Stop ranting against NGOs and activists

Stating that the House Committee on bullfights had got an overwhelming yes from Goans on restarting dhirio, with just a sprinkling of people opposing it, Benaulim MLA Caetano (Caitu) Silva, a member of the House Committee went on to say that “In Goa there is a fashion to oppose anything…” He was obviously referring to the increasing opposition that the State is seeing to government projects and proposals.
But, in making the statement he erred. It has not become a fashion to oppose anything. What has become a fashion is the proclivity of the politicians to follow their leader in making such statements. It began with Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar criticizing NGOs for their opposition to projects, then it was the turn of Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to do the same, which he did at the function to felicitate him on his 60th birthday. It didn’t take long for Silva, a MLA of the Goa Vikas Party and supporting the government, to toe the line of his leaders and do the same – try and attempt to deride the efforts of the robust army of people who are defending Goa from the unbridled attack by the government of the day on the State’s environment and identity.
Parrikar, Parsekar, Silva and all the other Ministers and MLAs who are under the mistaken impression that there is an army out there just waiting to pounce on any proposal and oppose it, have got it worng. They have got to understand that the people in Goa are not opposing just the government about ‘anything’ and they are not doing so because it is a ‘fashion’. If any project that has been undertaken by the government or been proposed by it, has met with opposition then those opposing the project or proposal have had concise and faultless arguments, backed by facts and figures to justify the resistance. This can be easily proven as a number of the projects that have been opposed over the past few years have been later taken to the court and here court rulings have gone in favour of those opposing the project and not in favour of the government or the proponent of the project.
How then does opposition to illogical projects and proposals become a fashion, especially if and when the opponents are backing their arguments with facts that can be held up in court, even by the highest court of the land?
The fault lies in the government that looks at every argument as being an attack on the establishment. All that the people of Goa are asking is that the government maintain a balance between industry and ecology keeping in mind future generations. If the government is not ready and willing to listen to the voice of the people, will it only listen to the industry?
Given that the people of Goa are partners in the State’s progress and have a stake in its development, instead of making wild statements that border on accusations, politicians today should listen to what the people are saying rather than closing their ears and calling it opposition. There has to be a system in place where interaction between the people and the government of the day occurs on a public platform and where both are able to put forward their point without fear. Such meetings should not be dragged down in the manner the hearing on the Mopa airport last year, where the pro-Mopa lobby drowned out the voice of the anti-Mopa lobby, using intimidatory tactics.
This rant against the NGOs and activists must stop. They need to be given the opportunity to make their point. If the government is able to counter it, then it will have the right to dismiss the opposition, until then it has to accept what the people are saying.