`MAJESTIC PRIDE CASINO’ ROAD DIVIDERS
FUNNY OR NOT FUNNY: On swearing-in day of the new government in Goa on March 28, 2022 Goans noticed with wry amusement how the by now ubiquitous `Majestic Pride Casino’ billboards and road dividers at the venue of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee indoor stadium got a quick cover-up with white sheet reading…GOA POLICE! Who was fooling whom, we are not sure! (Pic by Tara Narayan)
HANDLE GOA FORWARD, NOT BACKWARD!
CHIEF Minister Pramod Sawant (of “bhivpach garaz na fame”) seems to currently want to make a selective list of religious structures of all the minorities. Is his with the sole intention of slowly spreading some exaggerated, fictitious, fabricated stories from the past to spread anti-minority hatred? And mischievously start playing UP-type of communal hate politics to disturb the centuries old communal harmony of this Goa for his own political survival!
He has made a Rs20 crore provision in his maiden budget to rebuild and refurbish the temples destroyed during the Portuguese rule in Goa. But we Goans (irrespective of caste, creed, religion) have historically lived peacefully in communal harmony in this state for the last so many years, as we have always believed in living in the present and not in the past.
If Sawant wants to do something really worthwhile in terms of religion then let him do it with good intentions and not by sparking communal riots and unleashing communal hate politics in peaceful Goa.
Peace-loving Goans want Pramod Sawant to stop raising religious-centric issues of the past for his own survival and instead do something about inflation to improve living conditions of the people. These are the real issues badly affecting Goans today.
The CM must learn to drive his much publicised double-engine government in the forward direction by putting it in the right gear – so Goans move on the road of real development instead of going backward into the dark ages of past history. Don’t be a reverse gear chief minister in Goa. Hope better sense prevails. Viva Goa, Viva Goenkaar!
–Jerry Fernandes, Saligao
CONGRESS BRAG
AFTER the Goa assembly polls while we were waiting for counting day, the Congress was publicly bragging that it would elect its chief ministerial candidate within minutes of the declaration of results and form the government. But since March 10 after getting only 11 winning MLAs, the party has been struggling to come to terms with its losses and is taking more than three long weeks to decide who its new Leader of the Opposition should be. A real travesty!
All expected that due to seniority, experience and political maturity, Digambar Kamat would have been the instant, obvious and unanimous choice. But the expected in fighting erupted due to which it left the choice to the High Command with Digambar Kamat now being waylaid and losing the race. Did the Congress leaders sitting in Delhi take the right decision or will it be a repeat of Navjot Singh Sidhu in Goa? Time will tell.
The current chief minister has been imposed by Delhi and so has the Leader of Opposition. Does this not reveal the low intelligence quotient of Goans and their political pettiness? It is high time the Congress gets its house in order and conducts itself as a mass movement for public good.
The party has to work in a disciplined way and unitedly with a sense of selfless commitment to the people in combating the suffering they’re going through courtesy BJP misrule. The party has been destroying the democratic, secular fabric of our great nation and is on a downward slide on all fronts.
–Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar
NO MAHUA MOITRA IN GOA!
NEW faces: action and knowledge please!
The sitting government always praises its tail in the opening addresses of the Lok Sabha and Assembly and hiding key failures. This must be exposed by the Opposition as did first time MP Mahua Moitra for every opening address of the prime minister.
The governor of Goa took hours to applaud the BJP government. Sadly, none of the Opposition, including the new faces, opposed the speech. Why? Upgrade yourselves or brainstorm with retired professional voters. Getting elected does not guarantee divine intervention. They must chalk out agendas for each session.
The governor said Mopa would open in August 2022. How many Goans will be engaged in jobs there? The Mopa Airport agreement initially ensured that locals would be given training for manning the service sectors including baggage transfer, security, etc. This is a must as any development must be for locals first. The same was expected with the various ITIs, but by a government agreement the same will be held only in Mopa airport boundary by the ASDC-Aviation Skill Development Centre.
They are busy securing their seats. Note: while minimum qualifications are specified for most jobs, for the post of assistant electrician is just X Std. The course is just for two or three months. Surely, they must be ITI in Electrical also? Any wonder why the cause for every fire in Goa is given as a short circuit?
The governor applauded education. New faces: How 8,000 candidates failed the Accountant tests?
–R Fernandes, Margao