They DID start the fire. December 18, 2006. The day town andcountry marched and merged as one in a sea of public outpouring and outrage against what they felt was anunjust regional plan which surrendered not just humungous stretches of land forconstruction. It sacrificed Goa’sfuture and its identity at the altar of haphazard planning.
With a generous push from the church, Goans got out of bedthat morning, to fight for the peaceful sleep of their future generations andmarched to Azaad Maidan in Panjim for the greatest ever rally in living memory,to scrap the Regional Plan and make people participants in their future.
This year, as December 18 dawned the sixth anniversary ofthe revolution of 2006, most protagonists had to be reminded of the day. And asthey spoke, so fondly of December 18, 2006, they realized that today-six yearslater, the revolution hasnbt become a reality. Goa hasn’t changed. It stilldoesn’t have a just plan
In 2006, it all started just a month earlier. Ironically,after a National Press Day celebration at Don Bosco, Panjim, when Goa HeritageAction Group members touched base with other activists from different fields.“Reboni and GHAG members, including Heta (Pandit) asked me over tea if I couldspare some time for to oversee the kind of development that was going on” reminiscesSabina Martins, Convenor, Goa Bachao Abhiyaan. Sabina was initially surprisedas to why a women’s rights activist like her was being asked to step into afight for development. What followed was a powerpoint presentation that showedthese activists what would Goa look like when RP 2021 would come into. Afterflurry of meetings and a press conference on December 3, 2006, the Goa BachaoAbhiyaan was born. Dr Oscar Rebelo was unanimously chosen as the Convenor.
“I recall, a few days prior to the rally at Azad Maidan. Agroup of activists approached me on the issue of coming together to oppose theRegional Plan, which showed mass conversion of agricultural land and land inthe eco-sensitive zones. I must admit, I was an amateur then and really didn't havethe experience of coming on the streets in such a large movement”, confessesOscar. There were tough decisions to make, enormous amount of research andstudy to do before the GBA went out on the streets recollects the face of themoment.
The diehard romantics filled in with financial help. “We didnot even think, about the money and where it would come from. From chairs to water, from buses to a publicaddress system, everybody pitched in,” remembers lawyer Yatish Naik. The GBAmembers mostly funded the rally and the meetings themselves. Funds trickled into become a deluge. Minor issues like cost payments of the grounds and erectingpandals fell into place automatically as the focus was one “ save Goa's land.
And then the day arrived. The people came in droves. TheChurch had spread the word through each church and chapel in villages. Curious people looked on with horror atthe copies of Regional Plan that would turn their pristine neighbourhoods intoconcrete jungles. Remo’s music set the ambience on fire, as the sense ofoutrage was complete. Ten thousand pair of hands rose up as the historic rallyresolved not only to throw out the plan but to also wrest control of it.
Six years later, the Goa Bachao Abhiyaan is looked at as yetanother activist group. The others have gone their own ways. “We werepolitically naïve then”, recollects Sabina. At the rally, everybody fromreligious groups to political parties shared the platform. After the AzadMaidan rally and the subsequent one at Lohia Maidan, the government withdrewthe RP 2021. But the political capitalists weren’t happy. GBA meetings turnednoisy and ugly. “People were shouting others down, some wanted to launch othersimilar movements but with different names,” recollects Sabina. The first casualtywas the man who became synonymous with the GBA “ Oscar Rebelo. Others soonfollowed.
Unfortunately as it often happens in Goa, the North, Southdivision happened, though unintended and inadvertent. The Village groups ofGoa, another extremely committed group of activists who first pointed out hugeanomalies the moment the plan for Salcette was unveiled, went on to become theface of the anti RP agitation after the 2021 plan was notified. “The VillagersGroup of Goa was never carved out of the GBA. It was only when the so-calleddo-gooders started buckling under the aftermath of the Rally under ego andgreed that the right thinking people decided to stand up for justice. We sawthat that GBA had started suffering from Stockholm syndrome and emerged as theplatform that the Government danced upon. We didn’t think the same”, saysZarina da Cunha of Villagers Group of Goa. VGG, who parted ways with GBA, aroseout of the latter’s thrust more on collecting data rather than insisting onconcrete actions. Where suave, white collared activism failed, VGG was born, asvillage after village arose on the ashes of GBA finding that their local mapswere being drawn by builders, by TCP, by Government that borrowed their ownstudy of what was good for themselves. VGG’s disillusionment with GBA alsoarose out of the fact that while GBA worked on the principle of stepwisecorrection, VGG insisted that it was either a total coure correction andnothing short of it. “Goans are sentimentally foolish people and that Rally of2006 proved that. For us, the revolution did not end there. Till we see thepeople’s will reflected in Regional Plans” adds Da Cunha. VGG last year didanother Azad Maidan Rally which had ten thousand people converging from thevillages. The Regional Plan may have ignored the villages and towns but thefight has gone deeper into the grassroots.
The organization still lives on and battles against theauthorities at PDA offices, in press conferences, against an unrelentinggovernment. The warriors may have moved on but the fire that was lit onDecember 18, 2006 still rages.
