ACCEPTANCE: Most Goans seem to have accepted the fact that with the BJP government in Goa and Karnataka, there is no way the diversion of the Mhadei river head waters can be stopped!

By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when I was shocked that nobody seems to be interested in stopping the diversion of the Mhadei river although there has been a lot of meetings and talks and press conferences. For a Saturday following the week when Catholics have to fight back against BJP harassment. For a Saturday following the week when the 16 lakh Kannadigas in Goa should come together to make their stand on the diversion of the river Mhadei waters crystal clear. For a Saturday following the week when Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar, has been very biased in taking a decision on the eight Congress MLAs led by Babush Monserrate who defected. For a Saturday following the week when we would like to indicate what kind of knowledge a mamlatdar needs.
AND a few stray thoughts on when I was shocked that nobody seems to be really interested in the diversion of the Mhadei river headwaters in Karnataka. We are not surprised that the BJP MLAs in Goa are supporting Amit Shah in permitting Karnataka to divert the waters of the Mhadei. What has shocked us even more is that even the Catholic BJP MLAs have remained silent over the diversion. This includes Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral, who should be concerned about all the ecological damage that this diversion will cause in the Mandovi river basin and Mhadei wildlife sanctuary in Goa. The BJP or rather the doubled-engine BJP seems to have intimidated the Goan Christian population.
In the past the Goan Christian population used to take very active part in agitations. Starting with the Opinion Poll, when it was with the help of the Catholic community that Goa was spared merger with mausi Maharashtra. When Babush Monserrate tried to convert agricultural lands into urban concrete jungle, Catholics of Goa led the Goa Bachao Abhiyan. This forced former chief minister, Digambar Kamat, to cancel Regional Plan 2011 and appoint a committee to formulate a new plan with inputs from town planner Edgar Rebeiro and others who respected what environmentalist Madhav Gadgil had to say after all his team’s research and studies.
When there was opposition to the special economic zone which was an alibi for selling land to builders instead of creating industries, again we remember it was the Catholic community which was the loudest in protest. What has happened to the Catholics today? Are they frightened that if they protest against the BJP they will be victimized?
Part of the problem is the changing demographics of Goa. Since Narendra Modi came to power thousands of Catholics have been seeking migration to the UK and other European and American countries. So much so the population of Catholics is just 25% now in Goa. This is in contrast to the 45% share of the Catholics in the year of Liberation.
Indeed, Goans as in niz Goenkars, have become a minority in their own home state. Besides the 16,000 Kannadiga people there are at least 10,000 Muslim migrants in the state. This is besides the casual labor who keep coming in the hundreds looking for well-paying jobs in Goa. Their women to come along for unlike elsewhere Goa has a huge demand for house maids, the wives of migrant labor are heaven sent for Goan families. There is a desperate shortage of maid servants and very often it is the maidservant wife who earns more than the husband. While the husband might make Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 working as security guard or a salesman at a shop, his wife earns Rs15,000 to Rs20,000 working in half-a-dozen homes on an average salary of Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 per month.
Perhaps there is no interest in Mhadei river left because the Catholic population has virtually abandoned Goa. But surely the Hindu community should be equally concerned as they are the ones who still cultivate the land and need water for irrigation. Unfortunately, all the prominent Hindu leaders like Digambar Kamat have now become part of the BJP and cannot talk. We were hoping that Dattaraj Salgaocar would follow the legacy of his father VM Salgaocar and take the initiative to save the Mhadei river from disappearing into Karnataka. Dattaraj seems to have abandoned Goa. The diversion of the Mhadei river will cause more damage to Goa’s agricultural landscape over time.

