Tiatrists now call Parrikar, Salazar - II

The “issue”, according to Ravindra Bhavan Chairman Damu Naik may have been solved, with him assuring tiatrists that no undertaking would be required from them that they wouldn’t attack ministers and MLAs in their scripts and songs, but the government mind has been thoroughly exposed. This wasn’t an oversight by some clerk in Ravindra Bhavan, but a directive that came from the very top. The issue, dear Damu isn’t over.

 Goa’s most potent connect with one of Goa's most ancient and finest art forms, infused with realism, satire and song, tiatr is being gagged at the altar of politics, by a man who rode on their support and their criticism of the previous Congress government, Manohar Parrikar. As the Congress government slipped in popularity and esteem, it was the tiatr movement which first caught it, reflected it and propagated it. The BJP was quick to encash on this uprising and rode on the twin combination of the Church and the tiatrists to write the electorally crushing chargesheet which reduced the Congress to single figures in the Assembly.

What Mr Parrikar did not calculate was that governments change, tiatrists don't, and like wandering minstrels they come to the stage to tell stories that they pick up from the wind. And if there are straws in the wind telling the most obvious story of the day, tiatrists clutch at those straws and make them into songs. And these straws are about politics and governments or more specifically the relationship between those who make the rulers and those who rule.

The draft undertaking, which Ravindra Bhavan had drafted, for tiatrists booking the hall for productions after the monsoons, specifically stated that there should be no criticism of Ministers, MLAs nor should there be personal attacks on them or anyone else. While the limited objective of controlling slander and attacks on the personal lives of public figures is understandable, "criticism" is an extremely lose and a broad based term, too subjective to be a tool at the hands of the government contemplating coercive criticism. It actually amounts to censorship of the harshest degree because in large swathes of Salcete, right down to Quepem and Canacona, the songs sung in the tiatrs tell them about the mood in the countryside about the government and its rule.

This is unique anywhere in the country. These songs are editorials on stage which form opinion. And Chief Minister Parrikar knows that. That is why he decided to ask his man Friday Damu Naik, the Chairman of Ravindra Bhavan, to make it clear to tiatrists coming to book halls, that bookings would be done only if their productions were criticism proof. When tiatrists reacted sharply, Damu Naik like Pontius Pilate tried to wash his hands off  his guilt in ordering the cultural execution of  tiatr and hanging it in the main square of Margao.

 His explanation - This was only a draft  to be discussed internally. Does Damu Naik think that tiatrists have taken leave of their senses to believe that an internal draft can find its way to the booking counter  and presented to those seeking to book halls, unless deliberately intended.

Angry tiatrists now look back on the days of Salazar and his decision on muzzling the media and the tiatrists by suspending publications and imposing restrictions on tiatrists. Some have called Parrikar Salazar-II

 This might be a tad unfair. Not to Parrikar but to Salazar. Salazar was only a dictator not elected by the people of Goa and though his decisions of gagging free speech, views and protests dominated a part of his rule, there are many Goans of that era, who speak of his benevolence. For instance when he raised income tax by 0.5% a group of businessmen travelled to Lisboa to meet him to get him withdraw this increase. Salazar, according to the son of one of the businessmen who spoke to Herald, said "Since it has troubled you so much that you have come all the way to Portugal, I'm withdrawing all income tax"

 It is clear that Goa's Chief Minister is trying too many experiments with sentiments and surprisingly he has the time for all this when he has no time to meet village groups to discuss the Regional Plan. His actions many not lead to a massive backlash. It will lead to worse, silent bottled anger. It's a sign of immense political immaturity that he's cutting his own branch of political longevity by actions such as these.