IT Minister Rohan Khaunte has stirred a massive hornet’s nest by touching on sensitivities which are raw and very emotional. He first remarked at a function at an educational institution, which can be paraphrased as he saying that those who have lost their love for Goa and live outside Goa have no right to criticise and comment on Goa. After the obvious uproar and flak, he in an interview to a local media network attempted to clarify this by saying that he was targeting those who had acquired Portuguese (or foreign) passports and were living abroad. This incidentally was not at all underlined in his remarks at the felicitation programme. He specifically said, just this, “Those living in London, Kuwait.. (etc) seem to be commenting more (on social media) than Goans themselves.”
While there has been an emotional outburst from people living here as well as sections of Goans abroad (whose responses have been very dignified), it will be a travesty if one allows these remarks to go without a broader discussion, since this unwritten expectation for Goans who have settled abroad, irrespective of their passports, to prove their love for their land, has to stop. While the minister and everyone else has a right to question the crassness of language and the manner in which remarks are made in social media, it doesn’t immediately pass muster that those Goans living abroad (or those with mainly Portuguese passports) have no right to speak or react on issues concerning the land. But still, let’s talk.
To debate this we need to break the several complexities and nuances that are embedded in the remarks and the broader question of whether those who leave our shores, cease to be our sons and daughters. Can a government or a minister or any commentator or journalist stand on a podium and assume or conclude, generally, that (if we go by Mr Khaunte’s clarification) that anyone who has acquired a foreign passport, does not love their land? Because this is what the IT minister has said without any ambiguity.
This remark needs justification. The exodus of Goans from here happens across two streams.
The first is the very traditional route when young boys join shipping companies and cruise liners to earn a life and living at sea, and make their families in their village prosper. And secondly, there are those who gradually make use of their Portuguese passports to make their way to the UK to live, work, settle or even draw from the British system, grants and doles as EU citizens. Mind you, this debate isn’t about the ethics of taking this route. The limited point here is do they surrender their love for Goa with their Indian passports or when they acquire Portuguese (or any other country’s) identity.
Those who are on various groups on Facebook where Goans abroad and in India are members, and do a comprehensive research on the issues Goan abroad, have raised, debated and commented on, Goan issues with no question of any personal gain. They stand tall on the ethics and genuineness quotient. There is a smattering of habitual rabble rousers and so called debaters who make empty noise but on a social platform, one cannot draw out the microcosm of empty vessels and use them as a barometer to gauge the Goan-ess of our brothers and sisters who have settled abroad.
Secondly – and one can hazard an informed guess here – over 60% of these Goans who are strong voices protecting Goan interests on social media, visit Goa, their homes and their families, perhaps even more than Goans settled in other parts of India. Those who have Portuguese passports also have OCI cards which recognise their Indian-ness and by extension their goan-ness. They return not to take anything from their roots but if possible give back. If you do a simple survey speaking to bank managers of branches in rural villages you will know of staggering amounts that are ploughed back into Goa from non resident Goans
Homes are built, land is bought, higher education is funded, cars are purchased and lifestyles are enhanced. For this reason alone, if for nothing else, their right to speak, fight, suggest and comment about a land they deeply care for, needs protection. Not from politicians, but from fellow Goans.
Moreover the hard truth must be spoken. The history of migration is signposted with stories of unfulfilled lives. Migration, per se, however glamorous you may make it out to be in a non conflict situation of people moving countries, is essentially about lack of fulfillment and the need to seek it elsewhere. Why are Goans unfulfilled here? And Goans are not the only ones to migrate. The statistics of those who have left from Punjab and Kerala for Canada, the Gulf and other parts of the world will consume Goa’s population several times over. Will any minister in Punjab, for instance, say that a Canadian Sikh does not love Punjab and has no right to comment or critique the land of his birth, because he ceases to love it?
We would like to draw readers of Herald into this debate. Let the comments flow and we urge you to have a reasoned debate even if a passionate outburst may be an instinctive reaction. Every nuance or point cannot be answered here but let us do it over time. We want the people of Goa to express and put their thoughts across. And we will moderate, monitor and comment on an issue which does strike at our emotions.
