Trailer of what is to come
Even though the mandate is for NDA 3.0, and a strong united Opposition has been voted in, so far it is Modi 3.0 since he seems to be calling all the shots once again!
All the key appointments made in major portfolios are the same BJP stalwarts and his writ runs as before. Bridges are falling like ninepins, roads caving in, smart cities flooding, state of art airports, railways ghastly accidents and projects the PM has inaugurated with much fanfare causing much misery to the people!
Authorities do not talk of maintenance failures or admit responsibility. The frantic development made to boost India’s stature and the nationalistic religious polarization has made the electorate press the pause button!
The functioning of Parliament is disgraceful, prejudiced Speakers in both houses, so far decisions being passed as usual by voice vote and an antagonistic ruling party and Opposition with daggers drawn! The world and the electorate are watching the self- appointed Vishwaguru and messenger of God trying to carry on bulldozing with business as usual in Parliament. This President cannot be expected to call both Modi and Rahul to advise them to cool it in public interest and respect the people’s mandate. The sooner Modi sees the writing on the wall, the better for all concerned!
John Eric Gomes, Porvorim
In Goa, things are a mess
With the monsoon setting in Goa everything is leaking, flooding or collapsing. The local bus stand in Panjim is leaking from the canopy that constitutes the roof. In the papers the other day, there was a pic of workers covering the tiled roof of the Goa Legislative Assembly with the ugly blue plastic sheets because it was leaking.
It is just a 20-year-old building and one cannot understand how a premier building like it develops leaks. Buildings stand for hundreds of years which would mean that proper care was not taken in its construction or no preventive maintenance was undertaken. Similarly, the main Panjim market roof is leaking and you have to take a shower as you buy your fruits and vegetables.
There is no sense of shame in government and administration for all this and all they do is look for scapegoats. Nobody takes responsibility. The Kala Academy also designed by the famous architect the Late Charles Correa was a beautiful complex for the cultural activities on the banks of the Mandovi.
Some crores were spent on it for renovation given to a Bombay architect without a tender and it is now leaking like a sieve rendering it completely unusable. People, artistes particularly are up in arms since they have no venue to stage their shows.
Sometime back, the roof of the Open Air auditorium in the Kala Academy complex collapsed one day without warning onto the stage. Imagine if it had happened during a show. Mind you it was not under the overall renovation plan.
Panjim city for more than a year now has been like a disaster area with the Smart City projects on. With the rains now, the situation has become worse. Earlier people were equating Panjim to an archaeological site now it must have become like Dwarka, the underwater city! This is true not only for Panjim but all across Goa, things are a mess. Goans have been patient with the government and administration on these matters for long but they have been taken advantage of. They need to change and become more vociferous and pro-active and hold the authorities accountable since after all it is public money that is being squandered and/or appropriated.
Srinivas Kamat, Mysore
Medical exams prone to scam
India’s top exams for medical and research programmes has been hit by corruption scams. Corruptions are not new to our country. Corruption and scam are two faces of one coin. There are several flaws in the NEET 2024 result declared on June 4 which point towards a possible scam and the incompetency of NTA to conduct the NEET UG 2024.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) is responsible for holding the exam is itself under the controversies over the integrity of NEET exams for neural aspirants held in May month. The May month exam has been revealed with irregularities in marks and a dramatically high number of toppers, with a wave of arrests in different parts of the country for alleged paper leak.
The leak is an institutional failure from the NTA. And the failure of government to crack down on corruption in the country’s top exams that determine who goes on to become doctors is a cause of concern. The NTA defended itself by saying that several students were awarded grace marks by examiners at their discretion. The students rank in the competitive NEET is vital to securing admission to a medical schools in India. Medical entrance has always been a prone to scam and malpractice.
K G Vilop, Chorao
Country needs good men and not god-men
This refers to the stimulating editorial, ‘Blind faith harming the society’ published in O Heraldo on July 8. There is no shortage of godmen in India and in Indian jails. Very often, a new self-proclaimed Messiah appears, and gullible individuals throng them to shove
their prayers and money into their hands.
Godmen in India are a different breed; self-styled healers, saviours, and incarnations of the divine, they possess the uncanny ability to attract lakhs of followers, wielding a tremendous holding power over them to camouflage their nefarious activities. Even though ‘gurus’ like Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Asaram Babu who have been implicated for various crimes in the recent past, India’s unhealthy obsession with these babas continues.
And the stampede at Hathras, UP, where lakhs gathered in a satsang organised by the soi-disant godman Bhole Baba, only reaffirms this. In a nation, marred with economic troubles and a million gods to pick from, we still hear cases of people being duped or physically harmed by organisations run by these so-called godmen, who have the strong backing of our politicians. India may be a religious country, but that should not give politicians reason to mix politics with religion. And when the two mix, things get messy, warranting the society to question this unholy nexus. The country needs good men and not god-men.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
