TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2024
On Monday, Goa’s favourite English daily oHeraldo will complete 39 years of its illustrious journey and enter into the 40th year. In these four decades, your newspaper has asked difficult questions to the establishment and always relentlessly pursued people’s issues – from the language movement to coal. This is how the important events panned out and the role
Herald played to inform and empower its readers.
1983-1990
Goa saw a violent agitation in 1986 leading to eight deaths to make Konkani the Official Language of Goa. Herald totally supported the Konkani agitation, so much so that the government called the Army, who staged a flag march and police from other States and CRPF were rushed to the State to defeat the agitation, but in vain.
Floriano Vaz of Gogol, Margao, became the first martyr of the Konkani agitation after police resorted to firing, while seven persons from Agacaim also laid their lives as the agitation continued for almost 18 months till Konkani was official declared Official Language of Goa and that Marathi be used for all official purposes.
Herald was the only newspaper which gave a daily account of each and every Konkani movement and people from Salcete taluka relied upon Herald for daily updates as this newspaper backed the Konkani Porjecho Awaz (KPA), which spearheaded the language agitation. Most of the areas of South Goa remained cut off due to blockades and life came to a standstill for several days, several times, during the agitation.
The Konkani agitation gained massive support following a split in the Congress Party with four Ministers quitting their posts and resigning from the Congress. The then first-time MLA Luizinho Faleiro introduced a Private Member’s Bill seeking to make Konkani the sole language of Goa. Though the Bill was defeated, the agitation came to a halt only after the government introduced a Bill in the erstwhile Goa Daman and Diu Assembly making Konkani official language of the State.
After Konkani language, Herald again took up the issue of Goa attaining Statehood. The eight MLAs who had quit the Congress formed a regional Goa Congress Party and fought for twin aspirations of the people of Goa — making Konkani as Official Language and attaining Statehood. The tiny State became India’s 25th State on May 30, 1987, after separating Daman and Diu, which was made a Union Territory (UT). Subsequently Goa Congress was merged with the Congress ahead of 1989 Assembly polls.
1990-2000
The beginning of the first quarter of the year saw the ouster of the Congress-led Pratapsing Rane government after seven party legislators defected and formed the Goa People’s Party. With the support of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the then Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao became the first Catholic Chief Minister of the State though he was in office for just 18 days. He was followed by Dr Luis Proto Barbosa, who remained in office for eight months before the MGP pulled out from the government.
The State was brought under President’s Rule for a brief period, until till the then MGP legislator Ravi Naik broke away from the party and became the Chief Minister. He was followed by Dr Wilfred De Souza, whose government was dismissed by the Governor in April 1994. Ravi Naik was again made Chief Minister but lasted for only six days and Dr De Souza returned as the Chief Minister for the remaining period.
Later, Dr Barbosa was disqualified as MLA on grounds that the Assembly Speaker cannot defect, which was also upheld by the Supreme Court, paving the way for a by-poll in Loutolim constituency. Adv Radharao Gracias, who was in the forefront of several agitations in the State, won the by-election defeating the Congress nominee.
The 1994 elections saw Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) making an entry in the State Legislative Assembly by riding piggy-back on the MGP. Though Congress failed to secure a simple majority it formed the government after four MGP MLAs defected and joined the national party. Surprisingly, Rane became the Chief Minister and Dr De Souza under whose leadership the party fought the elections, was made Rane’s Deputy. A new party, United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP), was formed and won three seats.
All seemed well till the Rane government was toppled in July 1998, while the monsoon session of the Assembly was underway. In all, 10 Congress MLAs formed a splinter group and Dr De Souza became the Chief Minister with the support of MGP and BJP legislators. The De Souza government lasted for about four months, after four MLAs engineered a split and the then Leader of the Opposition Luizinho Faleiro became the Chief Minister. His government lasted for 77 days as it was reduced to a minority. Though Dr De Souza staked claim to form the next government, four BJP MLAs refused to support him stating that there was instability and favoured elections.
After the 1999 polls, Congress secured a simple majority and Luizinho Faleiro again became the Chief Minister. His government was shortlived and lasted for give and half months. Again, 11 Congress MLAs led by Francisco Sardinha defected and Sardinha became the Chief Minister with the support of BJP, which had 10 MLAs.
Exactly after 11 months while Sardinha was in Australia, his government was toppled. He had to rush back to Goa and resigned. For the first time, BJP formed the government with Panjim MLA Manohar Parrikar becoming the Chief Minister.
The State had as many as 11 governments during this decade and Goa was known for unstable governments.
2000-2010
The decade saw the emergence of Manohar Parrikar and the rise of the BJP, which decimated the oldest regional political outfit MGP. Sensing trouble to his government, Parrikar recommended dissolution of Goa Assembly and again became Chief Minister after BJP emerged as the single largest party in the mid-term polls held in May 2002. He received support from MGP, UGDP and independents. But Parikar faced revolt within and was ousted in 2005 after being in office for more than four years.
While he office, Parikar faced widespread criticism for promoting a controversial documentary on Goa’s Liberation movement and the BJP government was accused of distorting history and for showing the Catholic Church in bad light. The documentary ‘Goa Ka Swadhinata Sangram’ was distributed in all the schools for screening but the Diocesan schools did not screen it for students, forcing the Parrikar government to withdraw the controversial documentary within a fortnight.
During the same decade, Congress with the support of its ally NCP and MGP came back to power and Digambar Kamat became the Chief Minister. He completed his term overcoming all hurdles.
2012-2020
In the 2012 elections, BJP returned to power securing 21 seats for the first time and reducing the Congress totally to single digit - nine seats. Parrikar again became Chief Minister for the third time. However, he once again faced criticism this time from none other than the then RSS Goa Sanghachalak Prof Subhash Velingkar for refusing to change the Medium of Instruction (MoI) policy. Velingkar launched a battle against the Parrikar government, who announced a new policy much to the disappointment of the Goa RSS chief and others, who were trying to stop grants-in-aid to English medium primary schools.
During Parrikar’s tenure the mining activity, which was the major economy of the State also came to a halt after he suspended mining leases in September 2012, following which the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) also withdrew Environmental Clearances (ECs) granted to mining leases. It’s now almost a decade that mining activity has been stopped in the State, even as the Supreme Court quashed the second renewal of 88 mining leases and banned it by a judgment in February 2018.
The BJP government which is in power for the last decade is making amends to restart mining activities and has now set up Goa Mining Development Corporation and has now put up four mining blocks for auction.
