Diego Francis Rodrigues from Tiracol died on Monday, July 30, 2018 after a brief illness of three days or so and funeral rites took place on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at St. Anthony’s Church, Tiracol with Holy sacrifice of mass. Diego was known to me from 1992 for 25 years. I remember his active presence at several protests in Panjim and other sites in Pernem organised by Jagrut Goenkarachi Fauz (JGF) and Pernem Nagrik Vikas Samiti (PNVS). The protests were against several tourism projects proposed for Pernem coast.
Although we did not cross into Tiracol during our walking expedition and ended in Keri village Diego came to know about it after a day and was active participant in all the subsequent planned protests mainly in Panjim.
In 1993 Diego called me to visit Tiracol in my capacity as Journalist covering Pernem for Herald. I visited him and he shared threats to health faced by entire Tiracol village due to Gastroenteritis epidemic due to pollution caused by Usha Isapat steel plant across Maharashtra border at Redi. He wanted me to publish and this story did get published and authorities did act on in Tiracol people got relief. For past few decades Diego was often elected unopposed to the Keri Panchayat and even served as a Sarpanch of Keri.
A decade ago when it was proposed to set up Golf Course in Tiracol and Vishwajit Rane moved application for the change in land use Diego again got into active resistance. He organised and networked with several people, petitioned several judicial courts including NGT and Mamlatdar’s court and even scored breakthroughs in number of times putting crucial spokes in the way of Leading Hotels taking control of the village land to construct Golf Course and starred hotel.
At the funeral several people, educated and uneducated were seen weeping for the love and care of Diego was far wider and deeper than the width and depth of his grave in sandy shore of Tiracol cemetery. It is a rare sight that a lawyer would cry openly for the death of a client and it was witnessed at Diego’s funeral. It is a rarest of the rare occasion to witness parish priest crying bitterly at the grave of the dead parishioner, yet it was witnessed at Diego’s funeral. The death of Diego was compared to the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador in terms of the wide despair the death has caused and yearnings for new crop of leadership to emerge.
Is Archdiocese of Goa ready to nurture this Hope and a Promise? Is leadership of the Goa Archdiocese ready to address the question of leadership crisis of the Catholic of Goa? Diego’s courage was tested in the past decade. It was tested when bouncers were stationed, trees were forcefully cut down and road construction undertaken at the middle of the night in Tiracol.
Even though there is so much to write about Diego, key issue of leadership needs immediate attention. Will catholic colleges of Goa rise to the occasion to revive AICUF to generate leadership for justice & peace amongst students to steer Goa’s future ahead?
