There’s something sinister about latitude15 23’55.27” N and longitude 73 58’57.91” E. On Google Earth or other Maps of the planet, chances are you might not have noticed it. Even Goa’s successive governments and their security agencies do not seem to have noticed it but it is playing to packed galleries on national television and national media. The tragedy is – it has been nine years since their terror ways were first known after Margao Bomb blast, yet it took a national expose revealing the threat to progressive writer and Sahitya Akademi award winner Damodar Mauzo that Goa realised the threat from Sanatan Saunstha.
Imagine the irony, the highly controversial outfit operates in the heart of one of the most pious religious circuits and spiritual neighbourhoods of Goa. It has flourished in the constituency of probably the most influential politician in Goa’s political history for the past one and a half decade, Goa’s PWD Minister of the MGP. The Saunstha grew up in a neighbourhood not very far away from Goa’s controversial Home Minister from the Congress. And yes, the organisation seems to have garnered notoriety in the times of a radical Hindu BJP government in the State. Somewhere, every political outfit worth its salt seems to have a tactical hand in the birth and flourish of the outfit in the State. And nobody wants to talk about it. And interestingly Aam Admi Party’s Elvis Gomes sums it up well, “Terrorists have no religion. They could be anybody and the government of Goa has the presence of Sudin Dhavalikar as the PWD and Transport minister in all governments. That is why the BJP, Congress, GF, MGP and Independents are silent on the damaging revelations made by the Goa Police officers.” Elvis didn’t make an accusation. He just stated the obvious.
This isn’t funny anymore. If Tourism and Travel Association of Goa finds it of no consequence to them, they are playing blind man’s bluff with the lives of so many tourists coming to Goa. If the shack owners on the beaches of Goa find the sinister nest in Bandode of not their concern then they live in fool’s paradise. Everyone, the taxi owners, the mining-affected, the students, the old folks just everyone cannot be oblivious to the menace called Sanatan Saunstha in their midst. Why? Because every time a prospective visitor to Goa googles the organization, the alleged terror-linked outfit pops up to sully the image of Goa. Admit it or not but yes, the Saunstha did get us a bad name.
Since the 2009 Margao bomb blasts just before the time when the State’s Hindu population celebrates Narkasur, the blast proved two things. (a) Terror has no religion and in Goa’s context a homegrown terror outfit threatens its own majority population and (b) The silence of our politicians, our elected representatives prove that they care more about the Saunstha flourishing behind the susegad image of Goa than stopping it from sullying Goa’s international image of a liberal, carefree, cosmopolitan culture. How many times has Goa Legislative Assembly witnessed debates on the Saunstha and its activities in the national media? None. How many of Goa’s MLAs, Ministers past and present have raised the red flag even after so many stings and reports from other State security agencies linked the radical Hindutva terror attacks of the Saunstha to its Goa base? None. In its edition dated June 9, 2013; Sanatan Prabhat, the Saunstha’s mouthpiece newspaper published a purported speech made by Dr Charudatta Pingale, national guide of Sanatan Sanstha’s offshoot organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti stating. “The police will be the first target when the revolution begins. We will not be able to establish a Hindu Rashtra without defeating the police and the [Indian] Army”. The speech was made at Goa during the second annual convention of Hindutva outfits in Goa organised by Sanatan. Manohar Parrikar was then Goa’s Chief Minister and Home Minister as well. Months later he was also India’s Defence Minister. Beacons of liberal civil society in India, including Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar, M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, were all murdered thereafter and their links to Goa’s Saunstha based has been in the public domain. But Goa government turned a blind eye. Question is does the government want to convert Goa into another war zone just as it other ruled States where it has failed to control fringe elements such as Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and even Jammu & Kashmir?
There is something brewing in the brotherhood of our politicians. Something that stinks. There is a disquiet and deafening silence and nobody wants to talk about it. While Goa was discussing formalin in fishes and missing bodies in the morgue and our government’s PR machinery trying desperately to take people’s attention away from their misgovernance and remotely controlled existence, National television and even newspapers broke the story of political patronage of the Saunstha by influential leaders in the ruling dispensation. Interestingly, even the warring bastions of the current BJP government that is the MGP and the GFP do not speak in as many words as to why does such an alleged terror outfit which is a threat to the civil Society exist in the second seniormost Cabinet Minister’s backyard. There’s some vested interest that unites all our politicians do not seek either the ban or complete elimination of this outfit in the heart of Goa.
But then it is not the first time that terror came home – to roost in Goa. From Indian Mujahideen’s Yasin Bhatkal to Tehreek-e-Mujahideen’s Tarique Ahmed Batlo to unknown operatives of Jaish-e-Muhammad to ultras from North East, Goa has always been a haven for terrorists thanks to a weak and almost compromised intelligence gathering structure, a lackadaisically motivated Goa Police and a ‘differently’ motivated politician. The manner in which Goa’s BJP Home Minister gave a clean chit of innocence to the reveal of a ketamine manufacturing facility at Pissurlem Industrial Estate belonging to a senior BJP party functionary is a clear-cut proof that crime and policing and now even terror exists because of an I-scratch-your-back-and-you-scratch-mine between ultras and Goa’s politicians. Mind you both are equally at fault – the politician who patronised the Saunstha and its’ various ‘civil’ activities in Goa and the other politician who kept quiet and never spoke against it.
But the biggest fault lies with us Goans who seem to be watching this expose after expose of Sanatan Saunstha and its alleged deep links of terror in Goa with morbid fascination – sharing Facebook posts, WhatsApp-ing the links but sitting quiet when Bandode Panchayat has its Gram Sabha and the people of the terrified village cannot speak up as to why do outsiders with wooden staff and dazed looks allegedly terrorise their village into submission while their local MLA finds no fault in all this. If we can flood to Chicalim Sports ground to fight for Vasco to have a coal-free air or land at Candolim gram sabha to lend a shoulder to protect its land planning, can’t we swamp Bandode and free its people from fear and loathing by the alleged terror invaders of their pristine and holy village?
