Navratn Munot, co-owner of a huge bungalow that has come up within the protected area (under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958) at Old Goa, has quietly pulled out of the project, selling the property to a Mumbai-based limited liability partnership (LLP). Though there were protests even earlier, the construction of the swanky 700 square metre riverside bungalow built on an 11,900 square metre property that fronts the 17th century St Cajetan’s Chapel continued apace. Speaking from abroad where he is on a business trip, Suraj Lotlikar, the former Goa Forward Party (GFP) treasurer, told The Wire he has sold his share in the project to M/s Corvus Urban Infrastructure LLP. Mumbai builder Munot, who was the co-owner of the property along with Lotlikar's wife Suvarna Suraj Lotlikar, confirmed he too sold his share to the infrastructure LLP "long back". Government documents show both Lotlikar and Munot applied to register the re-sale on August 24 of this year. The construction of the bungalow within the no-go heritage zone was challenged legally on two occasions, and the case is now before the Supreme Court. "When the matter went to court a second time, I got fed up and decided to sell my share," said Lotlikar, who sees himself as "only a small man caught up in an intense media trial" for his involvement in the project with Munot. The latter had previously suggested that the project was receiving undue attention because of his wife's high-profile designation as a [national] spokesperson for the BJP. On December 3, Goa's town and country planning (TCP) minister Chandrakant Kavlekar asked the Old Goa panchayat to take legal action and move to demolish the "illegal structure" in the protected area. In its order, the TCP said technical clearances to the construction were being revoked on grounds that permissions had been "obtained fraudulently and by misrepresentation of fact(s)". The final trigger for the government action was the huge public rally in Old Goa on November 21 that saw politicians from across party affiliations line up to pledge support to the Save Old Goa Action Committee, given that state elections are just two months away. Protesters at the public meet on November 21. Photo: Devika Sequeira "This is nothing but pure politics," the former state advocate general Carlos Alvares Ferreira said of the government's knee-jerk reaction, pointing out that a unilateral termination would not stand the scrutiny of law. "Even assuming that the construction is at an advanced stage, if discovered that permissions were obtained through fraud, they can be revoked, the consequence of which could result in demolition." But the government needs to tread with caution and follow proper procedures, he warned. Another lawyer who did not wish to be named said he foresaw a long-drawn legal battle. "There will now be an appeal against all the orders." Coming out publicly for the first time, Goa's Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao also weighed in on the case, telling the government it needed to act against the "obnoxious activities" within the Old Goa heritage zone. The protected area "is not only holy, but a world-renowned heritage", recognised as such by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and also UNESCO. "Any undue, offensive interventions even by legitimate stakeholders in and around the monuments could attract derecognition of this world heritage status which would be a severe loss to Goa," he said. A cluster of seven churches in Old Goa figure in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. "These seven monuments exerted great influence in the 16th to 18th centuries on the development of architecture, sculpture, and painting by spreading forms of Manueline, Mannerist, and Baroque art and architecture throughout the countries of Asia where Catholic missions were established," the UN site says. Munot and Lotlikar acquired the controversial 11,900 sq metre property in May 2015, with Munot buying 9,500 sq metres and Lotlikar's wife 2,400 sq metres. But the bungalow straddles an area owned by both, according to Lotlikar.
[Goanet-News] 15. Goa Evades A Solution (Valmiki Faleiro)
By Valmiki Faleiro
valmi...@gmail.com
Western countries tried and failed to move an intransigent
Portugal. But they kept pressurising India not to resort to
force in Goa. Nehru himself was opposed to war and hoped for
a peaceful solution. None was emerging. Disquiet continued
in various forms in Goa.
On 17 February 1957, militant freedom fighters Camilo Pereira
of Bandora-Ponda and Suresh Kerkar of Keri-Ponda were shot
dead by police at Curti-Ponda when proceeding to blow up a
pipeline supplying water to the Portuguese garrison at Ponda.
In New Delhi in June 1957, Nehru for the first time
met 11 Goan leaders from a crosssection of the Goa
freedom movement. They were (alphabetically):
Prof. Armando Menezes, Evagrio George, Adv.
Gerald Pereira, JN Heredia, Luis Gracias, Nicolau
Menezes, Peter Alvares, Dr. Pundalik Gaitonde,
Purushottam Kakodkar, Dr. Rama Hegde and
Vishwanath Lawande. At the time, 360 Goans
languished in Portuguese jails -- 350 in Goa, 8 in
Portuguese Africa and 2 in Lisbon. Nehru expressed
'full sympathy' with the plight of Goan prisoners
(Bombay: Free Goa, 10 June 1957, Volume 4, No.15, Page 7).
Nehru told the Rajya Sabha in September 1957, "Portugal and
her NATO allies should no longer be in any doubt about
India's firm policy towards Goa. India has tried all
possible means, short of war, to settle the problem of Goa.
But Portugal seems determined to perpetuate colonialism...".
Wrote Air Vice Marshal Arjun Subramaniam in his tome India's
Wars: A Military History 1947-1971, "The procrastination of
the Government of India after such aggressive pronouncements
by its PM reveals Nehru's reluctance to use force, even if it
was against the last vestiges of colonialism in India"
(Subramaniam, 2016, Footnote 1 to Chapter 13, Page 490).
