THURSDAY, MAY 02, 2024
ALEXANDRE MONIZ BARBOSA
The River Zuari is a natural border that divides north and south Goa. For centuries the river has also been what links the two. If that reads like a contradiction, it’s because the past six decades since Liberation, have been a series of inconsistencies. Goans, for instance, have always been nostalgic about their past yet embraced change, proud of their identity yet not conceited about it, willing to plumb the depths of the earth for iron ore yet not hesitant to use the charms of the land above ground to seduce travellers. The incongruities have been many and the past 60 years have been as tumultuous as they have been eventful. And a portion of the River Zuari best exemplifies this.
What you see today over the river between Tiswadi and Mormugao talukas is a road bridge, a railway bridge and an eight-lane road bridge that is under construction. It was not always like this. Until 1983 people crossed from Agassaim on the northern bank to Cortalim on the southern bank by boat, then came motorised ferries until the bridge was constructed in the 1980s. The railway bridge came some 17 years later. And now, this same stretch of River Zuari will have an eight-lane bridge, with a revolving restaurant and viewing tower above.
Goa’s journey of the past 60 years mirrors the infrastructure that has come up over this stretch of the river. In December 1961, when Indian troops liberated Goa from 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule, the territory was largely underdeveloped. Only roads connecting major towns had a coat of tarmac. The main industries were mining and cashew nut processing. Schools existed, higher education was limited to medicine, pharmacy, teacher training and some technical courses. That had to change and it did. As Goa developed, infrastructure had to keep pace, for long-term planning was markedly absent and that is the reason why you see the crisscrossing of bridges over the River Zuari, or three bridges all within kiss-blowing distance of each other over the River Mandovi connecting Panjim with Porvorim.
In the 60 years since the Portuguese were ousted from Goa, the land and its people have changed in many ways, and yet they have remained the same in so many other ways. To understand how Goa has changed and also not changed one requires a little detour into the past, accompanied of course by persons who have journeyed with Goa in the decades since the 1960s and hold the land dear to their hearts.
One such person is academic, writer and Padma Shri recipient, Dr Maria Aurora Couto, who has seen post-liberation Goa at different times, the first when her husband Alban Couto was posted here in the immediate aftermath of Liberation and then again, when the Coutos returned to Goa post retirement.
Speaking of her first time in Goa post Liberation, Couto said, “I was young – so was newly liberated Goa. Those years 1962 to 1965 helped me understand the complexities in our society, the goenkarponn that binds us and the fissures – issues of language, land, anxieties of a displaced elite, muscle-flexing by those climbing upwards every which way – minimal then, but which are destroying us now. Plans full of optimism and hope – facilities for education and industrial development, while protecting our unique environment.”
Those plans, those hopes may well have evaporated with time, never to return. What Goa was and what it is today is summed up by former Union minister Ramakant Khalap, who describes it rather creatively using an incident that occurred recently. “We as Goenkars were known as Bablo, Sadlo and Gaonkar – Bablo Gaonkar it was – and today we have Pablo Escobar,” Khalap said. He was referring to a recent accusation made in the Bardez coastal belt of drug lords and politicians holding sway over the people, where a certain politician was likened to the Colombian drug lord Escobar. “This is the transition,” continued Khalap, “A change, not just a political change, it has come about with economic change and moral values have changed. The other day, the minister who came from Delhi said Goa is the casino capital of the country. With this description, what more do you require to describe Goa?” Casino capital again was an expression used just this month during a media interaction between a Union minister and local journalists.
Has the Goan indeed changed that the land can be described as casino capital or the people as drug lords? There will be people who agree, especially those who have watched as Goa transformed from a land quite content with itself to a land that demanded more and more from itself.
Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo, who during the past week was awarded the Jnanpith Award, took time off to speak to Herald despite the continuous congratulatory message and visits he was receiving. For him, Liberation brought freedom of expression that was threatened during the Portuguese rule, and he did not mince his words as he aired his thoughts. “There are many changes that are welcome, there are many changes which are to the detriment of Goa’s development. In the name of development, what is happening is really worrisome. We wanted Goa to remain a separate State, we wanted Goa to remain a separate entity because we thought that if people from within Goa got elected, they would not be able to demand money from their own people. There would be least corruption or no corruption, that is what we visualised. We wanted to see a clean Goa, a corruption-free Goa, and that is why we wanted a separate State. This is what we thought would happen, but it is not happening, corruption is rampant and it is spoiling the character of Goa,” Mauzo said.
Years later, when Couto returned to Goa and to the ancestral home in Aldona there was a markedly different Goa she saw. “What can I say about Goa now? I rejoice at the upward mobility of an erstwhile landless class who benefited from education, and legislation that ended a feudal structure; poverty exists but vastly reduced; an increasing middle class servicing opportunities afforded by tourism. However, therein lies the rub – a loss of innocence as it were. Apart from drugs, gambling and related ‘industries’ that have tarnished the moral core of our society, particularly as it is perceived by ‘outsiders’, with second homes who find in our villages the peace and privacy lost elsewhere; limitless corruption, the decimation of all that made Goa what it once was. Ravindrabab Kelekar used to say that land and language is what makes Goa what it is, Bakibab sang paeans to our munxeapon – unique humanism,” Couto said.
Change did come, gradually at first, speeding up in the 1980s and 90s, before galloping at the turn of the millennium and keeping rapid pace since then. Change would always come, it could not be halted and it is almost unanimous that the transformations that did occur were not always been for the best. Speaking of this, Khalap was clear that it is not one government that has been responsible for the changes that have taken place, but that it has been a process that has been repeated year after year by successive dispensations leading to the current situation. The politics of Goa of course played a major role in this, as the regional political parties that had emerged in the immediate aftermath of Liberation and the strong feelings of identity faded out of the ring yielding space to parties that had a national perspective rather than a regional one.
December 1961 brought about an abrupt change in regime but Goans ploughed on confident that they could determine their tomorrow rather than have another decide it for them. In 1963, when Goa voted for the first time it rejected Congress in favour of two regional parties advocating divergent futures for the Union Territory. The divisions were clear and it required a poll to determine whether Goa would remain a Union Territory or would merge with its neighbour Maharashtra. It would be 17 years later that Goa would end its romance with regional parties and begin flirting with national parties, and it was around that time when development and infrastructure saw a spurt.
Goa joined the mainstream of Indian politics when a Congress government was elected in the then Union Territory in 1980. Until then, Goan politics had been dominated by the United Goans Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. Putting that period into perspective, former Union minister Eduardo Faleiro said, “In the beginning we were not in touch with the country and nobody had an idea of what Congress was. It was alien to us and therefore we had these two parties – United Goans Party and Maharahstrawadi Gomantak Party. I became MLA in 1971 of UGP, which was led by Jack Sequeira. We separated from Sequeira under the leadership of Babu Naik of Margao and later merged with Congress. By then we had a better understanding of the national parties and national issues.”
Faleiro was the first Goan to be elected as MP of a national party and also the first to be inducted as minister in the Union government. It was in the 1980s that the national parties began dominating the scene, though the Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party gave Goa its second Union minister when Khalap was inducted in the I K Gujral ministry. It wasn’t long, however, before Congress in Goa had a challenger in the Bharatiya Janata Party and since then the regional parties have been consigned to the sidelines, with little hope that they can make a comeback.
“I don’t see regional parties coming up strongly. Now, that feeling that we are different is not there,” said Faleiro, certain that the time for regional parties is over. He could be very well right, as at the current time, with an election just two months away, it is national parties that are fighting to form the government in Goa, while the regional parties are in talks to form and alliance and act more as a crutch to the national parties.
