The trending joke in town goes around like this. A phone call to Police HQ. Man: “Hello Sir! I want to do a crime. What’s the permissible limit?” DGP: “Wrong number. This is not FDA.” It took an official controversial statement that formaldehyde in fish seized by Goa’s Food & Drug Administration was within permissible limits hours after a minister giving it a clean chit to further shatter Goem and Goenkar’s faith and trust on the State government. But what is emerging is much more than administrative hoodwink and lie. Instead, lies are being brazenly and blatantly forced down people’s throats.
Sample this. A minister tweets “FDA has now confirmed that reports indicate fish showing no trace of formalin and hence safe”, while Food and Drug Administration admits that “The samples tested positive, showing presence of formaldehyde” but “The results obtained for all the samples are found within permissible limits”. Subtle difference but conflicting, hence disturbing. Whom do we believe? The unrelated minister or the related department? Interestingly, doesn’t the concerned FDA Minister’s (who also holds the charge of the health of the people of Goa) silence on the matter smack of a governmental cover-up?
Even the FDA/Health Minister (who is a Masters in Business Administration) has been dishing out health reports from ‘dehydration’ for Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to ‘brain stroke’ for Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar, while his Director of Health Services and Dean of Goa Medical College, both senior specialists in healthcare, are gagged to speak on the subject. Question is how much can you trust a MLA whom you elected or the minister who was forced upon you to tell the truth, not the doctored facts. As Bangambiki Habyarimana would say, “In politics what you see is not what you get”.
For six months, Government of Goa has been shuttling between Operation Theatres, Intensive Care Units and Special Wards. Ministers and MLAs of the ruling dispensation have been falling seriously ill. As Goem slips into a suspended animation and government goes into a coma, it is the ministers with critical responsibilities – (1) Home, Mining, Education, Environment, etc, responsible for rising rapes, non-recovery of mining loot and non-starter of mining (2) PWD responsible for the landslides, flooding and potholed roads (3) Power responsible for denying Goenkars power but obliging builders; who are failing the State. The burden of truth about the health condition is left on the shoulders of those Cabinet colleagues who work more for themselves than Goem. And Goenkars want to know the truth.
Equally responsible for this era of lies, deceit and half-truths are newshounds, reporters and editors who are either embedded in the system so as to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome of government lies or too sussegad to push forth and ask uncomfortable questions. Those who ask questions or speculate the truth are hounded by Goa Police, the establishment and all associates of the ruling dispensation. Truth has been the greatest casualty in Goa over the past decade as every attempt to ask questions is hijacked by the ruling dispensation. Mix carefully truth and deceit, you have politics. Politics preys on people’s naivety.
Count the lies that you live every day and you will find that all is well in Goem or is it? Your minister tells you there are thousands of jobs coming for the youth but why is everyone migrating overseas? Your minister says that he is providing super-speciality healthcare but then why are patients sleeping on Hospicio floors or those fungus infested walls adorn GMC? Your minister says farming produce is rising in the State but then why isn’t he banning conversion and acquisition of agriculture and orchard lands? Your minister says we are having swanky four and six-lane highways but then why are our internal roads sinking with every day of rain? Is all ‘within permissible limits’ too?