By the November 1957 general elections, Portugal's
national opposition -- comprising, broadly, of two
streams of republicans (led by Vasco da Gama
Fernandes and António Sérgio), monarchists (Vieira
de Almeida), Catholics (Francisco Lino Neto) and a
mix of democrats, liberals, socialists and
communists (Abranches Ferrão, Cal Brandão, Mário
Soares, Arlindo Vicente, Cruz Ferreira and Cunha
Leal) -- more or less crystallised its position on
Goa on the basis of a writing by António Sérgio:
1. Illegitimate and forced that it was, the Salazar regime
was not competent to deal with the Goa Question on behalf of
the Portuguese people;
2. The regime's imposition of the Colonial Act and racial
discrimination is what started the disquiet in Goa; and,
3. The best solution would be an UN-supervised plebiscite
with the UN enforcing its result (Sousa Lopes, 2017, Page
263).
(While some freedom for propaganda existed in
Portugal during the pre-poll period, there was no
such window in Goa, where, bereft of opposition
candidates, both the 'official' candidates -- Msgr.
Castilho Serpa do Rosário Noronha and Purushottam
Ramnath Keni -- were elected by 3.3% of the
population entitled to vote in the 3 November 1957
elections.)
By April 1958, the pioneer Goa National Congress formed in
1928 by Tristão de Bragança Cunha, Father of Goan
Nationalism, ended its active role, urging the Government of
India to seek a peaceful solution, and faded into oblivion.
(TB Cunha passed away 26 September 1958. Loknayak Jaiprakash
Narayan was a pallbearer. Government of India issued a
postage stamp and later unveiled his portrait in the Central
Hall of Parliament. The World Peace Council at Stockholm
decorated him with a gold medal posthumously in 1959.)
India did three things in 1960. First, it took the 'Case of
Goa' to the UN and like in 1956 argued that Goa was a colony.
Portugal maintained that this was its internal matter and
nobody had the right to raise it at the world body.
On 15 December 1960, the UN General Assembly by 68 votes to 6
adopted Resolution No. 1542 (XV) declaring Goa and other
Portuguese possessions in Asia and Africa to be
"non-self-governing territories" (meaning, colonies)
rejecting Portugal's contention that they were "overseas
provinces" of Portugal.
The six that voted against the resolution were Portugal,
South Africa, Belgium, Brazil, France and Spain. There were
17 abstentions including by US and UK. The UN mandated
Portugal to file information on the colonies with the UN
Secretary General. It also directed Portugal to allow the
people of the colonies to exercise the right of
self-determination.
Two, India deputed an Administrator to Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
And three, it appointed Gopal ("Gopi") Krishna
Handoo, IPS (Indian Police Service), an Inspector
General of Police from Jammu and Kashmir, to head
the organisation of
[Goanet-News] Angela Barreto Xavier among the winners of the Infosys Prize
The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced and felicitated the laureates of the Infosys Prize 2021 on December 02, 2021. A distinguished international jury, composed of leaders in each of these fields, evaluates the work and achievements of the nominees against stringent standards of international research, placing the winners on par with the finest researchers in the world. https://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/ Video of the virtual award ceremony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp8XJsdfDzU Ângela Barreto Xavier is a Researcher with the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL). She holds a PhD in History & Civilisation from the European University Institute a Master in Political and Cultural History from the New University of Lisbon and a History and Art History Degree from the New University of Lisbon. She has taught at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, and she has been Maître de Conférences Invitée na École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), Visiting Scholar at the History Department of Harvard University, having collaborated with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is now an Invited Professor of the Cunha Rivara Chair at the University of Goa. She has published many books and articles, in Portuguese, English and other languages. Main books: Monarquias Ibéricas em Perspectiva Comparada (secs. XVI-XVIII) Dinâmicas Imperiais e Circulação de Modelos Administrativos (org. c/ Federico Palomo e Roberta Stumpf, Lisboa, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2018); O Governo dos Outros. Poder e Diferença no Império Português (org. c/ Cristina Nogueira da Silva, Lisboa, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2016); Catholic Orientalism. Portuguese Empire, Indian Knowledge, 16th-18th centuries (c/ Ines G. Zupanov, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2015); A Invenção de Goa. Poder Imperial e Conversões Culturais nos séculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2008); Cultura Intelectual das Elites Coloniais (org. c/ Catarina Madeira Santos, número especial da revista Cultura – História e Teoria das Ideias 2ª série, vol. XXV, 2007); Afonso VI (c/ Pedro Cardim, Lisboa, Círculos de Leitores, 2006); El Rey aonde póde e não aonde quer. Razões da política no Portugal seiscentista (Lisboa, Colibri, 1998). Her research interests include the history of political ideas (El-rei aonde pòde e não onde quer, 1998), and the cultural history of early-modern empires, namely the problems related to religion, science, power and the cultural geopolitics. https://www.ics.ulisboa.pt/pessoa/angela-barreto-xavier ᐧ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
