MARGAO: Along the heritage lane and the glorious late Abade Faria road in Margao, the road is a buzz with music and percussion and fireworks. The real reason being, the Dindi celebrations which go into the wee hours of the morning. But a late evening news flash in a few Goan homes from the Portuguese television channel RTP also had some news for Xaxtikars to celebrate beyond the Dindi celebrations.
Goan origin, Socialist Antonio Costa whose ancestral house is at Comba-Margao with the support of the Left has garnered enough support to oust the ruling right coalition and is now all set to be named at Portugal’s Prime Minister. A great sense of pride for Goans and especially people of Margao.
October 4 is when elections were held for all 230 seats in the Portuguese parliament, the Assembleia da Republica and the Right ruling coalition came back to power on a slender lead and continued its austerity measures of cutting pensions and benefits to citizens in the name of reviving the Portuguese economy which is in doldrums. But Antonio Costa, once the Mayor of Lisbon and now the Prime Minister has finally steered home and plans to help eradicate poverty and cancel all austerity measures restoring financial assistance and benefits to Portuguese citizens.
Costa, 54-year-old is the son of the late Orlando da Costa, whose classic ‘O Signo da Ira’ is set in the Margao neighborhoods he grew up in the 1930s and 40s. Later, when studying in Portugal, the senior Costa became a staunch opponent of the Salazar dictatorship, member of the (then outlawed) Communist Party, and a well-known Lisbon intellectual who retained life-long affection and connection to his ancestral Goa, as recently stated in an article by writer Vivek Menezes.
Antonio Luis dos Santos da Costa, fondly known in Portugal as Antonio Costa was Portugal’s minister of parliamentary affairs, minister of justice, and minister of internal administration. He headed his party’s list for the 2004 European elections then served on the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, before becoming one of just 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament and later Mayor of Lisbon in 2007.
Speaking to The Herald exclusively after the news came in, Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s cousin, Anna Kaarina J Costa, a travel agent who works out of home in Margao asserted that it’s a great pride for her family and she reminds us that Antonio now Prime Minister and his brother, a renowned journalist and Director of a newspaper in Portugal have always made their family proud, back home in Goa.
Anna, wishes she could rush to Portugal to witness the swearing in ceremony of her cousin, but asserts that it’s impossible because of her current schedule.
“We’re spending April-May 2016 in Portugal and it’s only then that we could personally extend our congratulations to Antonio. We’re very elated back home,” explains Anna who’s waiting to hear from the now Prime Minister of Portugal and her beloved cousin. Anna explains that Antonio does keep in touch with her and others back home in Goa but he’s hectic campaign schedule in the last few months has not allowed them to speak that often.
“The news in every way is yet to sink in to the fact that our relative is the prime minister of Portugal. It would be greater if the news read that Antonio Costa or any Goan for that matter was elected Prime Minister of India,” asserts Vikram Antao, GM of Radisson Blu and husband of Anna.
Vikram remembering a 2002 exhibition in Goa on the works of Antonio Costa’s father who was a revolutionary, asserts that Antonio Costa now has a lot on his plate from trying to make his government stable and finding a long term solution to Portugal’s financial woes.
Vikram tells us that when Antonio was Mayor of Lisbon, he had some talks of visiting another Portuguese colony East Timor and come to India too. He hopes Antonio would make that visit to India and make it a memorable one to Goa and India wherein a Goan-origin boy is now the PM of a European country but he has a job at hand to help Portugal limp back from the financial crisis it’s in similar to Spain and Italy. His wife Anna exclaims that finally they see Antonio Costa as PM after a huge struggle.
“You see that, Antonio is come to power with a slender majority and his government will be short-lived and short-term. It’s a matter of pride for Goan’s but he has a sword hanging on his own head to perform. It’s a proud moment for Goa though and we hope that the new Goan-origin PM will make a better understanding between India and Portugal and the whole benefit of Portuguese passport will continue for Goans,” asserted former banker turned activist, Jose Maria Miranda knowing that the new Portuguese PM will not do much for Goa.
While admitting that Antonio Costa’s government is not stable, noted cardiologist Dr Francisco Colaco asserted that Antonio Colaco is of Goan-origin but has no roots to Goa and was neither born nor brought up in India or Goa and hence it’s only a matter a pride for Goans. He hopes that Antonio Costa could find a solution to stop the brain drain in Goa wherein Goans rush to Portugal and then UK for substandard jobs on their Portuguese passport benefits.
While Dr Carmo Gracias, a Managing Director of Gracias Maternity Hospitals and noted gynecologist asserted that it’s a great accolade for Goa to have its man there in the PM’s seat in Portugal but Dr Carmo reminds the Herald that Portugal is struggling through a weak economy and Antonio Costa has a big job in hand to revive Portugal’s economy and make his government stable, hence he feels that the significance of him being Goan origin will take a backstage.
