The ugly fangs of a government which is getting angrier by the day, at the groundswell of public anger are now fully out. There is no attempt at concealment.
Probably charged with the manner in which the JNU President has been picked up on trumped up charges of sedition, CM Parsekar too thought it was absolutely fine to flex the government’s muscle and threaten those who are opposing his super boss Manohar Parrikar’s pet DefExpo at Betul.
If a beginning has indeed been made, then the CM should do either of the two things. Have a debate in the Assembly and introduce a law, unique to the country that all forms of public protests allowed in democracy will be withdrawn, Article 19 will be suspended and all human rights will be kept in abeyance till the Defence Expo passes off smoothly. Or else he should withdraw his statement and apologise to the people of Goa because the FIR threat was in bad taste, downright arrogant and a blatant misuse of power.
There is no law in the land which can prevent people from assembling legally and peacefully. And if a group of very disturbed people who the government is not responding to about the project, up the ante, then shouldn’t the Chief Minister reach out to have a dialogue, rather than threaten to file FIRs.
After all he is the Chief Minister of a State who is here by virtue of a mandate the people of Goa gave to his predecessor, before circumstances pushed him to this position. He is not a tinpot dictator. Why does he fail to understand that it is his responsibility to respond to concerns that the land earmarked for the DefExpo may not be freed up for other use after the Expo is over? He has been silent on why a 10,000 square feet runway will be built along the coast and whether necessary environmental and GCZMA clearances have been applied for and sought.
The Chief Minister has asked the people to “study the project” before protesting. How on earth does he expect the people to “study”? Will, he throw open the doors of the office of the DM South, the Revenue department and the Chief Secretary’s office for the villagers of Naqueri–Betul to walk in and ask questions. And by the way it is because people have studied that questions have been asked. And since these questions have not been answered people have protested.
If Parsekar’s law prevails over India’s law, then journalists who protested and marched on the streets of Delhi against the thrashing of their colleagues by goonda lawyers should also be threatened with FIRs. The point is simple. If the law is not being broken under what section can the police file FIRs? And even if section 144 is enforced in and around the DefExpo site there are other forms of peaceful protest available to people. If the government is fundamentally anti-people, it can never stop the people from protesting in whatever form available to them within the limits of law. But the CM should stop using the FIR as a threat to quash dissent and protest. That is not a sign of strength but extreme weakness.
We the people of Goa are not impressed and we say very clearly. We will never break the law but fully exercise our democratic right to hold truth to power.
