19 Aug 2022  |   07:43am IST

Game of Goans: The Angelitos versus the Banditos

Elwyn Decruz

Game on. The State of Goa is under continuous and constant siege, and we urgently need to reverse our fortunes in this dangerous scenario being currently paid out. It’s Team Angelitos versus the Banditos. Match duration: Five years and a Day. Match timing: 24/7. The Prize: The tiny but rich State of Goa. The Resources: A highly educated and generally prosperous citizenry, bountiful maritime and agricultural produce, iron ore with the most coveted quality content and specifications on the international market, heavily forested landscapes, waterfalls and waterways that the rest of the nation eyes with obvious envy, beaches with sunshine and ambience renowned the world over, a vibrant and delightful tourist industry, and most of all a culture of goodness and generosity, infused with a love and desire for music and theatre (tiatr), which in truth is the Number One attraction that draws people from all across the globe. 

Team A. This team, the Angelitos, sport-loving natives to the core, peaceful and savvy, yet powerful to contend with when their way of life, their environment, prosperity, property and culture are under threat. 

Team B. The Banditos, in reality an army of greedy money mongers, unmerciful and corrupt beyond limit, that have descended upon this green and beautiful nation with one goal in mind, loot and destruction of the culture and way of life that is Goa. The unkindest cut of all is that these demons of destruction are Goan. These pitiful cowards are under total control of outsider money grabbing mongrels, who need these victims as a screen to protect them from legal and criminal punitive consequences.

Field Positions, The Angelitos, Angels. 

The Forwards: Lawyers. They provide an unshakeable platform to protect overzealous activists from allowing the authorities to enforce “unlawful” conduct on them, many of whom are senior citizens, fighting to uphold the law of the land. Most importantly, initiating legal action against any specific ill-conceived, unjust act of blatantly anti-people legislation by way of Public Interest Litigation is perhaps the principal procedure to reign in the horses of an anti-people governing assembly. 

Journalists: These intrepid warriors are the key field scouts that direct the artillery fire to help direct the energy essential to confront the most critical issues at any given moment. Their incisive collection of deep information are the inputs that enhance the effectiveness of the legal action that the lawyers initiate for each unacceptable law that may be enforced by the powers-that-be upon the hapless citizenry. 

Midfield Positions: Seasoned activists, teachers, jurists, loyal Law enforcement cadres, senior citizens, students, farmers, housewives, citizens from every strata of society, who stand up out there regardless of their own safety and inconvenience, people with such courage to confront unwanted police brutality, who endure unchronicled and untold stories of courage and sacrifice. These are the people who show the world what Goa and what its citizens are truly made of. 

The Defence lineup: The rest of the citizens, armchair activists, that includes every adult not featured in the Frontline and Midfield line up. Any contribution, big or small, towards the achievement of the main goal, is absolutely necessary. The hope here is that with such a formidable attack team and an unsurmountable midfield line up, the battle ground does not require the Defence get involved. But if indeed it does, then we will need to stand up as an immovable and unbreakable force to ensure we do not allow the All-Important Trophy, the Goan Dream of Prosperity, Peace and Happiness, to be ever taken from this land.

Team B: Named most appropriately, The Bandits.

We must always keep in mind that they are Goan too. What’s more, it is we who elected them. But then why is it that our own people should want to superwise the destruction of their own native land and heritage, the land of their ancestors, the land where their nearest and dearest will spend the rest of their lives? When you lose what’s most dear to you, there is nothing worth living for, no matter the size of the loot you take home. We should offer them our condolences. When someone suffers a loss of something most precious to them, it’s an essential custom in our culture to offer our condolences, an expression of shared sorrow and concern. When the country has been sold out, everyone loses.

Every citizen, emotionally integrated with his native land, will find this hard to believe: why a fellow citizen, popular and loved by many who voted for him to guide and develop the nation, should want to stoop to such an infernal depth. How did he ever become a victim of his greed only to cater to his own selfish welfare instead of the wellbeing of the people he was elected to administer? Weakness of Character? Stupidity? Or was he enslaved by some dominating outside force which made him an offer he couldn’t, or dared not, refuse? We know the answers.

The big Game of Goans, the Thrones Goa has to offer, plays out in intervals of 24/7 each day, and for 5 years and a day. It’s long overdue to begin to set up the Logistics and Blueprints for a final victory and install our own stout-hearted Warriors in the Halls of Governance. It’s time we once and for all remove all wounds, all the daggers and arrows that have stabbed Goans in the back for many decades. 

Corruption is the one cause of all destruction and suffering all across the world, for mankind, all living creatures, all vegetation, for Mother Earth and the environment. 

We need to identify the thugs that threaten to reduce this country to a pitiful backwater, when indeed it’s the nearest place to paradise.

(The author is now a permanent resident of Goa after many years of living in Mumbai, New York and London)


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar