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The Big Let Down
continued from page 1
It is very
difficult to ascertain what the majority of Goans
in Goa truly felt
on December 19, 1961. Certainly, large crowds gathered in the major cities to
welcome the victorious Indian army. In the villages, however, a mood of
"wait and see" prevailed.
While there was general relief that the Salazar era had come to an end, many Goans wondered what the new regime would mean to their
own livelihood.
'Would we have a job'?
'Will the new Govt. discriminate against us'?
'Will life now be more expensive'?
'Will our qualifications be recognized'?
'What will our new bosses be like'?
To complicate matters, reports began to trickle out of Looting of Goan shops and Raping of Goan
women.
As expected, these criminal acts weren't as widespread as rumoured.
As expected too, the new administration denied that any of this ever
happened.
What was especially disappointing wasn't the fact that rape and looting
occurred; they do occur after every military exercise of this nature. The
fact that they were committed by a force which had ostensibly come to
'liberate' Goans, was (and remains) awful. Even
worse were the DENIALS.
The next few years saw military administration headed by a fair minded Lt.
Gen. Candeth ( curiously a
South Indian of Portuguese descent ).
Many Goans left Goa at this time. They weren't very certain
of what the future held for them in Goa . Besides, life had
become 200% more expensive almost immediately (now that the Portuguese
subsidies were no longer available ).
Even so, most Goans quickly accepted the new
reality. Some aspects of life had become easier. It was now easier for Goans to travel to and from other Indian cities like Bombay and Poona
where a number of Goans lived or worked. A few
basic items like vegetables and pulses were now, more readily available. The
stocks of superior quality foreign goods from the Portuguese era were dwindling . Within a few months, hundreds of Goa registered (GDA) Datsun,
Mercedes Benz, Peugeot and Opel cars found
themselves on the roads of Poona and Bombay - but Goans
were not driving them!. Simple minded " elite" Goans were also conned into parting with valuable hand
carved furniture and other collectibles - all by sweet talking, non Goan 'civil servants". Even so, most Goans took all of that in stride.
To its credit, the Candeth administration effected
a smooth transition. To his discredit, he started the destruction of the Communidade System of Goa. There was a surprising absence of any
serious role in this transitional administration for the any of the many Goan Freedom Fighters.
The Congress Party went on to win the 1962 elections and the election pawn
i.e. Goa was now,
all but forgotten by Nehru. The euphoria of 1961 & 1962 received a severe
setback in 1962 when China
decided to thumb Nehru and his idealistic 1955 Panchshila
agreement, in the face.
Goa was designated as a Delhi
controlled Union
Territory. The first
democratically held elections in Goa brought a Luso-Indian known supporter of the Portuguese colonial
effort in Africa cum"freedom-fighter",
mine owner Dayanand Bandodkar
to the helm. His party, the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party(MGP)
promised to make Goa a part of Maharashtra.
Why the MGP wished to do that defies logic. Goa was
never a part of the Maratha empire nor of any Maharashtra based kingdom. If anything, that
claim should have been made by Karnataka or Hyderabad. Moreover, the areas of Maharashtra which bordered Goa i.e Ratnagiri & Sawantvadi were
neglected backwaters.
Logic notwithstanding, the MGP continued on that platform. Voting patterns
indicate that the majority of Hindu Goans voted for
the MGP while the majority of Catholics and Muslims voted against the MGP.
This political alignment created significant fault lines between the Hindu
and Catholic communities of Goa;
communities which had hitherto lived in peace and harmony.
The Opinion Poll of 1967 dealt a decisive blow to the MGP's
move to integrate Goa with Maharashtra. The margin of victory for the
anti mergerites could hardly have been achieved
without significant Hindu vote BUT the Catholics were to face the wrath of
the mergerites who were
still in political control of Goa.
For a while, the red faced mergerites toyed with
the idea of Vishal Gomantak
(including the costal areas of Maharashtra) and the
Konkan
State. However, these
ideas, designed to further dilute the Catholic vote in Goa, failed
to take off.
In a move which can only be explained as a move to destabilize Catholic Goans, the ruling MGP set in place a policy of
discrimination against Goans when it came to
employment in Goa.
