THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2024
Vivek Menezes
Please accept our sincere gratitude for your forthright and highly principled “Statement to the People of Goa” dated May 30.
In their entirety, your comments truly evoke the spirit of the great Thanthai Periyar Ramasamy, who famously admitted, “I express, plainly and openly, thoughts which occur to me, and which strike me as right. This may embarrass a few; to some this may be distasteful; and a few others may even be irritated; however, all that I utter are proven truths and not lies.”
You should know it has been greatly dismaying for us, for many years, that Goa’s political cadre machinates almost exclusively in opaque, inexplicable, and often indefensible ploys. Thus, you have done an excellent service by describing how your counterpart from India’s smallest State “was vociferously, and repeatedly, against lowering the GST on Covid-related drugs & vaccines from 5% to 0% on humanitarian grounds.”
This extreme degree of callous heartlessness is indeed shocking, but every bit of the rest of how you characterise Goa’s representative regrettably comes as no surprise at all. You write, “I found his statements during the meeting to be highly repetitive, largely vacuous, hectoring, mostly redundant to others’ inputs, supercilious, and devoid of the basic courtesy of assuming good faith in the comments of other states’ Ministers.” But we know you could easily have added many more perfectly accurate adjectives of disapprobation. In this regard, we are grateful the founders of modern India strictly maintained the classic republican principles.
Please note the implications of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s unwavering dictum that “rights for minorities should be absolute rights” and “should not be subject to any consideration as to what another party may like to do.” He was speaking for all communities confronted by majoritarianism, and here it would be useful to remember that Goa may be infinitely smaller and less populous than Tamil Nadu, but both are dwarfed by the ocean-vast forces that have embroiled India in its contemporary predicament.
In these circumstances of being in the same boat, it is especially salutary to read your concluding remarks to the people of Goa, offering “sincere condolences for having such a person as your Minister.” As you note, if our government had even “minimal quality control on its ‘MLA Acquisition’ procedures” then “Goa and the Nation would be saved a lot of pain.”
It is true there will be some here, elsewhere, and probably also in Tamil Nadu, who will persist on reading an inherent political slant to your comments. After all, the DMK is implacably opposed to the BJP which your Goa counterpart now rallies behind (actually, until 2016, it was the Congress). But you should know there is nigh-unanimous approval being expressed for your unusual, very welcome comments directed directly to the people of Goa, and the remarkable truth-telling therein. Rajan we are convinced the people of your great state are lucky to have you fighting for their interests. We hope that you will keep ours in mind as well.
With best wishes for your continued success. The People of Goa
