Science and Technology Minister Alina Saldanha is perhaps the only minister in the Laxmikant Parsekar government to take up the cudgels for Special Status for Goa. Even after the Chief Minister has said that Special Status is but a mirage and giving up getting Special Status for the State, Saldanha on Monday said that the fight for Special Status is not over and will continue until it is voted against in Parliament. Brave words from the only lady minister in the cabinet and the only BJP politician who has had the guts to align with those demanding Special Status. One wonders whether her words will be heard by those who matter or will just blow in the wind only to be reported by the media. When a government has shrugged off the demand, even a question by its own minister seeking an answer as to why the demand cannot be taken up may not elicit a response.
Special Status draws an emotional chord in Goa, but the response from the general population has somehow not echoed throughout the land. There have, no doubt, been constant demands from certain groups for Special Status but they haven’t been picked up across the State. This is surprising, as Special Status in Goa, is after all linked to preserving Goan identity and has nothing to do with financial packages for the State, as are the demands from some other States. To the credit of these groups, despite the limited support and the government sometimes giving them a deaf ear, they have persisted in their resolve not to rest until they get what they seek.
Goa’s demand for Special Status is not new and is not something that the BJP has not spoken about in the past or attempted to get for the State. Parsekar’s predecessor, Manohar Parrikar, had even led a team of politicians to New Delhi to meet with the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the demand for Special Status. The government had even written to the Centre specifically bringing to its notice the threat to Goan identity and quoting the census data to prove that what they were stating was rooted in data. It had said that as per the 2001 census, the Konkani speakers in Goa formed about 51 percent of the total population and that the Konkani and Marathi speakers put together form two-thirds of the population, which by a broad consensus would mean that one-third of the population is made up of immigrants.
The letter was not the only manner by which this government had made efforts to get Special Status for Goa, but the MLAs, in April 2013, had also passed a unanimous resolution in the Assembly seeking the status for the State. This was not the first such resolution, there had been an earlier one in August 2008 on the same issue.
There had now been a lull in the demand, but Saldanha has brought the issued back to the surface. But, will this statement by Saldanha be merely an act playing to the galleries or is she going to follow up on this in some manner that will force the government to act? She being a minister has the privilege and the right to speak about this at cabinet meetings. Will she do it there and get a response from the chief minister?
Legal and constitutional experts have consistently said that Special Status is a big ask, and that the government should consider other means of safeguarding Goa’s limited land resources. But that is not being done either. Just when the government has been speaking on non-availability of land for industrial purposes, it allots a large chunk of this limited resource to the Defence ministry for their DefExpo, drawing opposition from the people of the area. It is obvious that the government of which Saldanha is a member, does not believe in Special Status or in preserving the land. Can she force the government to think and act otherwise?
