MAPUSA
On a wet monsoon day in Goa’s most famous beach village, politics took a dramatic turn. The stage was supposed to be about a national event, but Calangute’s veteran Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira had other plans.
What followed was less a nationalistic speech and more a political broadside “ one that left many wondering if the ruling BJP’s coastal fortress was showing cracks.
Sequeira began on a historical note, invoking Goa’s liberation.
“We all fought for it “ Hindus, Christians, Muslims. But today one community is trying to claim that it alone liberated Goa or India,” he said, his voice rising as he recalled the unrest over the Shivaji Maharaj statue installation near the Calangute police station in the recent past.
“Our panchayat office was broken, our cars were damaged. What did you gain by doing this?” he asked, in what many saw as a thinly veiled rebuke to forces aligned with his own party.
Then came the sharper jabs “ aimed unmistakably at local MLA Michael Lobo, though never named outright.
The Sarpanch accused Lobo of foisting the Outline Development Plan (ODP) on Calangute “for personal gains” and permitting 200 percent FAR, leading to a rash of tall buildings that altered the village’s skyline.
“And now they say Calangute is over-developed. Who made it so?” he thundered.
The attack didn’t stop there. Sequeira dredged up the 2017 campaign, reminding the audience of Lobo’s promise to regularise houses in CRZ areas. “Till today, nothing has happened. People are living in fear. Don’t make empty promises,” he warned, urging his own party MLA to deliver on his word.
The Sarpanch also painted a grim picture of projects thrust upon the village.
The garbage treatment plant, he said, had poisoned wells with leachate. The sewage treatment facility, meanwhile, was accused of discharging into the Baga river, killing fish and polluting the beach.
“Calangute is not a dumping ground,” Sequeira declared.
For political watchers, the speech was more than just local grousing.
Both Sequeira and Lobo wear the BJP’s colours, yet the public sparring signals friction in the party’s North Goa stronghold.
With murmurs of new alignments and fresh groupings ahead of the next polls, the drama in Calangute may be an early sign of a larger churn. “Each one is developing his own village “ Parra, Arpora… but what has been done in Calangute?” Sequeira asked, his voice laced with frustration.
The question hung heavy in the misty air, echoing through the precincts of the panchayat boundaries.
