It was shocking and unbelievable that the central government gave 17 historical monuments and sites up for adoption under the “Adopt a Heritage” scheme. It’s mystifying and enigmatic that these historical sites are given up for adoption without the knowledge of the concerned government in Goa.
The magnificent monuments of Old Goa are of sentimental and religious value for the people of Goa whether they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians as the Holy relic of St. Francis Xavier rests in the mausoleum in the Basilica. Flaunting all the rules and regulations regarding heritage structures and the limitations therein, a palatial bungalow of 200 crore has been recently built next to the Basilica and the files concerning the bungalow are missing and not even the ASI or authorities objected to it.
The word corporate relates to larger companies and groups such as Dalmia Bharat Group, Yes Bank, SBI, TK International Limited, Yatra Online Pvt Limited, Adani Group of Companies, Paytm, Ambani Group etc. It is a proven fact that the sole motto of corporates is profit and without profit they don’t do any form of dealings. Adopting the Red fort by the Dalmia Bharat Group was for the sole purpose of making profit. The annual turnover of the Red Fort was 17 crores per year and the Red Fort has been adopted for 25 crores for 5 years.
In this country, there are several corporate hospitals whose sole motto is unethical revenue targets, competition and branding, thereby conducting unwanted investigations, expensive tests, and totally unnecessary operations which are preformed to collect high-end revenue. The moralities, compassion, humaneness, kindness is no more towards the patient, who is treated as a client only for-profit motive.
On November 8, 2016 dramatically and surprisingly the demonetization policy was announced by the Government of India and all banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 were withdrawn to restrain fake currency, to net black money and to curtail terror funding. It was a sudden blow to the economy, the normal life of the people suffered, long queues to exchange the currencies, and several deaths. The end result was that 99% of the money was returned back to the RBI and there was nothing much regarding counterfeit notes. The exercise was huge, but finally who benefited from this unwarranted task were e-wallet corporates who cherished the fruits of demonetization. With the sudden demonetization and unplanned GST, the Indian economy started crawling at a snail’s pace and start-ups went into the doldrums.
Citizens are still waiting for the OM to fulfil his promise of bringing back undisclosed money stashed abroad and their share of the booty of Rs 15 lakh. The famous Aadhaar card which was first constituted only for government schemes and subsidies, based on biometric and demographic data has now been declared as an ID proof and valid for all identification. Steadily they linked the Aadhaar card to all bank accounts, income tax account, mobile phones, etc invading privacy and surveilling everything. The biometric data was smoothly siphoned to the mobile phone companies and other corporates.
Due to the adverse effect of demonetization, GST and due to fraudsters, the government will definitely think about the Adopt a Heritage scheme as maintaining the heritage became a very expensive affair. The government could have easily asked corporates to donate the money instead of adopting and could have channelled the money to Archaeological Survey of India for conservation and maintenance, beautifying and developing world-class infrastructure at the heritage monument sites, thereby giving tax rebate to corporates.
The scheme is tourism-oriented and not religious-oriented. It is disheartening to see that the Church so easily gave up religious and sacred monuments without even consulting or taking the opinion of intellectuals, historians, conservatives, etc who are abundant in the Church or it is becoming customary for the Church to take the faithful for granted?
The press note issued on April 28, 2018 by the Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Ministry of Tourism speaks volumes, wherein it states that Adopt a Heritage scheme is for development, maintenance and operation of tourism amenities in monuments: Tourism Ministry”.
According to this press note it is given to understand that there can be many tourism activities inside the Bom Jesus Basilica or for that matter or in any of the other monuments. Our brethren toil in Goa as well as in foreign countries and give large donations for the upkeep of their Churches in different parishes “ no Catholic has ever stepped back when the church asked donation for building, renovating, maintaining the churches in Goa.
Give the holy heritage monuments for adoption to different Catholic religious orders, congregations, parishes and they will adopt them faithfully. May I remind the Church, “All that glitters is not gold.” Are our magnificent monuments for adoption ou para vender?
