The levels of decency in political discourse as well as political rivalry have reached a new nadir in Goa, while taking political pot shots as well as crusading against all kinds of wrongs including corruption and moral turpitude.
However when private individuals especially women with families and children, are dragged and maligned in a salacious manner, to drive home the purported and alleged moral misconduct of a minister, it needs to be condemned and justice demanded for. And social activist Aires Rodrigues, in the news often for conducting crusades, has allegedly crossed the lines of decency if he has actually posted pictures of a married woman from Siolim, indicating that she was a participant in an obnoxious purported sexual act with the minister of Fisheries Vinod Palyekar, whose video footage Advocate Aires Rodrigues claimed to have access to.
Herald had so far refrained from joining issue or even reporting on Aires Rodrigues social media campaign, castigating the Fisheries minister and the Goa Forward Party leader Vinod Palyekar, for the supposed and totally alleged act of the minister. This is because, firstly, there was no evidence of the seedy CD of the minister in the “act”, but more importantly because it made no sense to join the cheap voyeurism that social media was feeding on and feeding off. Secondly and this is important, there was no apparent justification in dragging a woman, and if what she says is indeed true in all aspects, posting her picture on social media, identifying her as having a possible alliance with the minister. This is when a line has to be drawn and said enough is enough. No woman should be subjected to this kind of humiliation, torture and infamy under any circumstances.
While the law is supposed to protect her, civil society should do it even before the law does. And the civil society of Goa will fail if it does not rise against this kind of behaviour, especially when a lawyer and social activist who has had a history of taking cudgels against the powerful, is seen to be causing harm to a hapless woman. Thus, when a helpless woman becomes a victim of an act, where the entire focus is getting to see a video of a minister performing an alleged sex act, there is something which is very debased.
If the woman had been a victim of any act of the minister, then the minister would not have been spared, and will not be spared. But if the woman has alleged blatant victimisation leading to her modesty getting outraged by the purported acts of the activist lawyer, he is on his own in defending this act of his. And this is not about the minister and whether he is involved in any activity of the kind he has been alleged to be, which has been supposedly captured in a video which has not see the light of day. Thus we are not even asking “Where is the video”? It doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter here, if the allegations of Rodrigues, that the minister was misusing his position to sexually exploit vulnerable women, have an iota of truth. That has to be proven independently. What matters is that a woman with a husband and a child has said that she had to leave home and live in safe house facing and fearing more taunts and an attack on her honour from a section of the society, which has been feeding on the insinuations, allegations and salacious innuendos contained in the posts of the social activist.
Aires Rodrigues has filed a counter complaint about the blatant manner in which the lady from Siolim (the woman who has filed a complaint against Rodrigues) and others entered his office, “intimidated and threatened” him and threw ink on him. His complaint too deserves to be taken seriously and pursued under the ambit of law. But in no way dilutes or offsets the charges against him.
At the same time, the call for justice for the lady from Siolim, should not in any manner be equated with a call to cut to size forces like Rodrigues in Goa. Yes he has had a brush with controversy and there are allegations that he takes up crusades, with the purpose of stopping half way, through “mutual negotiations”. This, while largely unproven at times, takes the sheen off his work. But let there be no mistake that he has had a history of taking on the powerful, and that is a space that must continue to be occupied.
But in doing so let the debate or the fight be civil, devoid of name calling and abuses and most importantly within the ambit of law and above all genuine.
We all need to introspect. The level of political, discussion, debate and arguments are getting stripped off dialogue and decency,. And that makes Goa less of a society with its moral values intact.
