24 Mar 2018 | 05:44am IST
letters to the editor
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on March 20 stated that Goa does not need Special Status as she has already been granted crores for her projects. As the President of Goa’s Movement for Special Status I would like to impress here that Goa was never seeking financial status. We are asking for Special Status to preserve the very existence of Goa which is threatened due to the continuous flow of inmigration taking place in Goa almost displacing the local population and altering Goa s demographical ethnicity her ethos her heritage and her very entity and identity.
Special Status under Article 371 is the need of the hour for Goa. We are not seeking Kashmir type of status but what we are asking for is within the purview and parameters of our Indian Constitution we have to be guaranteed our rights vis a vis employment, preservation of our cultural identity, Konkani etc.
These were our demands through a memorandum presented by our organisation GMFSS that is Goa’s movement for Special Status to the then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on January 12, 2014 . On the said date we called on Modi in a delegation in Goa and handed over a memorandum to him in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar which Modi appreciated. Infact he praised our delegation in his Sankalp rally speech on the Merces grounds on the said date and said it was the first time citizens of a state were not seeking financial status but wanted to preserve their State’s identity and heritage and culture. So there was never a question of seeking financial status.
Once again I would like to request Goa’s cabinet to place before Gadkari the wish of the Goans of Special status.
Prajal Sakhardande, President, Goa’s Movement for Special Status
The Cambridge Analytica episode has highlighted the need for a strong and effective data protection law which is in tandem with the ever-evolving sphere of technology. India has no express data privacy law. The Supreme Court of India has defined the right to privacy as a fundamental right. But in the wake of big data being misused and the existence of 'dirty-tricks' departments in many politician parties of India, the privacy of our data is at stake.
Hence, the Parliament needs to enact a law which will not only preventing misuse of data, but also of safeguarding an individual's right over his/ her data.
I fully agree with the view expressed by Ayres Sequeira in his letter March 23 headlined "Is this Goenkarponn?"
Our politicians display complete lack of spine. When a small group of people protest or agitate (eg. closure of mining), these MLAs support the agitators instead of explaining the ground reality to them. The politicians should strive to create alternate job opportunities. Tourism is booming. The IT sector can flourish with improved telecom and internet connectivity. Our Mormugao Port could perhaps be converted into a Sea Container terminal like Hong Kong or Singapore as suggested by one of your readers today John Lucas de Sa. It would generate employment in numerous spheres. We need men of vision. We have to look away from mining, which has destroyed our beautiful land.
Thinking of the cold announcement of Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Parliament without having any sensitivity that the government has a duty to announce this tragedy to the bereaved families of the 39 poor Indian workers massacred by the ISIS first and that too after four long years, one inevitable question looms large over the common man.
If only the 39 perished had not been ordinary workers or for that reason even one of them was a relative of any of the ministers of the ruling BJP, would the NDA government have taken this dastardly act so very casually and dared to announce it in the Parliament as a passing reference/statement? What an inhuman act and an irresponsible government?
Tharcius S. Fernando, Chennai
