Legacies, dynasties, and opportunism rather than commitment to ideals is the new motivating force behind Goan politics
DR JOE D’SOUZA
As we look at the politics of Goa, there is hardly any reference being made to the many issues adversely affecting Goa and the Goans whether at public rallies or private door -to-door campaigns.
From issue-based politics and to politics of ideology, Goa has slowly weaned away to the new politics of legacies and dynasties with ideology, loyalties and dependability taking a firm beating and the “cancer of opportunism” being considered as a prime factor and reason for securing the party nomination and ticket. No doubt opportunism and not commitment to ideals is the motivating and driving force to secure success in politics.
Except for Girish Chodankar and Elvis Gomes who are both new and true enough to warrant consideration from the voters, the others in the fray are either worn down war horses; individuals known for the gene of party hopping or individuals trying to encash upon the legacy of their family.
For Goa, issues are drowned, with individuals scoring over party manifestos and pledges.
In Goa, our University has dropped from the Rank 16th down to 100, its research in chaos and in shambles. The quality of higher education has deteriorated considerably and Goa related research is totally absent. No doubt, out of 8000 applicants for a job in the Accounts department in the Goa government, no one passes and thus no appointments were made.
Look at the issue of tackling garbage in Goa - our government seems to be clueless to all the directions, warnings and orders given by the National Green Tribunal with garbage woes, growing casino pollution, destruction of our coastal ecosystem.
Goa’s attractiveness as a tourist destination has taken a beating. Interestingly, tourists visit Goa in search of jobs. About 850 migrants from the North East, who are working in Panjim on board the casinos were disclosed as registered voters in Goa. How many thousands more have already registered and gone unnoticed? Niz Goenkars have today become strangers in our own land.
Let us look dispassionately at what we have done to help improve the quality of life and sustainable development of our ecosystem and environment. Goans do not seriously drum up issues as a “society at large”. Destruction of our aquifers and depletion of our water bodies, the need to save Mhadei water basin, the destruction of Mormugao by coal pollution, the garbage imbroglio at Sada, Sonsoddo and Saligao is contaminating the underground waters and springs.
As I write this column, there is wanton destruction being carried out by Captain of Ports, GSIDC and Kargwal Construction Company Ltd., Mumbai. In the heart of Panjim, right in the waters of River Mandovi and across the iconic Panjim jetty, there is an illegal workshop set up, with gas cutters, oxygen and acetylene cylinders, piling and drilling machines.
Neither vigilance, nor the police and even the judiciary is bothered about the pollution caused by chemicals used in the drilling process; fishes are dying and birds adversely affected due to morbidity.
It is a month, since the work was mobilized to build the CoP terminal building in the biodiversity rich and the genetic hotspot. As to why the Goa State Biodiversity Board as well as the Wildlife Board are not stopping the said destruction is what Goans need to ask. Are we to leave everything to Courts alone? Can’t we unitedly act as “people”?
If the CRZ authorities permitted the project under stringent conditions, must be evaluated and the guilty punished immediately for destroying the national as well as the regional heritage. Strangely, no Goan has bothered to ascertain as to why mandatory permissions required for the project are not displayed.
Will the government wake up only when tourists on the cruise boats meet with an accident? The police departments in Goa, who are duty bound by the Supreme Court not to allow activities at night, have told me that working at night from 10 pm to 8 am the next morning has been ordered by engineer Deepak Joshi of GSIDC and James Braganza of CoP.
The 40 migrants working here 24x7 for the last one month also informed that they have been hired to specifically work at night and brushed me aside when I approached the jetty at 2 am as the noise was disturbing residents and the work polluting River Mandovi.
The law is straight and clear, as laid down by the Supreme Court. CoP has totally violated and vitiated all the legal provisions of law. Yet the issue will not lead to his punishment because the casino lobby will do everything under the sun to see that the work goes on unhindered. Ninety-five percent of Goans are talkers, and there is just a handfull of doers in Goan society, and that is the reason why rampant destruction in the heart of the city has gone unnoticed and untackled and hardly an issue in the ongoing season of Parliamentary Elections, with just a few days to go in Goa.
From Goa’s rivers, its soil, forests, rich aquifers, and pristine coast line to its springs, ground waters and gene biodiversity, we have allowed pollution to grow unabated and invited upon ourselves the sources of cancers, enteric diseases and respiratory ailments.
