Panaji
The Congress in Goa has made the popular Konkani song ‘Aiz Yetolo, Falyan Yetolo, Pavan Pavana, usually sung by Goans while heading home from a picnic, its signature tune at their Jan Aakrosh protests in all talukas.
The most recent taluka in which the song was sung was Tiswadi, where the Congress held a one-hour protest against Goa’s “headless government”.
On Friday evening, around 250 people gathered for a protest at Miramar beach where GPCC chief Girish Chodankar and Tivim MLA Nilkanth Halarnkar were at the forefront. Amidst speeches by various Congress leaders, including MK Shaikh and ex-Panaji mayor Surendra Furtado, Congress spokesperson Amarnath Panjikar led the protestors in singing the song.
The satirical lyrics of the song point to BJP leaders’ assurances that the Chief Minister will be back, but there’s no sign of him actually.
When asked about how the trademark song first came to be sung at these protests, Panjikar told The Goan that it came about spontaneously at a Congress protest around three months after ailing CM Manohar Parrikar was first diagnosed with cancer, and was hence missing in action.
At the time, Congress members hadn’t planned on singing it, but ever since then the song has been modified a little to suit the current political situation in Goa, and has been sung at most places the party protests in.
The Friday evening protest saw Congress members and supporters clapping along while singing with gusto. “Aiz yetolo falyan yetolo, pavan pavana; CM khain pavla, konak khabarna,” sang the protestors, meaning, no-one knows where the CM is.
The Congress also distributed fliers to those present, with all the months of the year written, but only January had a big green tick at the side of it, while all other months had a big red cross, indicating the months of 2018 the CM has not been in office. While addressing those present, Chodankar said that BJP workers had called to wish him for the party’s win in three states in the recent state elections.
He also highlighted that the Congress would always use “democratic tools” to protest, in contrast to the BJP’s way of expressing disagreement, which was by giving ‘dhamkis’ or threats.
