In Fr Bismarque, Goa has lost a true son who worked tirelessly for protecting our land, our livelihood and our identity from the big sharks of real estate and politics. He was a selfless social activist who had a tremendous amount of love for Goa and Goans. Whenever anything threatened to harm Goa, Father would immediately run to fight against it. He was a one-man army who single-handedly protected us from many greedy self-centered individuals and groups. For the people of Khariwado, Father will be always remembered as an angel who fought for them against the demolition of their structures.
When Fr Bismarque contested the 2012 assembly elections, I expected him to win by a good margin. By that time he had done a lot for the people of his constituency. But the people chose not to vote for him. Instead they elected someone who had done almost nothing compared to what Father had done for them. They may come on the streets now to show their solidarity, shed tears and protest but the harsh truth is that they were not with Father when he needed them the most. They didn’t shout slogans and gather support for Father when he really needed them to. Things would have been a lot different had Fr Bismarque won the elections. He would have had much more power and authority to fight for us. He would have been an inspiration for other social activists to contest elections. He would have formed a strong opposition to the present government where there is really no opposition. Maybe, Father would have been with us today had he won.
The manner in which the case has been handled indicates either the people responsible for Father’s death are confident of the incompetence, inefficiency and incapability of the police to solve cases or that they have the support and the backing of the Goa police. PI Krishna Sinari has done everything to prove any one of the above indications right from the picking of the beer bottles without gloves to the inability to locate the blood-stained vest which was less than 50 metres from the spot where Father’s body was found. The fact that both the boys who drank with Father and the one who threatened Father on 4 November (two days before he died) have not been treated as suspects and have not been questioned, raises serious doubts about solving the case.
When more than 300 people were arrested, harassed and tortured for protesting peacefully in Panjim on 21 November, the government and the police proved that they will do everything in their power to prevent the truth coming out about Father’s death. Of what we saw on that day,we can be sure of one thing.That the Goa police have now become puppets at the hands of the BJP government.
Murder or drowning, the powers at play will never find out the real truth. But we Goans don’t need the police and the government to tell us what the truth is. We know what happened to Father and who are responsible for it. We have seen how the police and the CM himself have blindly declared Father’s death as due to drowning. Now we will make sure that this anti-people government doesn’t win the 2017 assembly elections. We are Goans, Mr Parsekar. We don’t forget things easily. And we will make sure your government gets punished for what it has done. Your time has gone.
