Village Panchayat Republics
Swaraj is still the birthright that is colonized!
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was not called Lokmanya Tilak for nothing. We continue
to celebrate Sarvajanik Ganesh festivals, and even add the flavour of the
Goan spirit to the visarjan by the many rivers in Goa, but we have well and
truly forgotten that all this was started to promote the concept of community
living and self-rule, not gated colonies. Swaraj is my birthright and I
shall have it. Do those words sound the bell? If yes, do we know for whom the
bells toll this Sunday as many of Goas 186 Panchayats plunge in to the
garma-garam Gram Sabha meetings?
At the valedictory function of the TSKK Silver jubilee celebrations, KBMs
President Purnanand Chari said, Sanz zalea. Igorjent ghantt vazta, kopelani
ghantt vazta, divlant ghantt vazta. Vingodd, vingodd ghantti, punn tancho sur
ek! [meaning It is evening. The bells ring in the church, chapels and
temples. Different bells: one sound.]. So it will be in the Gram Sabha
meetings across Goa this Sunday: different people, but speaking in one voice!
Vox populi, vox Dei. The voice of the people is the voice of God himself. He
has always spoken through his people and his prophets of good news to all who
repent and mend their ways. Whether we recall Gideon and his few men or Krishna
and the Pandava brothers against a multitude, we know who won the battle of the
Crookshetra. Incidentally, KBM has also scheduled its elections for 27 April.
My friend, Cecil Pinto, has a wonderful take on the situation in Aldona in
his contemporary Goan fairy tale of Three little pigs [GT 17 April, 2008]. Do
not mistake his Barranv [the new Romi lipi spelling of the Portuguese word
barrao used in Konkani for a boar] with what another columnist wrote about.
There is a specific difference between a Barao and a barrao, though both could
be equally pig-headed and bores.
As in the case of Aesops fables, there is a lot to be learnt from a second
reading of Cecils fibs and reviews of imaginary books. A lot of research goes
in to Cecils writings and it is not uncommon to hear that he had confirmed
some details from knowledgeable persons before he filed his story. What was
that saying again? Mighty oaks grow from tiny acorns is it? There was one
acorn being planted on the hillside by some Pedru [the Konkani form of Pedro,
meaning rock], who seemed to be making the Biblical verse stand on its head
by trying to cut the rock to build on, till someone rocked his boat with
Section 17A of the TCP Act, 1974.
A parallel debate is raging on who is We when one talks about swaraj or
self-rule by we, the people in the context of Goa. I intentionally not used
the term Goan because it still defies a commonly acceptable definition. We
know who is an ante-Liberation Goan and we have a doctors prescription for an
anti-Goan that is available in audio-video format on a popular TV news
channel for those who have learning or reading disabilities as well as for
those who are challenged visually. I would settle for the well-reasoned
descriptions used by a seasoned doctor from Margao and fellow GT columnist, Dr.
Francisco Colaco, save the addition that I am willing to call a Marathi
Manoos as a Maharashtrian, if that is what he is proud to be. Large
investments in iron ore mines do not compel one to call the Aggarwals as
Goan. Why should it be different for a Chaugule or Joshi, even if sugar
coated by a mound of sugarcane jaggery?
So, while this debate of Go-on and non go-on, pro-Goan non-Goans and
anti-Goan Goans, non-resident Goans [frittered eNRGs] and resident Non-Goans,
expatriates and repatriates, ante-Goans, antique Goans and neo-Goans goes on,
so does the construction at the pseudo Aldeia de Goa, the mining in the real
aldeia de Goa [or the Goan countryside] and industrial development of all the
semi-rural, suburban Goa from Asolna to Zarme. It is not only Aldona, Bicholim,
Carmona, Colomb, Cuncolim, Dabal, Morpirla, Nuem, Santo Jose de Areal, Mormugao
and Siridao that are waking up to the harsh realities of life in the third
millennium. The people of the villages and towns in Goa are as confused about
what is happening as the students of English were with the alliteration Borne
by butchers but by bakers bred.
In the quiet village of Colomb, near Fatorpa, the heavy mining equipment has
been silenced by the exemplary courage of the village women. That no one will
recommend Dumen DSouza or Parvati Gaokar for an Ashoka Chakra is another
matter. Their courage is palpable, not pulpable. At Cuncolim, the CCCF is
living up to the name of its parent organization: GOA CAN! Roland Martins and
Lorna Fernandes are not Goan anti-Goans. If the LPG gas is delivered free to
your doorstep, it was not without the mobilization of the people and the
authorities by GOACAN. If the helmet you wear is authentic ISI certified or the
milk packet contains 500ml of milk, it was not without the intervention of this
band of Roland and his merry men and women.
What Wendell Rodricks had left unsaid about Goa today, fellow columnist Jason
Keith Fernandes has written [GT 23 April, 2008]. Being an alumnus of a National
Law School, he has avoided being in contempt, while expressing it just the
same. It is we, the people, who have to move beyond words and act according to
our conscience to stop the rape of our motherland. The rape does not vanish
because there is a lack of admissible evidence.
If in doubt, ask Fiona Mackeowne. Her daughter was found dead on Anjuna
beach, mysteriously. The truth will never be known. For my two paisas worth,
the Police Sub-Inspector will be re-instated in service and promoted shortly
thereafter. There is a pattern in this madness. It has happened to officers
accused of worse actions and inactions, because the accusations have not been
proven for various reasons.
Miguel Braganza.
This article has appeared on page A8 of GT dated 25 April, 2008
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