By Joseph L R Vaz
Whenever any candidate wins, his favorite words are “it is people’s victory” even though he uses money to buy votes, threats, intimidation, manipulation, goondagiri, etc to ensure his victory. I thought these 2 words “people’s victory” had lost its meaning until I saw how Mr. Avertano Furtado won in Navelim.
Avertan’s win, who has been described by most of the newspapers as the boy next door, was indeed a “people’s victory” right from organizing corner meetings, to big public meetings, from door to door campaigning to word-of-mouth campaigning, each and every Navelkar, baring a few contributed his bit, as one of my friend commented “for a bottle of soda”, no biryani, no whisky, just plain soda, sometimes even without that.
Churchill’s rants against the Clergy was uncalled for, as Dr. Jorson rightly pointed out – ‘bad workers blame their tools’. I attend mass in Navelim Church and have never heard any Priest tell the congregation not to vote for Churchill, yes they kept telling us not to vote for corrupt, now if Churchill considers himself as corrupt, then yes, it is for him.
In his pride Churchill could not feel the undercurrents sweeping through Navelim. It all started in 2008, with his move to occupy fertile fields of poor Goan farmers, most of whom are his voters from Aquem-Baixo and to gift them to mostly non-Goan illegal settlers from Raanfond, all of whom are already settled elsewhere.
Navelim Forum & Navelim Xetkarancho Exvott withstood the pressure including his public threats of “Finishing them” (which incidentally is his favorite sentence at all public speeches). He failed to realize that even his ardent followers were with the farmers in this agitation. Perhaps for the 1st time in Navelim, armed guards were used to forcibly snatch away the fields from poor farmers. With help of the Rosary (the Patroness of Navelim village), the farmers gathered support from all over Goa which put the then Chief Minister Mr. Digambar Kamat under tremendous pressure, forcing him to put the acquisition on hold and promising the farmers a favourable solution to return the fields, but our own MLA Mr. Alemao was still adamant and kept on challenging the agitating people, who were his voters.
The 2nd major issue was the Sinquetim bridge, there again armed guards were used to forcible construct the bridge against people’s wishes. Somehow the people managed to slow down the progress of the bridge construction and withstood all the threats and intimidation. There were more issues of some more farmers at Mandopa and residents of Dongorim. Davorlim too also had land acquisition problem against people's wishes. None of the people cowed down under pressure even though harassment and dadagiri was used. He must have thought that ultimately with money and gifts he can buy all the voters of Navelim, which sadly back fired upon him.
When Avertano announced his interest to contest in Navelim, it gave a big relief to all right thinking Navelkars. From then on support kept on increasing for Avertan, with each passing day. Navelim was the only place where it was straight fight, 1 against 1, good v/s bad, new fresh blood v/s old tainted blood, youth v/s old. Elsewhere people had little choice, to choose the best amongst the rest.
Churchill tried every trick to win, from offering inducements to harassment in business, but Avetan stood firm. Then came expletives like “fogetti”, “kimus”, ect, little realizing that with each passing day, he was digging his own grave deeper and deeper. Avertan was under lot of pressure, his main worry – ‘what if I lose’ – and I believe his prayer during the last couple of days was not “I hope I win” but rather “I hope I don’t lose”, such was the fear that Churchill instills, but the people of Navelim did not let Avertan down, and with one voice brought down the Alemao’s of Varca Kingdom and brought a change, a real change in Navelim.
Churchill most favorite sentence, “when God and people are with me, nobody can defeat me”. Well, when you break the 1st commandment, don’t try the 2nd. This whole process was a result of our consistent every Wednesday Rosary, continuously for 3 years despite many difficulties.
People have given Avertan the mandate to undo all the wrong done for the last 5 years and bring about a real change in Navelim. Let’s hope he performs as per people’s aspirations.
10,231 Navelkars did not take money and voted as per their conscience, in fact for the 1st time, people were seen spending their own money for firecrackers, people took part in the victory rally without any allowances, which showed the spirit of the people of Navelim. Hope this spirit spreads to rest of Goa. The 1stvoice for Goa’s freedom started from Navelim, from Mr. Francis Luis Gomes, history has repeated again for the new true liberation of Goa, let it spread, Viva Goa.
The full unedited article was published in Herald (6-4-2012) in "People's Edit" column.
