In Salcete’s coastal tourist hub — spanning from Cavelossim-Mobor to Majorda — one will not find any mortal rooting for the proposed airport at Mopa. And, there will be no takers for Mopa either in Velim, Navelim and Nuvem – the homeland of the dominant seafarers’ community. MLAs of these constituencies leave no opportunity to swear by Dabolim, but they are also supporting the very government that has vowed to build Mopa come what may.
Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado or , GVP ‘supremo’ Mickky Pacheco and his colleague Caitu Silva , and Velim’s “Banjo” or Benjamin D’Silva indeed have a risky tight rope walk awaiting them with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s global tender for Request for Qualification (RFQ) and his outbursts directed at the anti-Mopa movement triggering strong anti-Mopa sentiments across Salcete’s countryside.
Analysts say that Parrikar’s pro-Mopa stand may help the ruling party consolidate on the electoral gains in the North and the State’s hinterland. But, his four supporting MLAs from Salcete — who rode to power on a strong anti-Congress wave just two-years-and-half ago, have to make that choice – between people and Parrikar, because clearly both are not on the same side on the Mopa airport. That was clearly evident when the Chief Minister said that there is a “foreign hand” backing the anti-Mopa movement, “or else how do they get funds from” and followed this up with another jab where he said words to the effect that “those who do not understand a subject should not make comments.”
That the battle lines are being drawn on the issue became evident with the tourism stakeholders joining hands to take out a protest rally against Mopa at Benaulim. And, with the Goans for Dabolim Only (GFDO) led by Fr Eremito Rebello resuming its village corner meetings, beginning with a meeting at Dramapur in Velim constituency on Sunday, the writing on the wall is clear for these elected representatives — either join the anti-Mopa bandwagon or risk losing their support base in their areas of influence.
The altar boys are worried that the anti-Mopa agitation is gaining momentum at a time when government development assistance is trickling down in their constituencies for the first time in the last two-years-and-half.
At least two of these MLAs — Benjamin Silva and Caitu Silva said they do not mind withdrawing support to the government. But, they also hastened to add that any such decision will suffocate their constituencies on the development front, though their decision will not have any bearing on the existence of the government. Caitu in any case has been given birthday largesse of Rs 100 crore for his constituency
“There’s no question of we supporting the Mopa airport. But, if the people want us to withdraw support, our decision will not bring down the government, but will only stall development work in our constituencies”, remarked Benjamin.
Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado and his ministerial colleague Alina Saldanha had questioned the Chief Minister when the Request for Qualification (RFQ) proposal was being deliberated at the Cabinet meeting. But, Avertano knows for sure that people of Navelim are looking for concrete action on the airport issue and not just plain talk, leaving the supporting MLAs to walk a tightrope between the demands of their constituents and a government determined to bulldoze its way with the new airport at Mopa.