Officers in all major fields with no particularly spectacular expertise were
brought in to positions which could easily have been filled by Goans. Many Goans found
themselves in the untenable position of being literally
bossed around by less capable deputationists who
were specifically brought in by the MG government. A good number
of the deputationists were good, honest and hard
working. They served Goa
well. But the vast majority of them were substandard space occupiers.
These less
competent "bosses" didn't have a clue of Goa, Goan culture
or of the landscape. They didn't even display
a scintilla of interest in improving anything in Goa. All they did was talk down to Goans, bad mouth Goans as
"lazy, good for nothing, sossegado feni drinkers" and specialized in merely filling up
posts with their friends and relatives.
It wasn't very
uncommon for a a good
number of posts in Government departments being filled up by individuals from
Kerala or Andhra or Maharashtra
or Delhi, if
the Head was from that region. Even clerical and secretarial posts! And what
happened to Goans ? Well, they were told to "apply in six months
time".
A very curious
method of creative advertising of posts was in situ. Advertisements for posts
in Goa,
appeared in Goa newspapers well over a month after
they appeared in newspapers in Bombay, Delhi or Trivandrum. In fact, on
most occasions, the advertisements appeared in Goa a day or two before the last date of
application. Many Goans who had the qualifications
and nerve, packed their bags and left Goa. Most of them, for good.
The vast
majority of the 2.5 million Goans outside Goa are Catholics. Many just
frustrated by the systematic "cleansing" of opposition votes.
This policy of squeezing out Goan Catholics worked
for the MGP. Vast number of Goan Catholics
emigrated to the UK, Australia, Brazil,
Africa, Canada and even Portugal. The
percentage of Catholic Goans in Goa dwindled from a near 50% to 30%.
This was politically excellent for the MGP. Their vote block was intact while
the vote bank of their political rivals was effectively demolished.
With a carrot here and a bus license there, the MGP managed to keep the
opposition divided. Many Catholic Goans were
known to be convenient supporters of the MGP. A " few pieces
of silver" did the needful
This electoral
Catholic vote cleansing effort was to
eventually come back and hurt the MGP. Many of the nonGoan deputationists not only served Goa
indifferently but also created a "third party vote bank" for
non Goa based
parties.
At the time of Dayanand Bandodkar's
untimely death, the MGP was a powerful, corrupt, ruthless and a seemingly
unstoppable outfit. However divisions within the MGP, the collapse of
the opposition mainly Catholic UGP and the " third party vote bank"
allowed the entry of the Congress Party into Goan
politics and the ongoing saga of political coups and counter coups.
After Bandodkar's death, the MGP
engineered the passage of the Mundar Act. In this
socialist type of action, many Goan
land owners lost their land to the labourers who
wee employed to work in them.. Interesting that the MGP excluded the mines
from this act. If they hadn't, a good part of the mines would now be owned by
the miners who slogged in them. But then ... the mine owners were the
financiers of the MGP. The mine owners also owned the local newspapers. So
much for Freedom of the Press.
Today, four decades after the Portuguese were thrown out of Goa, Goa has sadly disintegrated into a place of
religious divisions, unbelievable corruption, chaotic traffic,
environmental degeneration, pollution and unprecedented police
brutality.
It is very easy
to blame the Freedom Fighters, many of who suffered enormously at the hands
of the harsh Salazar regime. There are those who blame the Freedom
Fighters for neglecting to prepare to take over when the Portuguese were
expelled from Goa.
At least then, Goa's future would have been in Goan
hands. But that wasn't to be. It appears that December 19, 1961 may have come
as a surprise to the Freedom Fighters themselves. It is possible that they
were not consulted before the military action; afterwards neither. For
all their sacrifices, they were given a tin medal ( tamra patra ), a paltry
pension and sent out in the world to " don't worry be happy ". It
is important to note (once again) that the brave Goan
Freedom Fighters played no role of significance in
the transitional government of 1961 and No Freedom Fighter was elected to any
office in Goa on a
Freedom Fighter's ticket. In fact, the Congress Party of Nehru and Indira Gandhi failed to win a single electoral seat in Goa until the early 1980s despite having planned and executed the December
1961 action.
