The New and the Old

The euphoria, the dust and the din of the New Year celebrations has by now given way to settling down with routines and responsibilities. As we do so, we realize year after year that there is nothing new and nothing old in our day to day life with the change of the calendar. It is only a way of marking time. But there is always hope, and hope is expressed by greetings and encrypted in resolutions. All for the best. Work in progress.

Looking into the year that has passed you will find so many issues that came up, so many events that took place, so many changes that were brought about. So many births and so many deaths. So many marriages and a few divorces. New Governments. New scandals. New agitations. New business developments. We may have symbolically burnt the Old Man on 31^st December 2012 but human nature is the same. An important part of our human nature is the yearning for change and the aspiration for the better. Never for the worse. Notwithstanding the fact that some of our actions, especially selfish actions, make our world a more difficult place than it was the year before. And so we bring our aspirations and our struggles into the New Year with new determination and more enthusiasm in spite of more complications. As President Barak Obama said it: If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

In 2012 when I started writing this column, I picked up issues sometimes from the sidelines and sought to bring them into spotlight. Sometimes this type of issues remained in the spotlight  for long because many others also took them up for reflection and deliberation. Sometimes the topics remained just topics with no follow up. What was in the Margins never entered the Mainstream. But I am happy that some issues have become burning topics today, thanks to the much maligned media and the mass movements. The march is on, among other subjects of concern, against corruption, against sexual violence, for special status for Goa, etc. I shall quote from two of my articles last year to make a point that issues that matter must be taken up continuously month after month, year after year till we achieve the goal.

On molestations:

“The Guwahati incident of the molestation of a teenage girl by a crowd of males in full public view was a matter of shame.  Irrespective of the circumstance of time and place in which the incident occurred, the assault has been condemned all over, and rightly so. The alleged culprits have been arrested. The electronic media has displayed the incident to one and all. The argument is that by recording and displaying, the arrest of the culprits has been facilitated, which might not have been easy otherwise. The question of the incident itself having been orchestrated by the television channel is being investigated. Shock and shame, it has brought about. But has there been any restraint on those others with a similar criminal bent of mind? The answer is an emphatic no.” (Encroachment on the Body,29/7/12) 

The print, the electronic and the social media have played a great role in picking up and highlighting sexual assaults, although sometimes with avoidable details. I need not say more about the way the entire country has taken up the cause against rape after the Delhi incident in December 2012 that shocked the nation.  This battle is only the beginning of the war.

Now over to special status for Goa:

“My first big disappointment with Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, came about this week when he declared that the special status for Goa was not his immediate priority, and that he would take it up over a period of time. Now this is one issue over which the people of Goa are not divided. One issue that has been pending for too long a time… Mr. Chief Minister, Sir, the time for special status for Goa has come. And history has placed the leadership on your broad shoulders at this point of time that you may lead Goa to obtain the special status due to her in the Republic of India.” (Special Status Urgent for Goa, 26/8/12)

Many Goans took up this cause, including the Navelim Panchayat Gram Sabha which was the first to pass a resolution asking for special status. Our Rajya Sabha member,Mr. Shantaram Naik, said he would take up the issue with the centre. It gladdens my heart to read the news that finally our Chief Minister is serious about taking up this issue to protect our limited land for the people of Goa. May we win this battle in 2013.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 13.01.2013