Our guest was hurt. Sitting in the studios of our TV arm HCN, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar lamented that a “certain English newspaper” has been writing “editorial after editorial” against him. The irony couldn’t have been more stark that he had to make a public lament against a newspaper sitting in the offices of the same media network.
His lament is understandable, perhaps even justified, for him and his government. But his comments need to be taken note of, not because he has admitted to being affected by our editorials (and we should be excused for assuming rightly that it was your newspaper our Chief Minister was referring to) but a greater malaise which needs immediate treatment. If he feels in the interventions made by Herald, on behalf of the people, personal hurt, then he needs to channelise his emotions into course correction and not self pity.
Understandably, he is carrying the weight of ‘U’ turns and unkept promises of the Parrikar government. But to see in scathing media criticism a personal attack and not a daily feedback of the angst of people betrayed, is a cardinal mistake. After all, what world is the Chief Minister living in? In just under six months, is he so alienated from the realities in the grassroots that he gets hurt and jolted when the mirror of truth is held to him? The answer is yes. This alienation has been caused by a coterie who aims to please and hubris which makes him think that his predecessor Parrikar had spoken and left, leaving him with no money and a sea of unfulfilled promises and it is he who is taking the state out of its morass.
When a Chief Minister thinks so, he is the most comfortable with media that doesn’t jolt him and does its expected job of reporting his government with the sagacity of a note taker, always perfect, but never questioning, never interpreting. When sections of the media break this mould, these messengers become “outsiders” and the note takers remain insiders.
But that is just in passing. The Chief Minister and his advisors, and he has plenty of them including some leftovers of the Parrikar regime, are embarking on a very dangerous path of snuffing out public opinion by dismissing peoples voices because they are unpalatable.
And some of the voices are saying this. The government has betrayed them on the Regional Plan by not sending the plan to the people, the government has betrayed them on the airport issue by its double speak on Dabolim, the government has betrayed them by going back on the demand for Special Status for Goa. The government has betrayed them by not reacting and putting an end to continuing statements which hurt minorities, the government has betrayed the local community of Tiracol by pushing the golf course project but not giving any hearing to the people whose lands have been taken away.
Every day and in every which way, the chasm between government and people in increasing. And that is what your newspaper has been – hopefully – faithfully reporting. Chief Ministers don’t always get this. There are still newspapers which will choose to hurt a hundred chief ministers if even one common man is hurt, cheated and betrayed by the very government he has voted for. A hundred Laxmikant Parsekars can expect to be hurt a hundred times if people of Goa cannot live with pride and dignity with their rights secured on the land they were born.
