Old Goa Feast: The
VIP seating row
The feast of St Francis Xavier, one of Goa’s most popular and deeply revered Christian celebration will be celebrated today, December 3.
The feast draws thousands of devotees from across the globe to the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa. It has been a tradition for front row seats at the feast mass to be reserved for the Governor, Chief Minister, other ministers and MLAs. However there is ongoing debate against this practice. Some citizens argue that these seats should be given to the elderly, sick, or other devotees, and that politicians should not be given preferential treatment in sacred spaces.
There have been public campaigns and online petitions to stop this practice. People argue that it’s against the teachings of Christ. All are equal in the eyes of God. Critics point to issues such as illegal constructions in protected areas leading to the belief that they should not be given VIP treatment at a religious event. Some suggest that if politicians want front seats, they should arrive early. The Bible says: “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” God’s kingdom operates on different principles than that of the world. In God’s kingdom status, worldly success, and human merit are not the measure of reward. Church authorities could be reserving the front seats for the feast mass for ministers and elected representatives as a matter of tradition and courtesy. It is for the politicians to gracefully give up these front row seats and sit among the devotees. It will be a measure of their true commitment to serve the common man.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
90k anomalies in Goa SIR
The Goa CEO revealing 90,000 voters name anomalies detected during extensive field verification under the ongoing SIR is a surprise.
The SIR is aimed at ensuring that no eligible elector is left out and no ineligible person is included. Though the SIR is mandatory and it was required by law to complete this exercise before every election. The discrepancy emerged after the State’s latest voter list was compared with the lists prepared across the State of 2002. Those whose names to be removed were found ineligible as they are either not citizens of the country, or dead, or have migrated elsewhere, or have their names registered at more than one place.
Past some Nepalese citizens had also obtained illegal voter cards. As most of the Nepalese are working in Goa. And some of the bogus voters are availing of govt schemes, but it is BJP govt that is giving those schemes to them. The objective of this exercise is to ensure accuracy and transparency in the voter rolls ahead of future elections, and that no eligible voter will be excluded without thorough verification. It needs to cleanse the role of fraudulent and malicious voters. This will increase voter-level confidence and bring in significant and correct voting figures.
K G Vilop, Chorao
The progression
of regression
Events during the past 11 years make us wonder where India is heading to? As a nation we are slipping backward, abandoning scientific temper, rational thought, and pragmatic outlook that once defined our aspirations, and sliding instead into an era dominated by superstition, fakery, dogmatic religion, and frenzied ritualistic nationalism. History is unambiguous and witness to the fact that no society which surrendered to religious fanaticism has ever achieved lasting progress or genuine development.
Tragically, India has chosen regression over advancement, deterioration over growth, marching resolutely in the opposite direction from true progress. And all this thanks to the venal, bigoted and narcissistic politicians who rule over us today.
Rekha Sarin, Benaulim
Digital dictatorship
There’s more bad news for mobile phone users in India after the compulsory SIM binding. The government is mandating a government app, Sanchar Saathi, on every new phone, permanently.
For the older devices it will be pushed to your phone via OTA. Users cannot delete it, this is a first. India has never before required an unremovable State app on phones.
Sanchar Saathi is supposedly a lost phone tracker, but if it gets embedded with no possibility of removal, it becomes a government tracker on your device. If the government is allowed to get away with this, what’s next? A mandatory digital ID app? Digiyatra forcibly installed on each device? An app that sends copies of your messages to the government once a month? The mobile phone is your personal space, and this is an invasion of your personal space. It’s where we have our most private conversations.
Exchange sensitive information with people we trust. How do we know this app isn’t used to access files and messaging on our device, which is unencrypted ? Or a future update won’t do that? This is clearly a criminal invasion of our privacy. The government exempts itself from much of the Data Protection Law, this explains why. There was no public consultation, the order wasn’t disclosed. It was just forced on us, a legal way of embedding Pegasus like spyware on our devices. This is dictatorial in nature. If we allow them to get away with this, more will follow.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Is India’s 8.2% GDP
growth accurate?
The government has declared that the GDP grew 8.2% in the July – Sept 2025 quarter. This needs to be clarified since in the same period the GST collections fell from some Rs 182,000 crore in July to some Rs 173,000 crore in September.
Thus if GST collections dropped the GDP could not have grown at such a tremendous pace. Even if you want to consider the lag effect the GST collections in Nov 2025 were at the level of Rs. 170,000 crores. Therefore the credibility gap remains with the present BJP government as far as their published statistics are concerned particularly on economic indices. The attempt by the government is to convey a ‘feel good’ figure by which everyone feels comfortable and less embarrassing questions are raised. This is the reason why maybe the IMF has given a C grade for India’s published statistics.
Srinivas Kamat, Mysore
