RAUL FERNANDES

Herald deeply mourns the death of the people in the Calvim tragedy, particularly the death of the six children whose lives were so cruelly snatched away before they could see the wonders of the world created for them. We also deeply commiserate with the family and friends of the deceased and know that no words or deeds can compensate for the loss they have suffered of their dear ones. And what makes this tragedy totally unacceptable is the fact that it could have been avoided. The tragedy occurred because of a criminally negligent driver and insensitivity on the part of the authorities and the elected representatives who failed to provide a simple bridge across the river there.
No matter how much our heart grieves for the lives lost and how much our hearts ache seeing the pain on the faces of their near and dear ones, we cannot help but condemn the manner in which Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and the administration has politicised this tragedy for their own vested interest. True, an entire village was plunged in grief with the death of six people from it, but did it justify being called a state tragedy? There have been accidents earlier where more lives have been lost like it happened at Jakniband in Salcete some years back and there was no state of mourning in the State. That is why the question that comes to mind is why did Digambar Kamat declare a state of mourning and cancelled Carnival celebrations in the State?
Was Chief Minister Digambar Kamat justified in cancelling the Carnival celebrations in the State? Life goes on, is a well accepted norm. Even recently when world renowned singer Whitney Houston died, the very show where she was to perform, went on because it was accepted that the “show must go on”. While reiterating that we mourn the death of Calvim tragedy victims and sympathise with their family members, shouldn’t the show have gone on in Goa, particularly given the fact that it is part of our tradition and culture?
Goa is a tourist destination and Carnival is one of the major festivals promoted to attract tourists even by the Tourism Department of the Government of Goa.

Thousands of visitors came to Goa not only from India but the world over to witness the Goan carnival. All of them were disappointed and went back with bad memories of Goa. Tourism is the bread and butter of many Goans and cancellation of the Carnival celebrations has deprived them of the opportunity to earn their livelihood. Will the government compensate them for their losses?
But more important is the amount of money and time invested by various Goans to prepare the floats. Many youngsters have been slogging for more than a month to prepare the floats and much money was invested in them. Who is going to compensate them their loss as by winning prizes at the float competition, they would have recovered some of the money invested. While the person who prepared the float for King Momo for the Tourism Department may be paid his amount by the government, what happens to the thousands of people who slogged to prepare the various floats in different parts of Goa? Digambar Kamat has to answer these questions!
We understand that the Carnival celebrations were cancelled not because the government felt sorry for the loss of the lives at Calvim, but because it wanted to save itself from more embarrassment. We understand that there were many floats depicting the various sins of commission and omission by the government like permitting illegal mining, corruption, selling of jobs to the highest bidder, money laundering, etc, etc. The Carnival celebrations were cancelled so that these floats could not come to the public glare and reinforce the bitterness people are harbouring against the government.

If Chief Minister Digambar Kamat really felt sorry for the tragedy then he should have owned moral responsibility and resigned as Chief Minister and local MLA Dayanand Narvekar should have resigned as an MLA, even though the elections are a fortnight away. That would have been a more acceptable and worthy reaction.
We understand the grief of the people from the area over this tremendous loss they have suffered. But we also wonder whether they have not got angry with the authorities for the manner in which they have been taken for granted for all these years. Aren’t the people asking why the bridge was not built all these years? Aren’t the people asking whether they should vote for the very people who have been making empty promises all these years?

Neither the bus driver who it appears, left the bus in the hands of the conductor or the transport authorities whose monitoring mechanisms have failed should be spared. The bus driver should be made to pay for what is nothing short of murder.

We are sure that the villagers are just as troubled as we are with these questions and we are also confident that they will give their answer on March 3.