Herald, the messenger, is Goan. And its message is for all genuine Goans

Our new Chief Minister, who has on his shoulders a huge weight of expectations, of carrying the ‘legacy’ of Manohar Parrikar, is yet to come to terms with the position he holds and the gravitas that must come with such a position.

We are confident he will get there but not at the moment. Reacting to our call “Utt Goenkara Utt, Nidhantlo Utt”, asking Goans to wake up from their slumber to fight purported attempts by the government to curtail creative freedoms, Mr Parsekar retorted, “the writer is not a Goan but Laxmikant Parsekar is a Goan and not an outsider. There is no need for him to wake up the Goans”.

We view this not with the least bit of surprise, since that is always the last “logic” in any armoury which is devoid of any. However when a Chief Minister makes such a remark, unbecoming as it surely is, it is important to respond and comment. Firstly, since this entire debate, has become a Government versus Herald issue, rather than what needs to be done to protect the same creative freedom, which BJP rode to come to power, let us ask a few questions

1)    Does Article 19 of the Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech, grant it to all Indians or only to Goans?

2)    Does the Constitution of India bar someone from outside Goa (if you go by the very narrow definition of statehood on the basis of birth) to take residence and practice any profession and do what it takes to carry out his profession?

3)    Is it not incumbent on the part of every responsible newspaper to bring facts in its command and analyse them and raise red flags if the government is even examining anything which will affect people of that land?

4)    The article was published in Herald. Does Herald now need certificates about it being Goan from Laxmikant Parsekar? If Laxmikant Parsekar was born in Goa, Herald was born in Goa more than half a century before he was born. The article was a piece in the Herald and it was not a particular writer’s piece. It was the Voice of the people, with Herald as the platform. It was Herald’s call, on behalf of the people of Goa – all of Goa, all communities of Goa – and was meant to wake up their brethren and all those who genuinely love their land.

5)    Does the definition of Goans, according to the Chief Minister, also include those who sell their land to land sharks and builders from outside the state to build resorts, night clubs etc in Morjim, Ashwem and Mandrem? Is a wake-up call by this brand of Goans, more genuine than the one given by Herald?

6)    When it was the same Herald, that exposed the wrong doings of the Congress, a movement which helped ride the BJP to power in 2012, the BJP gleefully accepted the paper. When Herald singlehandedly led the fight for Konkani as Goa’s official language, the whole of Goa responded to his call which is why we can proudly say Konkani is our official language. So why the double standards?

We now come to the issue at hand. Of the Government exploring the possibility of forming a censor board and the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister denying that there was ever such a move. We would like to place in public certain “movements” which are undeniable.

a) The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti wrote to Chief Minister of Goa after the HJS and other organisations  wanted the tiatr, ‘Akantvadi Goent Naka’ to be banned, because it called for a ban on Sri Ram Sene leader Pamod Muthalik. In this letter in possession of Herald, the HJS asked the government to form a Censor Board. This letter was sent to the Information Department along with a note from the “secretariat” to “examine” the proposal. The Information department sent this note to the Information Director from where this went to the Art and Culture department. 

b)    The Art and Culture department initially told Herald the gist of its comments which concluded asking the State government to go through the legislature to initiate this process.

These are confirmed happenings based on conversations Herald has had. At this stage, even if the file has not gone to the Chief Minister but we are aware of a move of this nature being contemplated, shouldn’t we do our journalistic duty of raising the red flag? Or should we wait till the process is over and the decision is taken?

We are confident that if we had not stepped in and raised this issue in this vociferous manner, the government wanting to make such a move wouldn’t have disassociated with it so quickly.

Also do remember that over 400 tiatrists have signed a memorandum to stop the creation of the censor board. This process started before Herald published its first story. Hence the information has been in public domain. It is only that the memorandum was submitted after the Herald story appeared.

At all points of time we have stuck to the basic principles of journalism and went beyond our call of duty for the State by asking all Goans (“Utt Goenkara Utt..”) to wake up to a situation where not just tiatr’s but all creative stage productions in other languages would be scrutinized. This was meant for all Goans.

It is unfortunate that the Chief Minister of a State cannot see the larger purpose of our stand. If he has no serious intention of forming the censor board and focus on important issues of state building he should just say, that even if something of this nature has been initiated administratively, his government will not clear it. But questioning our facts and our motives is uncalled for, and unjust.

Let the government respond to points a and b and prove us wrong. There can be no smoke without fire. Or it should engage with us to know the goings on in their government which they apparently are not aware of.