Come Liberation Day i.e., 19th Dec and one will see the State Government and even Central Government Ministers, go into a celebratory and “patriotic perception” mode, with all their events, speeches, and other Drama!
I say drama because the following facts prove the blatant hypocrisy of it all:
Many “Liberated” Goans irrespective of caste, creed, religion have already, and more are still trying to secure passports of Goa’s Former Colonizer i.e., Portugal! So, what is this telling us??
Promises made by the then Indian Government in 1961 for Goans to decide the destiny of Goa to preserve the identity of Goa and now totally ignored!! The latter assurances were given then by the Indian government to the United Nations; and “Delhi” has deceitfully gone back on the same!
The Indian Constitution whilst overall good for the country; the Indian Govt just imposed the same on Goa without considering our unique exceptional of being a small state and needing special consideration to preserve our land, environment, culture, and identity! Our little population is now being moving towards as strangers in our own home by uncontrolled migration in vast numbers from outside the State!
“Black money rich” Indians are buying out Goan land at a rapid rate, with the assistance of the Goa government; looks more like Goa is “being liberated from the Goans”!
Environment is gradually being destroyed by some Goan/Central politicians. Massive destruction of mangroves, hills, forests, trees, agricultural land, beaches, and water bodies (including the related points of massive unsustainable development reducing water tables and pumping more sewage into our creeks, lakes, rivers, beaches)
We are gradually importing the stinking corruption from rest of India! Goa is now one of the most corrupt States in India!
Noting (then under a dictatorship) despite their flaws, what the Portuguese could not destroy, pollute, and dirty in 450 years of colonization, Indians have done it in about 60 years!
At Liberation time most of the Public Administration was by Goans, now that is gradually going to be a Goan minority!
Illegal vote banks are being set up and continue to be set up; to keep some incompetent politicians in power!
Goa’s destiny is being guided mainly by Central politicians in service to select crony capitalists who are devastating Goa (including wildlife sanctuaries, pristine villages etc.) for their greed e.g. the 3 linear/destructive projects meant to create a highly polluting coal corridor in Goa…It feels like we have moved from one colonizer to the other!
The Centre, many Goan politicians and mining companies are looting and taking away our rich mineral wealth! Had we had all these resources carefully utilized for Goa, we would have been one of the richest states in the world; instead of now which is the state with extremely high debt!
Democracy is now a big joke in Goa with opposition MLA’s regularly “being purchased” by the ruling party!
I must state that it’s a matter of great sadness that even well to do Goans are opting to migrate out instead of using their God given prosperity to give back to Goa or speaking up or working to make things better; with it selling prized properties they easily inherited without much effort from their forefathers (many of whom worked very hard for it!) …. I also want to reiterate that this extremely high out-migration of Goans out of Goa (who in my point of view fail to see the actual wealth of their home state) is one major reason for the significant degradation of Goa’s identity! Do we ever wonder what particularly wealthy non Goans see in Goa that many Goans fail to see for themselves and take pride in?
Coming to my main point in conclusion, I think rather than just celebrating for the sake of it, the actual meaning of Liberation in my view should be for us to work together to have the Goa that we really aspire for and not in the state of affairs the state is currently in!
