Did Goans benefit or get the best of the Opinion Poll of January 16, 1967? These thoughts come to mind after the curtains came down on the Opinion Poll celebration of January 16, 2018.
Being in my seventies and also a pre-independence child, I have seen it all -- the British era, wherein my late father worked for British telecom and my late aunty, working tirelessly for Goa’s freedom movement from the late forties to the early sixties.
My life experience may not be politically exciting but a real life account, detached from any political fervour, and not drawn from history books or strongly biased or opinionated articles or essays, which I read after for some days over the last few weeks.
There is no doubt, the 2018 Opinion Poll celebrations were politically coloured and directed towards the majority of neo-Goans and are far away connected to Goa’s freedom movement.
Writing an article instead of a book for me is a challenge. However, let me assert that the major fight for Goans in the fifties and the early sixties was to seek a “sovereign nation status”. There were very many worthy Goans, highly qualified and educated, all over Europe, in the US, Africa and the Australian island fighting the Salazar regime from within Portugal too, besides across the globe.
Goan historians have failed to record or appreciate their work. Like pigmies or rather as “Goan crab” we concentrate on the “one-eyed Jack” history of Goan Opinion Poll which is in itself a
disgraceful compromise, since nearly half the number of Goans were apparently seen to be happy with Goa being a part of Maharashtra.
Being a student at St. Xavier’s College and then casually meeting Dayanand Bandodkar at the residence of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra V P Naik, Bandodkar clearly felt that there was a severe caste divide in Goa, as a result of 450 years of Portuguese rule and both the chief ministers felt strongly that the weaker castes which they both belonged to, would be safer under the
umbrella of Maharashtra state.
Today, I strongly feel that Bandodkar’s fears were genuine and real and he really cared for the marginalised Goans. My heart is with the “Opinion Poll victory”, but my head as a youth; politically detached. I fully understood Bandodkar’s vision, on the “first-hand” cursory-experience
not derived from history books on Opinion Poll.
Over the last 50 years, after conquest of Goa and the taking over of the Governance of Goa by the two major political parties, is there no caste suppression of the majority poor of Goa? Does it need for me to spell out that successive Chief Ministers of Goa are from the dominant section of the society? The mineral resource utilization is controlled by the miniscule section of the society, who have made agriculture to suffer and increased the water woes of the teeming downtrodden in the still backward talukas of Sattari, Pernem, Sanguem, Canacona, Bicholim, etc.
Come on Goans, what are you celebrating -- the loss of Anjediva Island, the strangulation of Goa by the Mormagao Port Trust or the Indian Oil Corporation, the destruction of Goan livelihood by gambling, by vested interests from outside Goa against the interest of the common man?
Please do not live in a fool’s paradise. Since the victory of Opinion Poll, indigenous Goans have been marginalised systematically and drugged into a belief that we have retained our distinct identity since January 16, 1967.
Today, Goa is a lost paradise. The common man is in a despicable and degenerated state of affairs. The notorious Judases in Goa governance consisting of selfish and self-centered politicians, together with the obliging bureaucracy and the exploiters of the real estate and natural resources from across India have ganged up to plunder and loot Goa, leaving it raped and destroyed. Even properties of unwary Goans have been acquired by dubious means by manipulating Form I & XIV by the migrants.
Today, Goans have nothing genuine of the identity and amusingly, we see Goans cheering FC Goa
club which in fact is not at all, truly Goan. Bollywood has already killed our culture and our mandos are dying.
What a shame, we have a hypocritical governments imitating the same earlier destructive policies by just tweaking them. Goa sadly has not produced a single revolutionary leader dedicated to the cause of marginalised indigenous people and its biodiversity and ecosystem who will eliminate “U-turnism” in Goa.
Its time Goans reflect on the carnival or shigmo festivities and act as Goa is degrading fast for eternity.
