R Fernandes
Trusting nature of Goans leads them to be fooled easily. But the cake goes to the politicians. Time and again they keep on fooling us and on the same topics as well.
Goa needs Special Status: Any unbiased intellectual committee would endorse the same. The BJP, after coming to power on the same platform then came up with various reasons why this cannot be done.
A single state has been made into 2 states: When Telangana was created, would anyone have believed this was possible? No, we would have said AP would burn. Yet it was done. Would anyone have believed that beef could be banned and that Govt. would soft paddle on crimes against people ‘allegedly’ consuming the same? That the Courts would support the same?
Then there is the case of Portuguese Citizenship. Today, there are more than 3 lakh illegal Indian immigrants in the US. Each year they find new ways to get into the US or the UK — even going in through Mexico. Most of these are from Punjab and Gujarat. Had Goa been situated in these or any other part of India, half of that state would have become Portuguese Citizens AND the Government would have seen to it that they got dual citizenship or some other form of reprieve. They would not have kept quiet. See how the Indian immigrants in Sri Lanka are supported by India.
But not so for Goa. Because Goa is the pie that everyone wants: from real estate to rivers; from jobs to easy business, especially of the unscrupulous type which was not ‘tapped’ earlier. In India anything is possible: you can tamper with Education, re-write history, re-name streets. Right now the BJP wants Goa’s rivers for the benefit of some BJP politicians who want marinas and coal transportation. Go anywhere in India and see the state of the rivers: yet people here will support them. Look at the Ganges: what more do you want?
This state of affairs will continue if we go on letting politicians off the hook. We do not seem to be assertive and we have many who will show their intelligence and come up with their own funds in support of these politicians.
