The monstrous ground-plus-one bungalow at Old Goa was one of the hottest topics of discussion in the run-up to the February 2022 assembly elections in Goa.
In fact, in the later half of 2021, it dominated the narrative like nothing else after the uproar over the deadly 'second wave' driven by the 'Delta' variant of the Covid-19 virus and which claimed hundreds of lives in the face of the oxygen botch up at the GMC, died down.
And, amidst the sustained public pressure and a massive show of strength in Old Goa by civil society and the political opposition in November of 2021, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's government bowed down. It announced action against the alleged illegal construction in the vicinity of the World heritage sites and also wrote to the Archeological Survey of India to examine the issue and initiate action from its side.
First, the then Town and Country Planning Minister, Chandrakant Kavlekar, announced cancellation of all the technical clearances and followed it up by writing to the Old Goa panchayat to initiate action as per law to demolish the structure.
Months later, the ASI too obliged and unilaterally ordered demolition of the structure, citing fraud and suppression of facts at the time of applying for the authority's nod to carry out the construction in August last year.
While all this was happening, Aldona MLA, Carlos Alvares Ferreira then an aspirant for the assembly hustings had forewarned that the change of heart of the government was pure politics and had forewarned that it will fail the test of law if norms and procedures are not followed.
Which is exactly what has now happened, with Monday's decision of the High Court, to quash the ASI demolition order.
Strangely, as basic a precaution of following the principle of natural justice being ignored by no less an authority as the Deputy Director General of the ASI, is bound to raise the question: Was it deliberate? Cannot be ruled out, given that the property had then belonged to a firm owned by Manish Banot, the husband of the BJP's high-profile spokesperson Shaina N.C., who however sold it in the face of the trouble with the authorities.
It is anybody's guess if the Sawant administration will show the same level of enthusiasm to act against the structure now as it was in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
CM in K'taka: muscle flexing
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is making quite a political statement. 'Brazen it out' seems to be the strategy adopted by him. How else then can his audacious act of touring Karnataka to campaign for his party there at a time when over the last five weeks he has had to eat crow over the Mhadei dispute?
On Wednesday and Thursday, Sawant attended BJP events in at least two venues of South Karnataka. At one place, he even predicted a victory for the BJP in that State. He clearly has nothing to fear, given his government's brute numerical strength and an electoral test on his home turf more than a year away in the form of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Politics wins, but can loss on Mhadei and Goa be afforded?
Tanavade bracing for LS poll?
The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) State president Sadanand Shet Tanavade, celebrated his birthday earlier this week and what a bash it was in terms of who showed up.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, his cabinet colleagues including Tanavade's one time rival and Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar, former South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar and almost every BJP leader of note, including the once indispensible Satish Dhond, turned up. Former AAP's State convenor, Rahul Mhambre, who happens to be Tanavade's next door neighbour, also turned up to greet him.
The story, however, is not in who turned up. It is rather in who skipped the bash, notable among them was Union minister and North Goa MP, Shripad Naik, leaving us to wonder whether a Naik-Tanavade tussle is in store for the North Goa parliamentary seat which is approximately a year away?
Organisation of Mapusa Carnival gets spicy
Former chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council Michael Carrasco is synonymous with Mapusa Carnival celebrations. For years, the former civic body chief has been at the helm of the festival and organising it with much gusto. This year, however, he is facing strong opposition from some councilors in the opposition who would like some fresh blood to take over the organisation of the festival.
And as luck would have it, the opposition crossed the first hurdle, last month, when they managed to elect councilor Kayle Braganza, yes she’s the daughter of the former chairperson Mathew and sister of ex-chief Ryan, as the General Secretary of the Carnival committee a key post when it comes to organising the festival. They sidestepped Michael Carrasco who was the choice of the ruling group obviously with the strong backing of local MLA, Joshua D’Souza.
Carrasco was elected second in command to Braganza in the pecking order of the Carnival committee. But politically-hardened Carrasco was unmoved with the turn of events and went about his task of preparing a publicity poster of the Mapusa Carnival festival and even circulated it on social media keeping the General Secretary in the dark.
The opposition did not take it lying down and on Wednesday at a meeting to elect sub-committees for the Carnival festival, challenged the ruling group for trying to bypass the General Secretary. They literally told Carrasco to shut up and asked Kayle Braganza to conduct the meeting and elect/choose members for the sub-committees. Well, as they famously say in Hindi…picture toda baki hai.
Mhadei activists a clueless lot?
The Save Mhadei Save Goa Front seems to be clueless on the way forward for their agitation to save the river's waters from getting diverted.
First the Front announced that there was possibility of the agitation getting aggressive and even gave hints that it could be on the lines of the Nylon 6, 6 and Konkani agitations. However, perhaps realising that they did not enjoy traction, the Front leaders then made a U-turn and informed that theirs would be a non-violent movement and that they would go to the public and create awareness on the issue to muster mass support.
In fact, during the Opinion Poll Day meet at Sanquelim, some speakers were targeting another Mhadei movement by opining that it was not the time for awareness but action.
The indecisiveness betrays the Front leaders' lack of conviction whether they would get the public support that they are hoping for.
The indecisiveness of the leadership is very evident and does not bode well for the Mhadei movement.
