To revive the traditional Carnival, the organisation has to be handed to private parties: Teles

Joaquim Teles recalls that Carnival in Goa was celebrated during the Portuguese regime. “However, soon after Liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule, Carnival was stopped. Then again it was started in 1964. Later it was revived by late Vasco Alvares.

“Thereafter the then Director of Tourism Mahajan started funding the Carnival through the seventies and the eighties. He continuously organised Carnival till 1987. In 1987, Carnival was not organised due to the Language agitation 1987, but that year Clube Nacional went ahead and organised the Carnival…that was under Francisco Martins,” Joaquim Teles said while outling the history of Carnival celebrations in Goa.

“Back then it was a traditional Carnival. Then the commercial Carnival started. We stopped the The commercial Carnival in 2005. Till 2006 private parties organised Carnival. In 2007 it was organised by Goa Tourism Development Corporation. Panjim Carnival Committee was formed in 2008. And after that it was given to municipal council. From 2008 CCP began to organise the Carnival in Panjim. But that was the traditional Carnival but today the traditional elements are not there anymore,” Joaquim Teles said.

“The Carnival organised today has two parts — one is the Carnival parade and the other –Samba Square is organised at the Garcia de Orta garden. But today traditional floats are not participating as much as they used to,” Joaquim added.

“However, the old traditional Carnival cannot happen again. The organisation has to be given to private parties. Municipality cannot do it. They are all politicians, they don’t know what is Carnival. For example, the mayor becomes the chairman, sometimes he is not a Catholic. They don’t even know what is Carnival,” regrets Joaquim.

Asked why Carnival of today cannot create the flavour of the 80’s, Joaquim says, “That type of committee and people have to be there. But now till 2011, when I was the President of the Panjim Carnival Committee, we revived traditional Carnival and we were very strict about it not being commercial.”

In conclusion, Joaquim Teles insists that unless the Carnival is handed over to private parties we cannot create the flavour of the Carnival of yesteryears. We cannot bring back creativity and life into the Carnival with CCP organised Carnival.