A large brass statue of living football legend from Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo, was installed and unveiled at Calangute recently with the sole intention of promoting football and inspiring more youth to take up the sport in a big way in Goa.
Unfortunately, a bunch of pro-Maharashtrawadi supporters/sympathisers were seen protesting displaying black flags and raising slogans against the local MLA Michael Lobo for insulting Goans by unnecessarily installing the statue of an international star.
Their main argument was that instead of installing Ronaldo’s statue, MLA Lobo could have installed the statue of Goa’s football legend Bruno Coutinho from the same village. Well, in a way what they are saying is true. But at the same time, what is wrong with installing a statue of a Portuguese footballing great when he currently has a mass following all around the world?
If these fanatics have so much hatred for the Portuguese, then how come they didn’t go to show the same black flags to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for officially visiting Portugal in 2017 to meet Prime Minister Antonio Costa and for greeting the Indian crowd with a “Viva Portugal” slogan through his much-publicised speech in that country? Today, lakhs of Goans, left with no other option in Goa/India, have rightly acquired Portuguese passports and migrated along with their families to European countries for a living, especially in the UK, to earn a better living. I, therefore, personally feel that these backward thinking protesters indulging in double standards should learn to live in the present. Yes, as MLA Michael Lobo himself has rightly said, “Football belongs to everyone. It is not divided by religion or caste.” So, stop playing dirty communal politics in a harmonious State like Goa. Viva Goa... Viva Goenkar!