The Catholic
Church in Goa can
only be described as spineless. During the Portuguese era it was virulently
anti-Indian while now, it is " rolling over and
playing dead" in the face of Rt. Wing activities. Under the
present leadership of Raul Gonsalves, the Catholic
Church has failed its flock on several fronts : ::: 1.
Opposed Family Planning 2. Indiscriminately transferred parish priests
3. Imposed a dialect of Konkani which the vast majority of
Catholics did not comprehend 4. Failed to defend Catholics from Rt.
Wing abuse. These are among the factors which have led to Catholicism
in Goa becoming "paper Catholicism".
It was Big
Business as usual !! Giving more validity to the
well known adage : The more things change, the more
they remain the same.
To many a Goan who was happy that the
Salazar era had finally come to an end, it has been a massive let down.
Was this worth it after all?
Many more Goans have migrated and left Goa. Huge numbers of Goans have applied to reclaim their Portuguese
Nationality and moved to Portugal;
among them are individuals who are known to have been blatantly antiPortuguese. Portugal has joined the European
Union and continues to improve every day. Some former Portuguese
colonies have seen the benefits of close cooperation with Portugal.
Despite the violent wars of Independence
fought against Salazar's Portugal,
these African countries especially Cabo Verde have
taken actions which are in the interests of their citizens.
Not so, as far as Goa
is concerned. Her future can only be described as uncertain.
What is certain however is that the right wing Hindu party, the BJP will take
control of Goa and rule Goa with an iron fist for many years to
come. If that happens, the ghost of Salazar would have returned. For
Salazar too, came to power through the Carmona
coup, at a time when Portugal
was in shambles. Initially, Salazar was very popular for his "clean
up". And look what happened eventually.
History always
repeats itself. What a tragedy if it does as far as Goa is concerned.
Returning to the primary question:
Have Goans been liberated ?. The
answer is definitely NOT.
Goans will only have been liberated when:
* they are able to make their own decisions with the help of Goan political parties
* their pristine environment is no longer disturbed
* their young women are no longer enslaved by sex-traders
* their working family members no longer have to go abroad to find employment
* their senior citizens no longer have to live in fear
* their guests at their beaches are no longer harassed and molested
* their water table and atmosphere are no longer polluted by factories which
spew dangerous chemicals
* their hospitals are at least as clean as they were in 1961
* their hearts and minds reconcile to the fact that religious & caste
divisions are man made and are detrimental to communal harmony
* when Goans of ALL nationalities
and walks of life finally accept that the events of 1961 are "fait
accompli". Goa is now 100% a part of
India.
It is time for Goans to put their hearts and minds
together and resolve to assist each other in the future development of Goa and ALL Goans. Hopefully, they will assist in the concomitant
development of the various facets of Goan culture -
and that includes Marathi and Portuguese
and * when the
Indian civil and military authorities in Goa decide
to take the Goan people into confidence when they
make their decision whether it be regarding the installation of a chemical
factory in in an inhabited village or using the
people's civilian airport for military purposes. [ The senseless confrontation in Panjim ]
Until all of the above happens, the event of 1961 will only be seen as a step
towards the success of the Nehru-Krishna Menon
diversion. A diversion whose usefulness ended with the 1962 general election.
Goa and Goans would just have been used as
pawns in a political process, their land for the generation of wealth for
everybody but Goans.... and eventually dumped.
Nil else
TGF
Post Script:
Many
younger Goans fail to understand why Goans in Goa
did not oppose the 1961 action. One has to understand that these younger Goans are looking at India today - a nation which is
blessed by the best brains in the world and yet cursed with the most corrupt
politicians and henchmen. The India of 1961 may not have been
as rich but it was a beautiful and peaceful place indeed.
Goa and Goans made
the right decision in 1961.
India as a whole needs to make
some sensible decisions now. By contrast, Portugal has accepted reality and
moved on. She has afforded full status to ALL Goans who qualify along with all the privileges that go
with Portuguese nationality. She has moved quickly after the end of
Salazar's iron fisted dictatorship and made
peace with all the erstwhile colonies who wished to make peace with her.
In doing so, she has grown in prosperity and stature. Goa and Goans can
do the same.
June 18, 2001
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