“If I listened long enough to you
I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true
Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe”
— Rod Stewart (Find a reason to believe)
If you are driving down from South to North or vice versa, a chance RTI revealed that you cannot believe the bridge across Zuari that you travel on. Mind you, it took one curious RTI that exposed that even the PWD that maintained the bridge had no clue whether the bridge was foolproof safe enough. Imagine the hundreds of buses and cars and thousands of people who cross the bridge every day who are oblivious to the safety of the very ground they are driving upon. This is the state of daily betrayals that we live in. A State where the very systems in which we believe in, are turning out to be our greatest backstabbers.
A significant section of the society including even the media itself would like to focus on positive news. Ideally, this would mean praising the efforts of the Government, the snazzy new policies and announcements that are made every day. But the system would want more of it – ignoring the bitter truth and look only at the brighter picture. The image of a swanky new signature Zuari Bridge under construction and to be ready in future is what Goans are supposed to look at whilst we are supposed to cross a questionably worrisome existing old Zuari Bridge. However, there is a problem. On July 5, 1986, Goa witnessed the collapse of one of its most modern structures the first Mandovi bridge. 32 years later, Goans have not quite forgotten the nightmares of that incident. And when the Department itself has no scientific evidence to back the bridge it is bravely trying to protect, the fears of the past will continue to haunt Goans.
It’s easy to ignore the truth. Shut your eyes and pretend that it doesn’t exist because it does not concern us. Ask someone who has lost his loved one to medical negligence in Goa Medical College or a DGHS Hospital if he trusts healthcare in Government sector as much as he would elsewhere? Ask those who discovered that the fish that they so feasted upon since decades was actually poisoning them with carcinogens all the while that whether they would have the same trust in FDA ensuring clean fish again? It isn’t easy pretending that everything is all right in a state where every issue is turning out to be questionable. Look at the amount of solidarity that Rajan Ghate’s hunger strike for removal of the ailing Chief Minister of Goa is being shown by civil society. The media has come and gone. The activists, the politicians have come and gone. Multiple pho-ops, Facebook lives, Twitter posts and shares later, we ask ourselves is Goa even bothered? But the pseudo-positivists would like us to believe that this isn’t Goa’s fight to seek a full-time CM but a political stunt. Right? Wrong. They said the same about the movement against RP 2011 or that against SEZ as lacking in people’s participation till it took the Church to raise the whole state to fill up Azad Maidan (without paid protestors) and Goa rose to shut those illegalities. Maybe the naysayers need another whacking of their conscience to believe that you can’t fool Goans every time.
Truth and facts have a habit of sticking out like a sore thumb. A Government Department may not admit it, a politician may not say it, a newspaper may not tell it but the problem with truth is that if they don’t tell you, someone, else will. Goans aren’t naïve and innocent anymore, they are just outraged. It is just a question of time before their cynicism gives way to outright rebuke.
