How are the statues of greats in Margao doing? Not so great

NESHWIN ALMEIDA

neshwinb@herald-goa.com

In the wake of the statue politics which has embroiled all the 40 MLAs and the four political parties of Goa, namely BJP, Goa Forward, Congress and MGP, Herald takes a ride along Margao town and checks on the conditions of these various statues and busts around the town and also their upkeep.

Our first stop is at the Francisco Luis Gomes statue just outside the South Goa Communidade building. The building is in a dilapidated condidtion, while the bust has been recently done up and has a small square around it used often by political parties to protest and raise anti-government slogans. In the evenings the square around the bust is used by illegal vendors to sell clothes and made in China items but the municipality is unable to clear off these vendors as the Vice Chairperson Tito Cardozo often states to us that the municipal workers are not available beyond 5.30 pm to take action against these illegal vendors.

Dr F L Gomes is from Navelim and is known as Portuguese physician, writer, historian, economist, political scientist and MP in the Portuguese parliament who was the first to advocate freedom of India from the British, explains historian Valmiki Faleiro to us.

Luis De Menezes Braganza from Chandor from the famous Braganza mansion but the city of Margao fails to maintain his bust. Luis De Menezes Braganza was a well-known Goan journalist, writer, politician and anti-colonial activist from Chandor. The municipal worker Gooni at the garden tells us that it’s the job of the garden gang of workers to maintain these busts but more importantly he explains that the MMC Chairpersons or Chief Officer have never come by and seen to the upkeep of these statues or neither do they have any fund allocation to maintain these statues. This bust has details of the famous personality but all washed away and the statue is just a place for anti-socials to lean against and smoke or chew tobacco.

Dr Minguel de Loyola Furtado from Chinchinim was a public person and leader of the partido indiano and also chairman of the municipality and passed away in 1918 and these statues like the others were also erected before Liberation. While badly maintained bust of Dr Minguel de Loyola Furtado prevails in the Margao Municipal garden. The bust is so badly kept that the space created for a flower bed is devoid of any flowers and plants and the marble which etches details of the doctor is all scratched out and cracked. A road besides Fatima Convent is also named after this great man.

While another forgotten statue is that of Agostinho Vicente Lourenco born in 1822 and died in 1893. Agostinho Vicente Lourenco is not known to neither the workers at the municipality or the senior staff but a Goan origin famous scientist based in Lisbon and founder of the Bansen Labs. But the bust of this famous Goan based scientist well known in Europe brings no sense of pride to anybody and is well forgotten in the city. He’s house still stands tall at Abade Faria road though.

While the curator of the city of Margao who created the city square and added steps to the hillock to go up Grace Church and also designed the road besides Lohia maidan is none other than Doctor Jorge Barreto after whom the Praca or rather town square is named but his statues nameplate and details is broken and withered away but the municipal workers say that they don’t take the risk of painting the details again for a fact that they may make an error and distort facts they also state that the municipal councilors do very little to restore or maintain these statues of before the Portuguese era.

While the statue of Ram Manohar Lohia erected post liberation stands tall at the Lohia Maidan. Ram Manohar Lohia who entered Goa in 1946 and made a clarion call for liberation from the Portuguese government has the only full sized statue in Margao and the only statue erected after Liberation in Goa but the statue is often marred with excreta of birds and strays dogs sitting below it and little has been done to maintain the statue.

While the city also has a bust of Floriano Vaz who is believed to be the first martyr of the Konkani agitation and was shot in the 1960 by the police. The ST community has forcibly erected his statue at the Housing board circle but controversies prevail of some citizens claiming that the bust looks nothing close to Vaz. Besides this in the 1930’s Holy Spirit Church erected a statue of then Blessed Joseph Vaz who’s now a saint and after him is also the Blessed Joseph Vaz Garden besides Holy Spirit Church which houses this statue to commemorate the journey of this saint.

“Goa has had more statues of Shivaji, Vailankanni and others of religious connotation but less of great Goan leaders which is the sad state of affairs and also the statues erected now are to please communities and rather invoke the history of great leaders,” explains a well-known historian from Goa.