Twenty-five Years of Statehood

A month and a day from now, we will be observing twenty-five years of statehood. I say observing, not celebrating. We have celebrated the golden jubilee of Goa’s Liberation last year. Another celebration is not called for. What we require is introspection, course correction, plan for the immediate and long term future, and a shared vision. A free debate in the media, in the villages and towns of Goa with minutes recorded and compiled by a Government appointed commission, a detailed statement of the aspirations of the people based on the said  minutes, and a vision statement  derived from this process and endorsed by the Legislative Assembly would be the right way to go about. A time bound plan based on these inputs and having the consensus of political parties could be the guide for the future. We could measure the progress from time to time.

The method I am suggesting implies the participation of the people and their interaction with the elected representatives at all levels of government. This calls for a radical change of attitude on the part of the people, but more so on the part of the government and legislators. The people are in a mood to participate as amply demonstrated in the past few years. I am sure the elected representatives will also oblige, having seen for themselves in the recent elections what happens when they lose touch with the people. And isn’t the present Government, in a way, the beneficiary of the people’s ire?

I shall now go back twenty-five years in time. When Goa achieved statehood on May 30, 1987, by an Act of Parliament, the celebrations were a damp squib. It wasn’t like after Liberation of Goa in 1961, or after the results of the Opinion Poll in 1967. May be the memories of loss during the Konkani agitation in the preceding year were still fresh. May be the unfortunate Konkani v/s Marathi debate had taken its toll. May be the people had no expectations from the set of politicians who were then in power. Indeed, two years later in 1989, the first state general election results showed a vertical divide of 21 seats for the ruling Congress and 19 seats for the opposition, leading to instability lasting for more than a decade.

Nevertheless, some celebrations were organized here and there. The Aldona Panchayat organized a public meeting with Assembly Speaker Dayanand Narvekar, Health Minister Shaikh Hassan and Youth Congress leader Mauvin Godinho in attendance as honoured guests. I was one of the speakers, and among other things I made a critical reference to “the tourism master plan” that the government had just come out with.  I also spoke about protecting our land, and the need to continue the struggle to protect our land and identity. I clearly remember Mauvin Godinho telling me in the sidelines that it would be better not to have any plans in the future as people keep opposing the same, but to go ahead with schemes and development. Twenty-five years later in the run up to recent elections, and referring to the demands of the people, Godinho is reported to have compared the people to children in school, and further having remarked that teachers can’t give in to every demand of the children. My purpose is not so much to indict Godinho as to point out the mentality of people entrenched in power. Anyway, the children (read people) had the last laugh. They taught the teachers (read politicians in power) who the real masters are.

Planning with people’s participation, aided by experts, must become the hallmark of all future development. If we can seriously start this process as a mark of the silver jubilee of Goa’s statehood, we will have arrived at a turning point. Intellectuals, opinion leaders, academicians, industrialists, environmentalists, other professionals and political leaders can make the beginning. The process can then percolate to the people at the grassroots. Let us once take a break from jubilee celebrations and work out something new. Will our new Chief Minister take the initiative? 

At the close of the discussion on Goa Statehood bill in the Lok Sabha, late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, spoke thus about us: Very beautiful people living in a beautiful part of the country, who have shown rare maturity in overcoming difficult and complex problems.

I shall end this piece thanking the memorable Rajiv Gandhi for this compliment, and with a promise to revisit this topic at least once before  May 30, 2012.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 29.04.2012