Dr Oscar Rebelo
We are truly a spectacularly stupid people, so suffused with the hot helium of our own self-imposed pomposity that it would make a vain peacock blush with shame.
Let us get a few facts about the much ballyhooed Opinion Poll right.
1. Jack Sequeira was the towering pillar of the Opinion Poll, no question. His integrity, his passion, his smarts, and his unflinching devotion to the cause was heroic...
But he was not the only one.
There were legions of other stalwarts from all religions and castes who sacrificed and struggled; argued and advanced the cause of a separate Goan identity.
2. What this then effectively translates into is that the anti-merger faction, which eventually won the “battle” was not just made up of the “valiant” Catholics but members of all communities. All faiths.
3. The primary reason the MGP (Bhau’s MGP not the company MGP) wanted a merger with Maharashtra is never truly explored.
Was the Bahujan Samaj vote bank of the MGP fearful of a take over of power by the entrenched upper class (both Hindu and Catholic) in case Goa remained Goa?
Were the “subaltern” class which overwhelmingly voted for Bhau treated fairly during the Portuguese regime?
Could they influence the corridors of power in Portuguese Goa or was that the happy hunting grounds of only the upper landed class?
To be honest, if I was born in a subaltern family, suppressed for centuries by a colonial power I’d vote to merge with Maharashtra in a heartbeat...in 1967 maybe my options would have been better there.
4. Did the Church influence the Christian subaltern to stick to Goa and vote anti-merger considering it’s own clout would have diminished forever if a merger were to take place??
5. And finally, if it weren’t for Nehru, the ultimate Indian democrat (hence patriot) who agreed to the Opinion Poll demand and Bhau the ultimate Goan democrat (hence patriot) who gracefully accepted the people’s verdict despite it going against his own position do you think Goa would have remained Goa?
Which then brings me to my original poser. Why is there nothing to be proud of on Opinion Poll day?
Because you and I, hard boiled as we are in our interminable divides over religion and caste and language and script, have failed the Opinion Poll verdict so incredibly that we should have buried our heads in those unused mining pits a long while ago.
Our land is ravaged, our forests and rivers are so devastated it isn’t even comi tragic anymore, our politics are toxic, we are all intricately woven into a web of intolerable levels of corruption and we are happy about it.
There is nothing absolutely nothing to be proud of the Goa we are creating and nurturing like a nightmare for our future generations.
So come every January 16, instead of celebrating it we need to mourn the death of Goa and I would gladly join Vijai Sardesai and Michael Lobo and all the rest (who are eyeing the Catholic vote bank in case the Assembly gets dissolved) in an act of self-flagellation.
Let us all go up the Mandovi bridge armed with whiplashes and whip ourselves to atone for our sins.
We were a proud honourable people then. We are a pathetic, dishonest people now. Hopefully we will be a sensible rejuvenated people tomorrow.
But I never believed in miracles or God.
