Finally the Cat is out of the Bag. As expected Mathanay Saldanha earlier known as the patriot of Secularism finally and shamelessly joined BJP officially by deceiving his secular supporters and followers who earlier helped him to create a dent in public life. His earlier supporters were predominantly Christians including Church leaders who never expected him to join the communal party BJP that persecuted Christians. BJP is a communal party and one to be a member of this party must be necessarily a communal person propagating hatred for non Hindus. Worst of crimes against Christians in Goa were done by Parrikar Government during its short tenure of ruling Goa. Good that BJP ruled Goa only for a short period otherwise it would massacre Christians in Goa under the leadership of Parrikar. What harsh communalism did not practice by MGP durng its about 15 years of rule in Goa, BJP did in few months. In fact BJP in Goa came into existence not to rule Goa judiciously but only to Hinduise Goa.
It is a very sad story of Mathanay Saldanha who earlier when he got himself involved in public life as a protector of Ramponkar he was a clean man. My honeymoon with him started in early eighties during the Konkani Language "Novem Goem" movement under Novem Goem Pratishthan when I was on vacation in Goa during that period. I have spearheaded Novem Goem movement in Kuwait collecting from Goans in Kuwat lakhs of rupees for this project. Regularly we were meeting in Panjim at Jesuit House where he was staying along with Christopher Fonseca who was the General Secretary of Novem Goem Pratishtan Movement. During that particular period I fell in love not with him as a man but for his great ideals of Secularism. But the moment he joined BJP Government when he was not supposed to join when he was not elected on BJP Symbol and thereby committing a robbery on the trust of his voters, I lost my taste in him and his fake ideals. Previous to this time I found him the most clean and upright Goan politician. But later on he proved to be a fake and selfish like any other corrupt Goan politician.
I had great hope in him to protect Goan secularism and prestine good values of Goa even without getting elected. To propagate one’s ideals one need not necessarily become MLA or Minister. Instead one can do lot of good for the society by being as individual layman. But Mathanay Saldanha is become greedy for power and because of this he discarded all his former good values and joined Parrikar’s BJP which is known to promote communalism in Goa. By grabbing Mathanay Saldanha into BJP Parrikar will try to woo Christians towards BJP. Christians and Muslims should not only boycott BJP but more than that they should boycott Mathany Saldanha in the next election and all other such Mathanays in BJP. They are tools in the hands of Parrikar in Goa. By joining BJP Mathanay Saldanha proved to be worst than a Judas because by doing this act he betrayed all his anti-BJ supporters who promoted him to what he later on became, even an MLA. In one stroke by joining BJP Mathanay Saldanha told all his supporters and followoers "Tumi boslet mojea Konkear".
It is a pity to note that almost every Goan political leader and even an ordinary politician after gaining the strong foothold on political field he acts traitor to his own supporters. When he starts his political career he starts as a Slave but once gained the political foothold he acts as a Master. How people were hurt by Mathanay Saldanha's joining BJP when it was ruling Goa was known when he was defeated in the last election. Earlier he defeated Mauwin Godinho nicely and sent him into limbo but after joining BJP Government Mathanay himself resurrected Mauwin.
In the coming election, secular minded voters must teach another strong lesson to Mathanay Saldanha and send him reeling down the canvas permanently. Goan voters must not forgive BJP for harassing Christians unless BJP openly and publicly apologises to Christians and promise that it would never follow communalism in Goa again. Does Parrikar has marbles to do this?
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
