A month from now, it will be two years since Pratapsingh Raoji Rane made a statement in the Goa Assembly insulting Goans working abroad, ridiculing them for speaking on Goan issues and said that, “We don’t know what kind of jobs they do there? I have heard that they clean toilets there.”
Goans have not forgotten this remark of the man who has been the longest-serving Chief Minister of Goa, but whose family (he and his son) have only managed the affairs of Sattari well, by giving them political bread, in order to keep their own political future well-fed.
Goan brothers and sisters working abroad have not forgiven Senior Rane for calling them “toilet cleaners”
This joke has gone on too long. The joke of not giving opportunities to the young. Each government has been responsible. And when they seek opportunities abroad, not beg for government jobs here, nor become political stooges, find jobs especially in the UK and live with dignity, can one do no better than dismiss them as toilet cleaners? By the way, that too is a job which is done with dignity and they deserve respect. But perhaps leaders who think they are royalty will never realise that.
Mr Rane was asked to apologise by his own party and withdraw those remarks. Has he given an unconditional apology now? Has he withdrawn his remarks now? And his party president Girish Chodankar who threatened to write to High Command to force an apology from Mr Rane has quietly buried the issue. Why, because Goans who live abroad are not a strong vote bank? Why is Herald raising this? Because Goans have not forgotten this.
PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TRUSTED IN HIM, BELIEVED HIM, EVEN ERECTED HIS STATUE IF HE HAD GIVEN OPPORTUNITIES
As a Chief Minister, opposition leader and after holding so many positions across decades, Pratapsingh Rane could have ensured that no Goan had to go abroad for a living. And we are not talking of government jobs but making Goans self-reliant by giving them opportunities for self-employment and growth.
But he squandered that opportunity. He failed. What he and his son, who is now a minister in the BJP, have done well is the “Satarriisation” of Goan politics. Government departments under Vishwajit Rane’s charge are filled with people from Valpoi and Poriem and nearby constituencies, including Sankhalim, which he is trying to hold sway over. How great would Senior Mr Rane have been if he had made Goa a land of employment and opportunity? Alas.
And then when his son left the party, joined the BJP and shed tears in front of Mr Parrikar, with the father being in the Assembly, did Senior Rane stop his son or at least say this betrayal of the Congress wasn’t acceptable?
Hundreds of thousands of Goans and those of Goan origin who live abroad have their hearts in Goa. But Goan leaders give them no hope
Goans who live abroad have their bodies and minds in the country they live in. But their heart and soul live here. Especially the 60 plus generation and more specifically those who are even older. Most of them, if not all, want to spend their sunset years back home in Goa. In their villages, by their rivers, with the aromas and flavours of village life and above all with their own people.
Has the Goa government or their leadership down the ages made this easy and comfortable for them? If they come back, what do they come back to? To find that a political leader has grabbed their ancestral house and land, forged documents in the name of fake owners, and this land “sold”. Many have returned to find bouncers on their property.
Do they return to see their village and village life destroyed by rampant construction most of them illegal so that their coastal village looks like an urban slum, full of migrants?
Do they want to come back if they hear alien languages being spoken, Goan culture and traditions crushed and the uniqueness of Goan life totally missing?
Do they want to come and experience not even a semblance of the infrastructure in their adopted countries like proper and regulated transport system, excellent health facilities throughout, free education at least up to the University level?
Goans abroad are victims of ‘double jeopardy’. This is worse than making them suffer ‘double-tracking’
The double jeopardy heaped on them is this. Firstly, Goans were forced to leave their homeland to seek jobs. None of them really wanted to get a foreign passport and live on foreign soil. They are Goans after all. And now when they speak about their homeland, take up issues, launch signature campaigns for the protection of Goa’s environment, they are subjected to ridicule and insults. This is worse than pushing a railway double-tracking project on them to carry coal through their villages.
When they remitted money, which allowed so many Goan families here to be self-sufficient, no one said a word
Many families in Goa live comfortably without burdening the state because of the role played by NRI Goans. And when the same Goans take up causes for Goans, they are blamed for commenting about Goa from their comfort zones abroad. This is not acceptable.
HERALD will be with all our Goans abroad in their fight for Goa’s future, forever
They have every right. And they will play a part in deciding Goa’s future, Herald pledges to be with them forever and walk with them. So that when they come back, they still get the Goa they left behind, and love, more than their very lives.
