The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests that was visiting Goa called the declassification of the coconut tree a ‘joke’. The Chairman of the committee actually said that the government would have to change the laws of the IPB and the coconut tree if it was to protect the environment. Here we have it: the Parliamentary Standing Committee has called the coconut tree declassification a joke, but the State government has reached a stage that it can’t laugh or even take a joke.
There has always been the danger of politics creeping into the Carnival celebrations in Goa. Not just in the present day, but this existed in the past too. And it did occur this Carnival. When the State funds the programmes, it wants to call the shots and freedom of expression gets curtailed. That’s what happened. There were no coconut trees depicted in the Carnival floats in Panjim and in Margao. That, for a State like Goa, is unimaginable. You cannot drive a kilometre through the countryside without seeing a coconut tree and they have become almost synonymous with the State, and over the years the floats have been replete with coconut trees, coconuts and coconut pluckers dressed very traditionally. But not this Carnival. Coconut trees were out and all because of a government decision.
The government has got pretty riled up over the coconut tree issue. And strangely the issue is of its own making. Not satisfied with having dispatched a letter to the Margao Municipal Council asking it to drop the theme ‘Save Coconut Tree, Save Goykarponn’ from the float parade, the floats screening committee in Panjim went about asking all floats that depicted the coconut tree in any manner to withdraw from the parade or take the props off their floats. Participants of floats that came to Panjim with coconut tree depictions were stunned to hear this. The participants argued that though their floats did not have any anti-government message or criticism of government policies, the mere fact that the coconut tree was depicted led to the screening committee telling them to stay out of the float parade or take out the tree from the float.
This is a form of censorship as it curtails free expression of culture and of creativity.
Carnival is a festival where parody plays an important part. It is all about wearing masks and taking potshots at the government. But not in Goa, at least not any longer. For here in Goa, where Carnival float parades are organized with government funding there can be no criticism of the government. In the villages the khell tiatrs, which are so associated with Carnival and will draw the local residents for that caustic humour and sarcasm, are taking on the government and its decision to reclassify the coconut tree, but the floats that are for the tourists to watch are sanitized. Where’s the fun and the spirit of the Carnival? It no longer exists.
The State is known for its swaying coconut trees, its tourism posters and advertisements show the trees bathed in the sunlight on the State’s golden sands, but the government will not have the tree on the Carnival floats. There is no point in organizing a Carnival where the people are told what they can depict and what they can’t. Carnival should be a people’s celebration with as little political interference as possible. The spirit of Carnival and creativity cannot flow if there are diktats from above that have to be adhered to. A politically correct Carnival is not Carnival. It is too late now to allow the people to have a Carnival that is free of government meddling, but there is a whole year ahead to rectify that before the next Carnival celebration comes along.
