WEDNESDAY, MAY 08, 2024
Tallulah D’Silva
Elections are around the corner and here in Taleigao, we have the Panchayat elections too. As the day approaches to cast our vote, I reminisce about what it was like when we were kids. And I begin to really miss the Goa of my childhood. In Panjim, Taleigao and St Cruz, our memories are filled with bonding as a community.
We walked to school together, we played, explored the neighbourhood, participated in Sunday mass, chanted along when the temple feast was celebrated and woke up to the pleasant sounds of the Muezzin’s call for prayers every morning. The spirit of my community as one large family was palpable.
It felt like we were truly celebrating our diversity. We loved our Id biryanis, modaks during Chaturti and nevreos and bebinca during Christmas. In the villages, during school holidays, this spirit of community resonated in our ancestral homes in Canacona, Velim, Assolna and Colva. While we migrated to the city, the brotherhood and sisterhood across communities was something that was unique and we later understood that Goaness was deeply rooted in its communal harmony and the gestures of friendship it offered to all.
As a community we were also made aware about good leadership and political decisions through various mediums. One was the annual Narkasur effigy making. It was a platform that residents used to express their opinions, angst and collective vision for Goa and its politics. In the annual cultural programme in our colony, Carnival and village Tiatrs we had opportunities to understand more about social issues, poke fun at local politicians and hear songs sung about patriotism and freedom struggles to overcome colonialism.
We remember our parents and all adults in the community responsibly going out to vote. We remember candidates visiting door to door, speaking about their vision, taking all into confidence and winning our hearts with their grace and conduct.
Today what do we see around us? There is so much hate speech spewed around about a specific community or group of people. There are divisions and segregation on religious and caste grounds. Promises are made based on religion, religious places are razed displacing one community and money is widely and openly distributed in lieu of votes! Favours in kind are also facilitated to lure and fool the voter. As a community that was one like a family earlier, has now become a disintegrated one with suspicion, hate and greed creeping into our day to day lives. We are stooping to an all time low succumbing to petty freebies and personal gain, the same type of temptation of 30 silver coins that saw the befall of Judas.
At the local level, state level and as a country there has been really no progress. But first how does one define progress? What are the issues today? Progress is one that includes everyone in having a better life, access to basic facilities and improves the wellbeing of every individual. This means equal opportunities, inclusive decision making, participative planning, transparent functioning.
The issues faced by all are manifold and only getting worse. Poor public transport, poor amenities, poor roads, poor drainage, stinking and litter ridden black spots in villages, towns and cities, poor water supply, erratic power supply, unemployment, poor standard of public schools, increasing crime, girls raped, casino menace, accidents and loss of life everyday, coal dust pollution, mass tree cutting, increasing desertification of Goa, villas for crores galore while the homes of the poor are razed to the ground, rampant land conversions, ODP’s and regional plans favouring concretization, swimming pools in every villa, lack of ward level planning, non existent plans for coastal disaster and more!
In this scenario, we are seeing more and more individuals embroiled in various kinds of crime and injustices at the political forefront, baiting and misusing the seats of power only to manipulate the innocent voter. It is shocking to see the fall from grace as politician after politician wins by monetary coercion, hooliganism, power games, jumping parties, shamelessly continuing to loot the coffers of public trust and taxes. What happened in movies is being played out in front of our eyes.
Giant hoardings, social media ads and blatantly airing fakism of honesty, hard work, successes, women empowerment and development. We are numb as we watch these local representatives, politicians mired in numerous criminal cases continue scot-free doling put freebies, cash, favours in lieu of a vote.
Have we lost our Goenkarponn? Have we lost our Indianness? Have we lost our humanity and our conscientiousness? Goa has been the land for all who migrated to its lush green and bountiful embrace. She did not prejudice on all who made it their home.
At the recently conducted Eid Milan at Panjim by the Jamaat e Islami Panjim Unit, attended by citizens from all over, Goan stalwarts Sandesh Prabhudesai, Rev Fr Dr Victor Ferrao and Asif Hussain spoke brilliantly about this Goenkarponn, an all embracing characteristic of Goanness where all people irrespective of background, religion and social status are welcomed, become like family and live in harmony and peace. They also warned about the misuse of power and manipulations by politicians and parties. The time has come for all of us to revive our Goenkarponn, our Indianness that celebrates diversity, respects humanity and asserts its communal harmony.
It is also time to rise up at every local level, speak up about the injustices, protect the less privileged from being exploited and cast our vote for truth and integrity, not bullying and necropolitics. Let's vote, let's bring in a new wave of change influenced by our Goenkarponn.
(Tallulah D’Silva is an Architect and silver awardee of the Golden Door Award 2020 for truth and integrity.)
