JOSE MARIA MIRANDA
Another year has gone by and a new one has dawned. During the last year, we may have lost family members, relatives, friends, either after pro longed or short illnesses or all of a sudden, some young and some not so young. But while deaths in the prime of life are extremely painful, especially for the family and particularly for the parents, who perhaps never dreamt of burying/cre mating their own children, let us always bear in mind that life, young or old, is always precious. Let us pray that this year brings less pain and sor row to our families, caused by avoidable accidents, neg ligence, culpable homicides, not to speak of murders, which are becoming common in this otherwise peaceful land of ours. Let our enforce ment authorities be more alert, proactive and conscien tious to ensure peace and law and order in the State. We need to be thankful to the Almighty for keeping us alive and most of us in good health and to have saved us from catastrophes, which have sadly befallen many States and taken away so many lives. A debt of gratitude is owed to many whistle-blowers, activ ists and protestors, who spare so much of their time, ener gies and finances to be on the roads and in Courts to save our environment and our land, af ter having failed to bring con sciousness and sense to our ever dormant, insensible and greedy authorities. More than New Year resolu tions, which often do not get implemented, on one pretext or the other, it is time for in trospection and to examine our own conscience, starting with the highest authorities in the State, down to each one of us. The wrongs committed ought to weigh on the con science of our law-makers and enforcers for the harm they have caused to some people, their families, our environ ment and our beautiful State. The curses earned may befall us or our families and hence the need to ponder wheth er it is worth sacrificing our peace of mind and health for a few bundles of notes, which may not suffice to protect our well-being. The Birch tragedy at Arpora, with 25 young lives snatched and excruciating deaths of poor and innocent people, who came here to earn a liv ing for their families, now left perennially mourning for their loved ones, surely stands out as the most lamentable and permanent stigma on the State, adding to many noto rious illegal happenings and defections, which have marred the reputation of our belov ed Goa. It should shame and shock the conscience of every one of us that a calamity of this nature and magnitude should occur on our shores and that too in connivance with some of our own people in charge of enforcing legal formalities, including fire safety, to en sure absence of health and life threatening issues. How ever, it stands to the credit of many of our Goans, who are often being accused of being anti-development, perennial activists or anti-establish ment, that they keep raising their voices in protest and are compelled to file expensive petitions, sometimes, success fully, at times, shockingly not, just to ensure that tragedies like these or perhaps worse should not befall our innocent people and our land. Have we learnt not to bolt the stables after the horses have bolted or will insensitivity continue to haunt us with even High Court passing strictures like ‘lack of accountability’ and ‘politicians having profited at the cost of 25 lives”? How can anyone, who was the cause of this un fortunate happening, though not premeditated, sleep in peace after throwing dozens of families in penury? Had any Goans lost their lives in this incident, perhaps the Govern ment would not have escaped the wrath of the people. Will this painful and dreadful way of accumulating illegal wealth serve as a deterrent to avoid similar incidents, in future or will it soon be forgotten? The scrapping of zone change in Arambol and the rethink on Carambolim mega project do indicate some welcome change of mind and prudence on the part of the government, but the Unity Mall in Chim bel, coal, double-tracking and many other issues which have evoked protests, too deserve relook. Another matter of serious concern to all right-thinking and peaceful people is the growing religious intolerance, which, creditably has not yet touched our State, but is regret tably pervading many parts of our country. Entering any reli gious place to disturb festivals of faith, like Christmas, which unfortunately, for some imbe ciles, is joyfully celebrated, like no other, all over the world, is not acceptable behaviour in a civilised country. However, what is reprehensible is the hypocrisy of those who display love for the community and yet implicitly support detestable incidents by their silence. If I believe in the virginity of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, what right has anyone to question it, as it was done in one of the inci dents? Don’t I have the right to my beliefs as much as anyone else has to his/hers? The New Year seems to have dawned with some hope, af ter 2025 left us with some unpleasant memories, which must not be forgotten but en sured they are not repeated. The call given by Retired Jus tice Ferdino Rebelo, received a tremendous response, which must not remain as a one-day willingness to mend things and save our land, but must be a continuous process sustained by perseverance, herculean efforts and cooperation of all who can contribute with their skills, talents, finances and knowledge for a better society and to restore Goa to its pris tine beauty and glory. It was not only the status of the Con venor and his credentials as an honest, upright, competent and knowledgeable Judge, but the palpable anger accompa nied by visible enthusiasm, and hope of people that someone credible was leading a much needed and eagerly awaited movement to undo the wrongs, which emboldened people and brought them together. This movement was moti vated by a former Chief Jus tice of the largest High Court of the country, emotionally and visibly disturbed and shocked at the happenings in Goa, which needed correc tion. It gathered helpless and desperate people, who have long suffered and given vent to their anger and frustration at the adamant and autocratic attitude of local authorities. The Government may ignore it at its own risk. But it needs to dawn on our rulers that Goa is ours as much as theirs, that we ought to preserve and save it for our future gener ations and bear importantly in mind that wealth illegally accumulated may not last as long as the curses may. (The author is a retired banker.)
