There are several Goans who are trying to make sense of the galloping destruction and the lawlessness in Goa. What makes matters even more distressing, are the contradictory and bizarre public responses to the crisis. There are Goans who still believe that they can eat the cake and keep it too.
The signs of a disintegrating society are showing. A sinking feeling is now palpable, whether in the home or on the street. Goans do not feel safe anymore, but the partying goes on as usual despite all the complaining, a typical contradiction. Amazing Goa may be a heaven for hungry money bags, but it has become a living hell for many ordinary citizens. One often gets to hear a question thrown up in a discussion, “What is the way out of this mess for us Goans?”
The moral degradation is nakedly visible with the land scams, online women trafficking, cash-for-job scams and fake education certificates that have got unearthed. These are probably just the tip of the iceberg, probably the misfortune of those alleged scamsters who blundered in their adventure, as several more happily go about looting and plundering with total immunity.
The enormity of the bribe-for-jobs scam shows the extent to which civil society is ethically compromised to bribe their way and deny the deserving persons their rights. The cash-for-job is no different from the cash-for-vote mentality. Even religious institutions are ridden with such abuse and corruption which takes cover of this corrupt political system, and defended by gullible followers. What law and order can one expect when one or the other unlawful activity has a cop or their family member involved?
The chronic mess which Goans are facing today is the outcome of a progressive socio-political disease which infected the then union territory, now State, since 1961.
Goans have dug their own grave by endorsing personality disorder traits in politics and worshiping such dark personalities for the crumbs. The manipulation hides behind glossy labels of terms like ‘Goenkarponn’ and ‘Asmitai’, which do not have a consensus definition even 65 years after liberation.
A socio-political fabric split on caste and religious lines, sort of a bipolar culture, imposed upon itself a bitter Opinion Poll and language agitation. Goa’s post-Liberation history of political and economic choices has time and again exposed these concealed cracks in the social fabric, which get cleverly played down by toxic positivity and optimism.
Perhaps, for far too long, a lie has been sold that Goa is a land of communal harmony and unique culture, while deep within remains rooted the native rot of caste and religious biases and various disparities. The absence of communal riots does not mean the absence of mental abuse and violence involving caste and religion. It’s a casteist diplomacy which wears an innocent smile and bites without showing its dirty teeth. And now, it is the fantasy of ‘Vishal Gomantak’ which is touted as the panacea to Goa’s socio-political and economic problems.
The counter resistance from within to historic people’s movement for the Konkan railway realignment and anti- Meta strips and anti-mega project agitations are proof enough of a communal allergy, which is triggered every time some or the other people’s movement is not spearheaded by a majoritarian casteist clique; parading some cleric dressed in a saffron kurta on a literary dais or for a street protest cannot hide this ugly reality.
Goa’s polarisation is not about ignorance and misunderstandings between people of different faiths, but the design for the control of politics and economics by a privileged majoritarian section which uses religion as a smoke screen.
The minorities have allowed themselves to be used and thrown for the political and economic pursuits of the majoritarian privileged class.
The self-conscious minorities, from years of gas-lighting, guilt tripping and bullying employed by the divisive majoritarian forces, are desperately attempting to prove their inclusiveness through inter-faith meets or dialogues. Do inter-religious dialogues tackle the contentious socio-political evils plaguing the Goan community?
From the late 80s, there have been attempts to build a collective vision and mission for Golden Goa, but people’s movements got hijacked for selfish designs of some individuals who were more interested in branding and marketing themselves as saviours of Goa.
Everyone is kept going round in circles by feeding convenient narratives which feed the Goan victimhood, instead of analysing the problems from angles which will address the root cause. It’s more like Noam Chomsky’s ‘manufactured consent’ driving Walter Lipmann’s ‘bewildered herd’ into political action, which repeatedly drives the clueless masses into banging their heads against a dead wall.
The single issue obsession and heroics, which cleverly ignores inter-connected issues, coupled with change initiatives or solutions that care less about the cross-sectoral impact or fallout has resulted in the cure becoming worse than the disease.
There is no better example of a self-defeating stance now adopted by the Goans in preparing Village Development Plans and Gram Panchayat Development Plans without having any control over the community’s natural resources, which are vital for achieving socio-economic targets.
How long can Goans afford to live in this denial of reality, and take recourse in ‘blame games’ and ‘scapegoating’ to avoid looking at their social and political contradictions?
When will we stop picking soft targets at the panchayat level for bullying, and ignore the legislators, the TCP and other related government agencies that are the primary culprits for the destruction and sale of Goa?
The qualitative solutions to Goa’s problems can only emerge if, to begin with, there is a collective and objective diagnosis of the root causes by the community. Mere chest thumping on the streets and resolutions in the Gram Sabhas will not cure the power and money addicts in government.
(The author has worked with community initiatives related to preventing drug and alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDs prevention, Panchayati Raj, anti-
corruption, environment protection and social justice.)