Airport wars
The Dabolim versus Mopa cauldron has begun to simmer with the chief minister having declared that he would not handover any land to the Airports Authority of India for expansion/parking etc of the Dabolim airport as they had enough land for their requirements. What has added fuel to the fire is that simultaneously, a pro-Mopa outfit called People for Mopa International Airport (PMIA) has called for shutting down Dabolim, handing it over to the navy and declaring Mopa as the only international airport for Goa.
The chief minister’s apparent volte-face on the 36,800 square metres land for Dabolim has evoked fierce criticism from the Goans for Dabolim Only group, which has pointed to Parrikar’s “double standards” as he, when leader of the opposition, was shouting himself hoarse as the Congress regime de-notified land at survey 8/1 at Dabolim, but has done nothing to re-acquire it. In fact, many see his apparent denial of additional land to the AAI as an attempt to undermine Dabolim. But this charge, and the CM’s denial of it, is not new.
What has raised eyebrows, however, is what appears as a simultaneously triggered “counter-mobilisation” in the form of the PMIA, since it appears to be an attempt to take on the Goans for Dabolim Only movement and the Mopa Vimantal Pidit Shetkari Samiti frontally. The PMIA’s Thursday’s call for “development of Mopa and closure of Dabolim by handing over of the airport to the navy for security reasons”, shows that the swords are drawn for battle.
According to many, arguments listed out by the PMIA do not hold water. The hope that Mopa airport would catalyse development for the people around is fallacious on many counts, they say, as it would be a private-public partnership with a profit motive and not a social service venture. Hence, making huge profits (not upliftment of the locals) would be high on the agenda. If PMIA is praying that Mopa would have a trickle-down effect, nearly 66 years of Indian Independence has shown that poverty, backwardness, employment have to be tackled directly and are not susceptible to the trickle-down theories. A few crumbs may eventually fall from the land sharks and capital-intensive hotel industry in the form of jobs for taxi drivers, cleaning staff and other manual or clerical jobs. Some fear that surrounding villagers will be simply blown aside by the winds of concentrated investment in Mopa. The 6,000 to 7,000 jobs for locals they are hoping for maybe just a pipe dream, since corporates detest reservations and promoters will be looking for a qualified workforce which will therefore be migrants.
The PMIA group is right that Goa cannot sustain two airports, which is exactly the argument against Mopa, as it even defies aviation norms for airports proximity. Finally, the demand for handing Dabolim airport to the navy betrays both ignorance of Goa’s history and raises the security bogey. It is already an open secret that powerful politicians across the political divide have purchased land, at ridiculously low rates, to make a killing on re-sale. Hence, all political parties are divided within, on Mopa, as individual profits obviously override the interest of the state.
On the other hand, the BJP and Manohar Parrikar should not consider their historic electoral mandate of 2012 as a “yes” vote for Mopa, since not only was the airport not in their manifesto but the 2012 mandate was a vote against Congress corruption. In 1963, Dayanand Bandodkar too presumed his electoral victory as a vote for merger and drew Goa into a prolonged agitation, thereby derailing development. Only the shock defeat at the referendum on merger ~ The Opinion Poll ~ got him to abandon his digression and focus on people’s welfare. With the poor state of the economy, inflation and other serious constraints, Goa can hardly afford an official language like agitation of 1986, peppered with violence and arson. At this point, there is need for a sustained, studied debate to settle the issue in a democratic manner.
Special Status will be meaningless as Mopa will trigger mass in-migration of capital and the nouveau riche, to further marginalise Goans and finish their only asset ~ land. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, there is enough (in Goa) for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.
