JOSE MARIA MIRANDA
Governance, admin istration and law and order, both at the Centre and in many States, including ours, have reached such abysmal lev els that it is difficult to choose a topic on which to write. Minimum govern ment, maximum govern ance was a welcome slogan, which has been forgotten by the very people who propagated it, possibly, as election gimmick. Non-BJP States are far better gov erned than the BJP ones, precisely because of less government interference. Law and order, in many parts of the country, is pa thetic, to say the least, and even in our small Goa, it just doesn’t exist. The Central Home Min ister asserted, recently, that just as Naxalism has been eliminated, drug car tels and narcotics will fol low. He made no mention, however, whether Dimagi Naxals were also to be done away with. The war against drug and narcotics abuse is surely welcome and needs our support, as it is corrupting and harming our youth. However, Goa’s perfor mance on this front and on law and order are regular ly exposed in the media, shaming Goa, but not the Police and our Home Minis ter. The CBI has previously filed charge-sheets against our Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) personnel, includ ing high-ranking officers, accusing them of shielding or collaborating with drug peddlers and tampering with seized evidence. Some of the many rea sons for violence and oth er undesirable activities in India are unemployment and direct or indirect pro tection of the guilty by the government.
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The Police must realise that the more it ignores or overlooks the violation of law or fails to act on or enforce it, where necessary, the more it adds to its own work. Today, over 67% of our unemployed youth, hold a graduate de gree and 11 million out of 63 million graduates in the age group of 20-30 are un employed. Sadly, most of those who have the means and the best brains, quit the country and a good percentage of those who don’t, turn into anti-socials. Frustration in them is but natural and one can im agine the feelings of disap pointment and sacrifices of those who study for several hours a day and are faced with leakages of question papers and need to put in more hours of study, for no fault of theirs and because corruption , favouritism and nepotism have taken deep roots in the country. The protest of the youth at Jantar Mantar, was a peaceful expression of this frustration.
It was met with a disproportionate show of defence and brutality by the Police, under no other than the Home Minister of the country, as a normal show of intolerance and autocratic behaviour. If undesirable elements had infiltrated in the crowds and were identified by the Police, why were they not immediately picked up or were they deliberately sent there to turn the movement violent and consequently provoke the Police to ac tion? Could the Police have been waiting for an oppor tunity to resort to action, as the movement was against the Government? If they were ‘misled’ children who need ‘guidance’ rather than ‘punishment’, as averred by the PM himself, why were they treated so savage ly, even with pellets with some of them being disa bled for life? Are our future citizens to be dealt with such severity? It was noth ing but another attempt at stifling dissent.
We have no doubt that had the police been given a free hand to act, it would do with greater sincerity, fairness, impartiality and even compassion. In the last over a decade, BJP kar yakartas and supporters seem to be having a sense of unbridled freedom to let their tongues wag in utter ances of hate and venom, precisely because they are fully confident that no pow er on earth can touch them. Without this Government shield, they would never had had the guts to act the way they do. And, we have hundreds of such cases, where hate mongers have had no hesitation in spit ting the worst expletives, with unrestricted impuni ty, particularly against the minorities, disturbing the peace and harmony among different religious commu nities. Complaints of refusals to file FIRs are becoming too common, because the po lice need government nod to do so, even in the most blatant cases of violence. The case of assault on Chin chinim Sarpanch is one of such umpteen instances. On the other hand, there are cases were FIRs were filed at behest of MLAs or some authorities, without any reasonable grounds, as it happened in Taleigao and Velsao, whereas no FIRs were filed on complaints made against those who committed violence and il legalities.
Around two years back, a foe turned friend of BJP made disparaging remarks against St. Francis Xavier, which provoked devotees and admirers of the saint to protest because no FIR had been filed against him. The protesters blocked roads in some areas, for a short while, but were slapped with many sections of the law and till today have to make trips to the Court on this count. Recently, the same individual, along with his supporters, blocked one of Mandovi bridges for many hours, but no case seems to have been filed against the agitators.
Citi zens of Goa, who have face the law, even for the most just and worthy protest, de mand answers from Goa’s Home Minister as well as from the Director General & Inspector General of Police for this blatant show of bias and discrimination. Surely everyone has the right to protest but if one section is sought to be penalised for causing obstruction, so should the other. Everyone is equal before the law and no discrimination can be shown on basis of caste or creed. The Government and the Police have shown clear bias against one commu nity and acted in favour of another. Police authorities must either drop charges against Margao protesters or charge Panjim agitators too or else they may have to an swer this favouritism in a Court of Law. (The author is a retired banker)
