TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024
Sujay Gupta
Ahimsa has been hit for a six, in this never-ending season of ‘democracy’s IPL. And Goa is surely one of the teams in this tournament tonking away six after six, four after four.
The doctrine of ahimsa is based on the principle of non-violence. But, on Gandhi Jayanti, let us understand that it is the definition of violence that needs to be not just broad-based but nuanced and contextual. Goa’s alienation with ahimsa is not necessarily a brutal physical act. Goa’s alienation is completely and unequivocally from the sense of basic decency, etiquette and respect for people’s will.
The transformation from ahimsa (absence of violence) to himsa (violence) is also complete when there is an assault on the sensibilities of the weak by supporting the strong. And this can extend from mysteriously doing a weak investigation to allow a person caught with possession of drugs worth lakhs to get bail in a week to using all departments in the State to clear infrastructure projects like railway double tracking the expansion of the highway and installation of power transmission lines to please crony capitalists.
Across Goa there is despondency. And the ahimsa principle gets killed in every little way, in every which way. Some acts are called out like the Lokayukta did taking layer after layer off official falsehoods to lay bare acts of corruption, which hurt the exchequer.
The then Lokayukta Justice PK Misra commented that if alleged illegal renewals of 88 mining leases by then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar “were not abuse of position... then God alone can save the State”. (The only concession to the former CM that can be given is that there clearly were more powerful players running the state then.)
He went on, “If any of the accused can explain as to how 31 renewals were done on January 12, without any violations, then the Institution is ready to “recall the report suo motu” and “recommend for appropriate honour on the three, (then CM, then Mines Secretary and then Mines director) on the coming Independence Day, for the remarkable efficiency”. Then, he delved into the Mahabharata to deliver these lines which should become the leitmotif of today’s governance “Only a Dhritarashtra and or Gandhari would be unable to perceive anything sinister in what happened on January 12, 2015” (the day of the simultaneous 88 mining renewals).
In January this year, the Goa Lokayukta had recommended to the State government the registering of FIR through the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against the trio, with regards to alleged “corruption and criminal conspiracy” in the renewal of mining leases. What did the State do? It played the role of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. In effect, it turned a blind eye.
And every time a Lokayukta or a Human Rights Commission or a State Women’s Commission report or a recommendation to initiate action is treated with disdain, then every act of spending people’s money to build these institutions is belied. This is nothing short of an act of violence on the belief that these institutions can ensure justice. This is the end of ahimsa.
This week, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant cancelled all his programmes and rushed to Delhi, after supposedly getting an appointment after six months. On his return though, all he said was “had fruitful discussions on various matters including mining”. We do not quite know the nature of the fruit that is waiting to be plucked but it’s reasonable to assume that this was all about getting the same mining firms whose leases were renewed by the government to start their businesses again in some form or the other. Surely, there are better ways to restart the economy than to go against the principle of judicial pronouncements and favouring the same parties whose businesses have been regularly helped by the State government.
This has nothing to do with helping the mining dependent. The district mineral fund, as well as money from auctions, is precisely meant to be ploughed back to helping the mining dependent. The hard reality is that over Rs 23,000 crores in the District Mineral Fund is sought to be used for COVID relief, which effectively means lesser controls over the accountability of its spending. The State’s precarious financial condition has meant that the mineral fund has to be touched leaving it out of bounds for the mining dependent. And to cover that gap, the government is going back to the Centre to allow the restart of mining to help the same firms it illegally helped earlier. We are calling this out. The economic violence against the mining dependent is not due to the legitimate stoppage of illegal mining but due to funds meant for their welfare and their futures being diverted. This is another instance of ahimsa being hit for a six.
The Lokayukta also ordered an FIR to be registered in what is now called the Labour gate scam. The complaint stated that an amount of over Rs 13 crores has been literally siphoned to over 15,000 BJP workers who were fronted as construction workers and labourers in COVID-hit Goa. These funds should have gone to the migrant labourers who had remained unemployed due to the lockdowns. Yet again this is not just a “loss to the exchequer” issue. It is way beyond. This is a probe into the case of money meant for the poorest and hardest hit during COVID-19 being denied to them.
Is this act any less than a physical act of violence? For the labourer who had to starve and see his family members die, this act is no less brutal than a father in Bicholim beating his daughter to death on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti.
Violence is when the State becomes insensitive. And this is played out in big and small ways. When a genteel, kind and absolutely dedicated doctor, loved and respected, Dr Mario Godinho had to, according to reports, lie on a stretcher for the want of a bed in GMC, it is the State's way of inflicting violence of the worst kind. And this isn’t about the good doctor alone. This applies to each and every case of neglect. Imagine the Indian Medical Association had to issue a statement saying, “We all members are definitely pained at the unfortunate lapses in the treatment offered to Dr Mario Godinho, including failure of logistics, non-availability of bed, inadequate oxygen supply, and other impediments.”
If one travels deep into Goa’s interiors this form of violence is perpetrated everywhere. It can be as minute as people unable to withdraw rations because their biometric cards don’t work due to no Internet connectivity or traditional fishermen from Velsao to Betul in a state of complete panic because all fish in their water have either been killed or sucked away by giant trawlers using LED lights. Some of Goa’s senior-most politicians happen to be ‘big’ fishermen and not small traditional fisherfolk. So the balance of power becomes clear.
There is thus, really no point in paying tributes to the Mahatma and then tweeting about it when the tenet of ahimsa has not been understood by all those who need to pay floral tributes and tweet about them on October 2.
As Gandhiji said “Ahimsa is the highest duty. Even if we cannot practise it in full, we must try to understand its spirit and refrain as far as possible from violence.”
In Goa, in each day, and every which way the spirit of ahimsa is being negated and violence of the worst kind is being inflicted on this spirit.
‘God’…. in former Lokayukta Justice PK Misra’s words… “alone can save the State”.
Sujay Gupta is the Consulting Editor Herald Publications and tweets @sujaygupta0832
