By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when Goa celebrated the anniversary of the Opinion Poll. For a Saturday following the week when the controversy over Konkani not being made as a medium of instruction in schools continues. For a Saturday following the week when there’s increasing violence against airline staff at airports. And a final thought for the week to congratulate Someya Kumari from Varoda, Cuncolim.
AND a few stray thoughts on Goa celebrating its 57th Opinion Poll anniversary on January 16, 2024. Only one political party, the Congress observed the occasion with a special function at the historical south Goa Lohia Maidan on the day. This was due to the initiative taken by Amit Patkar, president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee. Amit Patkar’s family hails from Curchorem and has been closely associated with the Congress from its early years in Goa. While visiting with me he told me that the Purushottam Kakodkar (late freedom fighter, politician and social worker) was a good friend of the family.
It may be recalled that Purushottam Kakodkar played a major role in Goa’s historical Opinion Poll. He was very close to Jawaharlal Nehru and the Nehru family. It was Nehru who had earlier assured Goans that they would be allowed to decide their own destiny. It was finally left to his daughter as prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to fulfil Nehru’s promise.
At that time there was great pressure on Indira Gandhi to merge Goa with Maharashtra. The Marathi lobby led by Vasant Rao Naik was very powerful in the Congress party then in Maharashtra. But it was finally the late Purushottam Kakodkar who convinced Indira Gandhi she should hold an opinion poll to let Goa decide its destiny. Purushottam Kakodkar in despair even went away to Rishikesh to meditate.
Consequently, a worried Indira Gandhi reassured him that the Opinion Poll would be held and Goans would be consulted on their future. Indira Gandhi insisted on fulfilling her father’s promise that Goans be allowed to decide their own destiny. The opinion poll was held on 16 January, 1967.
It was a matter of merging with Maharashtra or maintaining Goa’s status as a Union territory. The Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) was in power. It was totally in favour of a merger with Maharashtra. Then the Opinion Poll was conducted by the Election Commission. Goans who lived outside Goa were permitted to enrol as voters.
The Opinion Poll decided in favour of Goa detaining its independent identity. That was a very tense period in Goa’s history. Benaulim finally swung the dice on Goa’s behalf. There has been a lot of disagreement and argument about who the “Father of the Opinion Poll” is, there was a lot of pressure to declare Jack de Sequeira as “Father of the Opinion Poll” but the truth is there was no single parent. Several leaders like Purushottam Kakodkar, Uday Bhembre, and Chandrakant Keni played a very important role too. Uday Bhembre use to write a very powerful column in the Marathi newspaper “Rashtramat” in his column called “Bhahmastra.”
The godfather who financed the anti-merger campaign was VM Salgaocar, former chairman of the Salgaocar business group. VM Salgaocar staked his entire mining business empire for the victory of the Opinion Poll in favour of an independent Goa.
Maharashtra industry minister DP Natyak went with Yeshwantrao Chowgule to meet Vasudev Salgaocar to persuade him to support the merger. However, a firm VM Salgaocar refused, saying that Goa’s unique identity would be compromised if such a merger happened, it would cause Goa a great loss.
Amongst those with the privilege of documenting the history of the Opinion Poll was Dattaraj Salgaocar. Goa Publications commissioned and published my book called “The Triumph of Secularism.” To write the book I spent time doing extensive research with the help of the late Dr Sharon D’Cruz. She fed with me a lot of detailed research she carried out for me. Our book was released by Union Minister of Culture Kumari Selja in Vasco da Gama on May 11, 2011 in the presence of then Chief Minister of Goa Digambar Kamat and many others. Digambar Kamat expressed his deep appreciation of the book.
Everyone seems to have forgotten the Opinion Poll nowadays. It is to the credit of Congress president Amit Patkar that he visited me in hospital and chatted with me about the book on the occasion of the 57th Opinion Poll celebration by the Congress party at the Lohia maidan in Margao this year.

MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
AND a few stray thoughts on the controversy over Konkani not being made the medium of instruction in schools. For a long time, English was the official language even at the primary level. It was Shashikala Kakodkar who ruled that the medium of instruction in schools should be in the regional language, following which she withheld grants to English medium primary school. Only it the medium of instruction was Konkani or Marathi at primary level, government financial aid was granted.
Interestingly, Marathi for education purposes was popularised by Goa’s first chief minister, Dayanand Bandodkar, who initially at least was in favour of Goa’s merger with Maharashtra. It was Dayanand Badodkar as chief minister who late liberated the Bahujan Samaj by starting over a 1,000 schools in Marathi to teach the young generation of the Bahujan Samaj people.
This brought literacy to the people on a large scale and all the various caste groups, excepting for the Saraswats, were united by Dayanand Bandodkar and on par with the Saraswat people at least on the educational platform. The Diocesan schools were also forced to shift to teaching the children in Devanagari Konkani as a medium of instruction. The Catholic people faced a major problem as they were not familiar with the Devanagari script (which Marathi had adapted), they were more comfortable learning in the Romi or English alphabet script.
Unfortunately, when statehood was declared, Konkani in the Devanagari script was made the official language. There was great pressure on the late chief minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar, and Digambar Kamat before that, to permit or give grants to English-medium schools at the primary level. It was finally Manohar Parrikar who succumbed to the pressure and issued government grants to private and Diocesan English-medium schools. The grants were limited to the Diocesan English-medium schools. This made the Church very happy and it rallied behind Manohar Parrikar in the 2002 election.
The official is policy now is that grants will be given to English-medium primary schools instead and not limited only to Konkani and Marathi medium schools. Increasingly, people were switching even from the Marathi medium to the English medium. Even the sons and daughters of leading Konkaniwadi studied in convent schools in the English medium. English is a universal language and helped Goans to find a job in the UK and other English-speaking countries like Canada, America and Australia.

VIOLENCE ON AIRLINES!
AND A few stray thoughts on the increasing violence against airline staff at airports. Delhi is witnessing a severe fog on account of which many flights were delayed. One Delhi-Goa Indigo flight was delayed by 13 hours and this made some of the waiting passengers very furious. A passenger were told about the delay in flight only after they boarded the flight. So much so many of them were sitting in the plane for five to six hours. A furious passenger Sahil Kataria went and hit the pilot while he was announcing the delay. Airline staff of the airline surrounded the passenger and a complaint was filed by Indigo Airlines.
Minister for Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia has promised strict action against passengers who assault airline staff. There have been growing reports of indiscipline amongst air passengers. Drunk passengers even urinated in the dark on other passengers as happened on a New York to Delhi flight. Passengers get up and try to open the aircraft doors while it is still in flight. The weirdest incident of incidents on a flight happened in the United States on a Delta Airlines flight, when the emergency doors of the brand new airplane got blown away and forced the pilot to make an emergency landing. But incidents like this one are rare while complaints of impatient violent travellers are on the rise.

`HOTO MAI RAM…”
AND a few stray thoughts on Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge setting the BJP on fire in a case of “Hoto mai Ram, aur bagal mai churi.” This is a very appropriate discussion of the BJP. The BJP is insulting Lord Ram. Lord Ram is reported to be the epitome of justice. In Ramayan commentaries it is about how Ram was committed to justice. When one of the brothers on the appeal of the victim brother tried to take the law into his own hands, Ram promptly objected. Ram had a great respect for law and order. So much so then he was sent into exile and he accepted the fact and spent 14 years in exile. Ram was from all accounts a secular leader. We do not know the composition of India’s population at the time of Ram but Christianity in India came back in the 2nd or 3rd century. So presumably Islam is one of the older religions in India. India still accounts for more than 10-15% of the Muslim population.
It is true many Muslims in India migrated to Pakistan. They also regretted it as they were treated as second class citizens. Till the BJP came to power the minority was treated with respect. It was the BJP and Narendra Modi especially who converted India into Bharat on the basis of religion. The BJP is totally committed to a Hindutva India. Not a Hindu India because Hinduism by its very nature is secular. It is only narrow-minded and fundamentalist Hindus who target the minority. The RSS cadres spread hate in the name of religion.

DEATH BY BULL!
AND a few stray thoughts on a Goan who was gored to death by bull in a Varca bull fight. In a tragic incident, Janito Vaz, 41, a resident of 2nd Fatrade-Varca, was gored to death by a bull on Monday evening of January 15, 2024. Police say that the incident occurred when Vaz had gone to give fodder to the animal. The latter attacked him causing serious injuries. As he was bleeding, he was taken to a private hospital in Margao where he later succumbed to his injuries.
PI Colva Therron D’Costa and PSI Subhash Gaonkar rushed to the hospital after they were informed about the incident. Police we learn have recorded statements of family members. A large number of people rushed to the hospital. PI D’Costa said a case of unnatural death will be registered under Section 174 of CrPC pending investigation. However, animal rights activists said that Vaz was gored to death during a bull fight organised near Azaya Hotel at Calvado, bordering Benaulim village.
“There was a bull fight between a bull belonging to a man from Benaulim and another from Colva at Pedda, Varca, adjacent to Benaulim hotel. The bulls locked horns and one of them accidentally impaled his horn in his stomach killing him on the spot,” said an eyewitness. Bullfights are banned in Goa, but in several parts and especially in South Goa they are discretely organised. Following the recent incident of bull goring, it may be remembered that there’s a petition in the High Court of Bombay at Goa which has issued directions to the police not to allow bullfights in the state.