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Dear ex-Chief Minister
The LOSER anthem
Ethel da Costa
[ TGF foreword: At the time
of uploading this article, our little Goa has once again been taken over
by the Alibaba gang who appear to be involved in one skirmish after
another. The "ex-Chief Minister in this Ethel da Costa ode, is the BJP
master manipulator Manohar Parriker. Oh how greed brings down even the
brightest amongst us. Having said that, with the drama presently
unfolding in Goa - you never know who the next EX-CM will be]
Dear Ex-Chief Minister,
Let me share a school song sung by the children of Government Primary
School, Porvorim this Republic Day, January 26, during flag hoisting. It
chilled the warmth in my blood, as also the guests witness to the
function. I wonder your reaction when you read this. I would suppose you
know where this is coming from.
'Hum hai Hindustan ke bache,
Aage badte jaayega,
Muslim ko bagayege,
Christian se ladenge
Kyonki hum hai Hindustan ke bache
Aage badte jayege...'
Harmless school children went back home happy, singing a `harmless'
school song. The teachers stood there and watched. The seeds of
communalism sown inside unknowing minds, because we still revere
learning spaces as temples of the soul... Was this your agenda for Goa
for the years to come?
There's a cold wave in Kashmir, the mercury's rising in Goa, and going
by the pictures on most national magazines -- having the last laugh on
Goa's political roller coaster - your sullen face is most unbecoming.
The photo angles are all wrong. The lighting bad. Photographers having a
field day catching you candid, when you think they are not looking. One
chief minister is dethroned, the other comes in.
I remember the Blitz on Page 3, post Preity Zinta, and the Bollywood
sirens that shared shoulder spaces with you during your
one-man-political-party film festival. You were the man of the moment.
Goa's No 1 Chief Minister playing the national paparazzi to the hilt.
Hogging column spaces, partying at posh resorts (and bridges), directing
traffic, vacating parking spots, ushering cronies and fuming guests and
wanting to teach journos a good lesson who didn't toe your line.
Journos...you liked to believe they were part of the State's dowry to
your political party. Use them, manipulate them, dump them. Moles in
every newspaper, and well-fed cronies to ensure that news got to you
first. Those who didn't give in, your machinery would step in to make
sure they did. If they still didn't bite the bait, you termed them
`anti-establishment.' They didn't deserve your attention or respect.
Media management? Now, this you did perfect to an art form. I grant you
that. You wanted to break their backs, when you couldn't break their
pens. You wanted to silence their tongues with your own malicious,
reverse propaganda, when you couldn't manipulate and manage them with
your ideology. Some fell like ninepins to the lure of commerce. The
others, you threatened to throw them out of their jobs. For your
avant-garde 21st century thought processes, you used 16th century
manipulation weapons -- religion and caste -- to settle your scores. To
win your allies, to tie them to their yoke with skeletons and baggage
and fear.
Power does strange things to common men. See, where it got you? See,
what it did to your own party?
If you believe a soul cleansing is what you need, also believe that you
sowed the seeds of deception with your own actions. Arrogance and Pride
are mankind's own man made tickets to hell. A politician is no
different. You fell victim to your weaknesses too.
Is the situation any better today? I don't believe so. It takes one
thief to recognize the other, for Goa is turning into a den of murderers
who have butchered the values of service, for self. It is up to the
people now to see beyond the faces and look at their actions to decide
the future of Goa. Actions that spell transparency, deeds that translate
into governance, service that encourages prosperity of the State and her
people.
Yet, your battle for power, despite the windfall, baffles me. Yes,
intelligence does require that one fights back (we have done that too
against your autocracy), but it also takes grace to know when enough is
enough. And it is enough now. Quit in grace. Unless, you're fighting to
protect the skeletons in your own cupboard. So, what are the ghosts
haunting you, Mr. Parrikar?
Ethel da Costa
February 28, 2005
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