Love for Goa may or may not have been aptly manifested in his single-term cameo inning on the political Stage back in the 1990s when he donned the mantle of the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
However, earlier this week Tomazinho Cardozo dazzled tiatr aficionados earlier this week when his production titled 'I Love Goa' raised the curtains for the 49th edition of the 'A' group tiatr competition of the Kala Academy.
Some of us from the tribe of journos who also enjoy going to the tiatrs to soak up some comic entertainment could never come to a definite conclusion on the question whether Tomazinho Cardozo gave a reasonably good account of himself in his cameo politician inning in the Goa legislative assembly.
The otherwise affable personality and a veteran of panchayat politics until he became MLA then, Tomazinho found himself thrust in the middle of a bitter factional feud in the treasury benches and as Speaker faltered a bit in adjudicating the many events in that term.
It must have been his most turbulent five years, what with he almost losing the Speaker's election itself although he eventually made it against the late Surendra Sirsat, owing to the bulldozing of treasury benches which has now almost become a norm in Legislatures across the country.
However on another stage, there's not even an iota of doubt in any of us or anyone else, that the 'veteran tiatrist' facet of Tomazinho's personality bustles with finesse and accomplishment.
Together with his life partner Irene, 'I Love Goa' presented by Tomazinho, reflecting the story of a widow (played by Irene) whose next-gen family has migrated to England and is left to deal with prying builders (land sharks) to whom she does not want to sell, was a classic reflecting the reality of today's Goa.
Apart from dealing with the impact of the younger lot of Goans migrating out of the State, Tomazinho also highlights the drastic impact of ancestral properties being sold and in a significant way manifests he loves Goa. Kudos!
The Shivaji conundrum
It happened last year and as it happens more often than not, the lessons were unlearnt and the fracas got repeated this year too. Clearly, Shivaji Jayanti which should have ideally been an occasion to celebrate and reflect on the warrior King's abundant and historic achievements, is turning out to be an occasion for bitter confrontations and political wars here in Goa.
If Calangute and Mapusa last year gave the State machinery anxious moments with situations on the ground attaining dangerous and violent proportions, it was unexpectedly Sao Jose de Areal this year.
The attempt to surreptitiously install a life-size statue of the Maratha warrior king without following the procedures as it has now been revealed, ended up quite in the same fashion it did last year in Calangute: in violence and nearly a riot. This year at Sao Jose de Areal it was worse and at the centre of the controversy was Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phaldesai, a self-proclaimed 'Shiv premi'. Alleged attempts to attack him by the people gathered there was officially provided as the reason why the men-in-uniform decided to resort to a lathi-charge.
'Shiv premi' or not, beats us why a responsible member of the Goa cabinet should have descended on 'ground zero' at Sao Jose de Areal, when tension was already in the air as manifested by the happenings there the previous day.
The cold-shouldering witnessed between Phaldesai and the local MLA, Cruz Silva of the AAP, in a way reflected the bad blood between the two which incidentally was in full view inside the August House during the monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly held in July-August last year. Phaldesai had clashed with Silva on the floor of the House, coincidentally over the same controversy related to Shivaji Maharaj.
Footnote: Shivaji Maharaj is the most iconic symbol of Maratha and Maharashtrian power, not really the best to latch on to in the political landscape here what with the debacle of the proposition to merge Goa with that State in 1967 through the historic and only Indian plebiscite: Opinion Poll.
The Times They Are a-Changin....
