So who really killed Dattatreya Bhave, the geologistsuspended in the aftermath of the tabling of the Shah Commission report?
We as a society did. The visible reason for the officialsgrief, shock and tension was the humiliation he went through by sitting for theentire day, almost at the entrance of the South Goa collectorate within visibledistance of all employees and visitors. But Bhave succumbed to a society thatpass verdicts on officials like him, declaring them guilty the very moment theyare suspended. But while the public angst against the Shah Commission report issought to be justified, the same public needs to accept the hard truth. Thefall of one Bhave, or even six of them will not course correct the system. Theway forward is to press for action but really allow the government and allagencies enshrined and empowered by law to do its work. Unfortunately cynicismhas suppressed composure and calm. Thecurrent mines department must be allowed to do its job of verifying theantecedents of every gram of ore and check for illegalities, investigate theactivities of mining traders who operated in the previous regime and trace thebasic theft of resources. It is only the mines department that can actually doit. The solution doesn’t lie in creating new systems buy making the currentsystem super effective.
Indeed, men like Bhave and their colleagues will be under thescanner. But our society isolates them and makes them criminals. It alsoreaches a closure on branding men like Bhave as corrupt. This Rambo-stylepublic sentencing not just harms men like Bhave but doesn’t give the system achance to rejuvenate.
Let us be clear on this. The repair of the mining mess cannotbe just Shah Commission dictated. Goa’s mining industry and its governance isin serious peril and it is this government that needs a chance to coursecorrect.