With the sidelining of the regional parties, perhaps also came the dilution of the identity. “For any culture, the language is the major component of any culture. People should have realized that Konkani is a major component of Goa’s culture. Unfortunately, people came to realise that Konkani gave them a separate entity, a separate identity yet many people have given up Konkani thinking that learning Konkani is of no use but they will repent after a decade or then it will be difficult to return to Konkani. Am I at a loss when I know Konkani and can express myself well in English?” asked Mauzo, as he lamented the manner in which the Konkani language is treated in Goa.
So was it the policies of the parties that were elected or was it the individuals who were elected that have brought Goa to this pass.
Dr Peter Ronald de Souza, former Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), finds that the problem lies with the people that are elected to hold public office. “I think we have people in high office who are there because they are good political managers, being able through a range of instruments – money, power, threat, illegality – to come to office.” He explains this further saying, “Constituencies in Goa are small and can be managed. Please note that I deliberately use the word ‘managed’ not win, because when these strategies of management are listed, one can explain the result. To see the result as a democratic legitimacy to govern is stretching the argument.”
And he has a solution to it too. “The result is a consequence of an electoral system that has an inbuilt flaw. The first past the post system is a ‘winner takes all’ system. Perhaps in small States we should have a proportional representation system where candidates would have to build coalitions of support and this would produce more moderate governance,” de Souza said.
In essence, Goa has lacked political leadership that can rise above petty interests and act strongly with a vision for the future. As de Souza puts it, “The current situation shows capture by special interests. What Goa requires is a political change.”
Political change has been a subject of much debate in the past. Goa’s politics have been marked by defections as elected representative change colours with more frequency than players do with sports teams. Politics in Goa has come to be associated with being in a position of power, such that an MLA sitting on the opposition benches turns restless and begins to eye the other side of the well as the prize that was missed leading to an eventual crossing over. Ironically, politicians changing sides have managed to win over the electorate and many have won elections when they have re-contested. Is it the people who are too lenient with them? If so than Goans will need to act tougher with the politicians, perhaps by making them accountable to the extent that either they perform or they perish. Such a stance could end up substituting almost the entire Assembly every election, but it may be for the greater good if it brings the desired results.
“The current situation,” de Souza said, “shows a leadership devoid of vision. They have no articulated sense of how they would like to see Goa in 2030 or 2040. There is adhocism and the result of such adhocism is chaos. Our towns are dying. Our roads are congested. Our open spaces are encroached upon. Our ecosystem is endangered. Our quality of life is diminished. A longer lament can be made all of which points to a leadership devoid of vision.” De Souza’s solution to this is something that already exists. “Prepare a development plan. Revisit the plans prepared by the Mashelkar committee. And follow it without deviation,” he suggested.
The Mashelkar committee that de Souza refers to, is the Goa Golden Jubilee Development Council that was appointed a decade ago to prepare a development plan for Goa that would take care of development up to the year 2035. Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, scientist and former director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was the chairman of the Council that had presented a very broad plan for Goa which can be described as a quiver of arrows, as it presented seven ‘arrows’ to create a ‘Goa of our dreams in 2035’. The use of the word arrows was connected to the legend of Lord Parashurama, the sixth reincarnation of Lord Vishnu who let fly seven arrows from the Sahyadris to push back the sea and create a stretch of land, which he could claim for himself, and that was Goa.
The modern seven arrows of the council have been explained by Mashelkar in the accompanying interview, but it is pertinent here to reprint a short extract from that report explaining the arrows, which says, “These seven arrows do not fly in isolation. They reinforce each other. For instance, mere affluence without sustainability will not work. For affluence to be attained through knowledge and creative industries, knowledge centric Goa is a must. A happy Goa will only be one, which is cultured, well governed, balanced.”
A week away from completing the 60th year of Liberation, Goa and Goans would want nothing less than being happy, having good governance and being balanced. But what has occurred in the past gives little hope for a better future. Mauzo, perhaps sums it up best when he says, “They are spoiling the character of Goa by introducing the casino culture, by promoting the wrong kind of tourism, and also selling Goa not only to outsiders but also to the mine owners. I am not blaming all the mine owners, but there is rampant destruction of nature in the name of development. It is a very sad state of affairs in Goa.”
