An ever scheming political and industrial class, along with their civil society agents, never seems to run out of innovative ideas to distract and divert the public’s attention from the core political realities in the country. Goa is no exception. This is possibly why Goa stands third among smaller States on the India Innovation Index. Citizens, if not ignorant, have to be shameless to buy into the propaganda that splitting J&K and the SC verdict on Ayodhya will end terrorism and religious hostilities in this country. This is not an unfamiliar refrain for Goans, who get sold a belief, that surrendering to the will of the majority would bring closure to religious polarisation in Goa’s politics and discourage in-migration. Has it ever happened after a compromise on the official script for Konkani or after voting for BJP? The social and political delinquencies and disorders from the rest of the country, which have seeped into the Goan ethos, continue to parade under a garb of goemkarponn. It is important to understand these hidden cruel realities in order to understand the core reasons contributing to the loss of this paradise Goa, before blaming corruption and migrants for the Goans’ miseries. Even Gandhiji was convinced that caste and religious divide in this country was the root cause for colonial regimes to get a foot-hold and rule in the Indian subcontinent.
Having politically exploited the language, statehood, corruption, special status and goemkarponn labels, the crafty politicians and their agents appear to have now set out to play POGO (Person of Goan Origin) with gullible and sentimental Goans. After the much hyped parivartan and ‘achhe din’ have come to nought, POGO is now being aggressively marketed as the ultimate panacea for Goans suffering from political dysfunctions. This latest item on the political brochure is nothing different from a previous range of mentally paralysing and emotions stimulating products.
What is striking in a POGO definition is its sheer genius to accommodate migrants and their kin who strayed into Goa in search of work till 1961, and subtly creating grounds to eliminate the ‘mull goemkars’ and ‘gaonkars’ who may not be Indian citizens. While even Non-Indian Residents of Indian origin have got recognition under the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), the overseas Goans are sought to be declared ‘Non-Goans’ in their own homeland by mergerists. For Goans blind to the current nation-wide realities with experiments of preparing a National Citizens’ Register (NRC), splitting the J&K State into Union Territories and attempts to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 to give citizenship rights to non-Muslim infiltrators, POGO may land up being one of those covetous designs, which will facilitate Goans into detention centres.
With ‘goy rakshaks’ remaining mum over the recent constitutional excesses and human rights violations across the country, the blind endorsement of POGO without sufficient scrutiny from Goans may only end up overturning the verdict of the opinion poll. Some Goan sounding names, but faceless and probably not even physically present in Goa, appear to be mindlessly cheering POGO on social media by appealing to its critics to be ‘Positive Goans’. A couple of questions on the genesis of this POGO process are enough to expose their ignorance. On being cornered, they quickly recover their sensibility with a counter argument like, “Why don’t you give us your solution to stop what is happening to Goa and Goans?” They then have to be reminded that social media is no place to plan movements and discuss strategies to save Goa. That Goans asking uncomfortable questions and not blindly swallowing anything thrown their way are not ‘Negative Goans’. Positive goemkarponn is about prudence and discernment, which involves critical thinking and reflection before making political choices. That before dreaming of a revolution, Goans first need to recall as to when liberated Goa has last witnessed unanimity amongst its sons of the soil, cutting across castes and religions, on contentious political issues.
Goa has been infested with corruption and run over by migrants mainly because of delinquencies and disorders resulting from the caste mentality, bigotry and greed in Goan society. What should one infer when ‘goy rakshaks’ who protest outside the IFFI venue to save Mhadei, and thereafter also enjoy a tea party with the Union Environment Minister inside the venue? Such chronic disorders cannot be treated with a single issue approach and by ignoring the cross-impact relation with other pressing problems. For those who are of the opinion that ‘doing something is better than doing nothing’, the inverse of it - ‘a job half done is as good as none’ - may also stand valid.
And more importantly, ‘goy raksha’ cannot be allowed to get modelled around the exclusivist, xenophobic and bigoted mentality of ‘gau raksha’ and ‘Hindutva raksha’. Adhocism and mediocrity will not resolve or mitigate Goa’s chronic social and political crisis. When Goans are unable to arrive at a consensus on defining ‘Goan Asmitai’ and ‘goemkarponn’, and with many Goans losing their right to vote and voice by virtue of surrendering their citizenship, is POGO not about putting the cart before the horse? Why is a demand for ‘Dual Citizenship to Goans’ not a priority when it comes to the protection of Goa’s demography, identity and livelihood? While no one denies the threats to Goa and the future of Goans, scapegoating and jingoism are no solutions. A participatory and comprehensive understanding of Goa’s reality, backed up with rationally, technically and morally sound political responses, are a must for arresting further decay.
(The author is a social activist)