BJP HARASSMENT!
AND a few stray thoughts on when the Catholics have to fight back harassment by the BJP. There is sense of fear amongst the Catholic population in Goa. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and other BJP leaders might make a tamasha of visiting Catholic leaders like the cardinal and the two newly appointed bishops in Goa, but the fact remains that on the other hand the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has started targeting prestigious Catholic colleges like St Xavier’s College in Mapusa. While every jatra from Mangeshi to Shantadurga temples is patronized and financed by the government there is no such help offered for the repair and restoration of Catholic chapels and churches. Mercifully the ban on amplified sound was not extended to the Christmas and New Year season.
This was one occasion where BJP Catholic Minister Nilesh Cabral, strongly objected to the sound ban during Christmas. It is also possible that Catholics are leaving Goa because they cannot find suitable jobs. Even the casinos prefer the migrant people of the North-Eastern states to the Catholic community in Goa.
The whole atmosphere in villages is changing with Hindu festivals getting more prominence than Catholic events. The newly converted BJP MLAS such as Vishwajit Rane and Rohan Khaunte are obsessed with visiting every temple in every remote part of Goa. Their objectives seem to be to play down the Latin or Iberian Mediterrean heritage of Goa.

KANNADIGAS IN GOA
AND a few stray thoughts on the 16 lakh Kannadigas in Goa who should make their stand clear on the diversion of the Mhadei river to their home state of Karnataka. According to the president of the Kannadiga association, there are 16,000 Kannadiga people in Goa. At the time of Liberation, Goa had to depend on engineers and other professionals for electricity, water supply and other departments.
During the Portuguese colonial regime there was not even a single India Institute of Training or a Polytechnic, leave alone an engineering college. There was no need for professionals before Liberation in Goa because the Portuguese did not engage in too much development of the industrial kind. When I first came to Goa I had to take a ferry to cross the Zuari river and another ferry to cross the Mandovi river. There were no highways or even proper roads connecting the various towns and villages. Moreover recruitment for jobs for the gazetted posts was done not by the Goa government but by the Union Public Service Commission. The Goa Public Service Commission was founded only after Goa became a state in 1997.
Besides the Kannadiga a large number of Malayali from Kerala and of course thousands of Marathi-speaking people have migrated to Goa post-Liberation. Since politicians encourage and patronize migrant people because they form their evergreen vote banks, we would not be surprised if migrant settlers take over the traditional Goan population of Goa. We feel sad that no one is willing to fight for Goa’s rights today. The diversion of the Mhadei river will prove to be the biggest disaster Goa will have to face in the near future.

BIASED TAWADKAR!
AND a few stray thoughts on when Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar, chose to be biased while taking a decision on the eight Congress MLAs led by Babush Monserrate. Eight of the 11 Congress MLAs elected to the legislative assembly switched to the BJP in September 2022. They had not resigned from the primary membership of the original party, the Congress, which is a basic requirement.
The speaker is respected to take a decision on the justification of the defection within three months. Though it is six month since the defection took place, the speaker has not even scheduled the matter. The Congress has moved the SC to direct the speaker to take a decision on the defection. The speaker obviously will approve the defection. But his decision can be challenged in the High Court which is what the BJP wants to avoid. The BJP is also concerned that the Mhadei river issue might lead to a ghar wapasi by the original Congress politicians.

MAMLATDAR QUALIFICATION
AND a last stray thought on when we would like to indicate should be the knowledge a mamlatdar needs. Parents of candidates who had applied for mamlatdar posts had drop in to see me. I asked one of the candidates who have failed as to what the function of the mamlatdar was? The young man believed that the mamlatdar’s primary duty was to issue domicile and residential certificates and also ration cards.
Mamlatdar candidates are no aware that they are the principle revenue officers of the state. In Goa it gets a little more complicated due to the uniform civil code. The mamlatdar has to ensure that the person selling the property is entitled to do so. Whenever a Goan dies automatically 50% of the property goes to the surviving spouse. The rest is equally divided among brother and sisters and all other members of the family. One important responsibility of the mamlatdar is to check the inventory going back to four generations to confirm who are the rightful owners of the land. It also the mamlatdar who enforces the tenancy and munkar act.
When Sashikala Kakodkar was the chief minister she passed the act. This was to empower the tenant or the munkar to purchase their property at a nominal cost. The process is called mutation. Regrettably, looking through the answer papers of those who did the exam to qualify as mamlatdar we discovered that less than 5% knew anything about the uniform civil code or the mutation process.