This is in reply to the news item appeared in the Goan media on 16th
of this month saying that Goa’s Chief Minister “vows to provide corrupt free
governance”. What a rubbish statement is it of rubbish Pramod Sawant?
Since it is rubbish I refuse to accept this statement and moving a step forward would like to say that even if
another hundred more Pramod Sawants come
in the form of 100 Chief Ministers and try to implement this policy, nothing will change in our so
corrupt system where it is accepted by
every citizen that almost every elected member is a corrupt. It is going to be
impossible for any earthly creature from Goa to eradicate the corruption
existing in Goa so deeply.
First of all it is
almost impossible for any candidate to get elected without performing
corruption either by bribing his voters or gifting them with certain things or threatening his opponents directly
or indirectly or spying on his opponents and many more such corrupt practices.
Using corrupt practices and corrupt activities is the must for every candidate to get himself elected.
If these lawmakers themselves are corrupt and getting elected thru corrupt
practices then how these candidates support corruption free society? When
corruption is their oxygen which they inhale every second of the day, how can they
discard corruption?
Once the candidate is
elected, either he as an MLA or MP or a Minister, he has to kill his conscience
if he has one and be a party to the whole system which is become absolutely
corrupt. Can CM Sawant confront this without
getting “clean bowled” by his own opponents in his own Government and party? He
may have good intention but it is practically not possible because being still
a kid on Chief Minister’s Chair, Pramod Sawant the current Chief Minister of
Goa still has to go a long way to get
that magnetic type of allegiance from his
colleagues as earlier got by Dayananda Bandodcar and Manohar Parrikar. And as a matter of fact, how clean Pramod
Sawant is? He issued this statement as
if he is the most clean man!! How can a
person by being a member of the BJP that is controlled by the RSS and involved in creating communalism besides committing
most corrupt practice of accepting 10 “fotting” congress MLA’s into his BJP
fold, can remain corruption free? In
this case by virtue of being an active member of corrupt RSS, will Pramod
Sawant be able to provide corruption free governance in Goa?
Secondly, our Chief Minister
said in the same news item that “Bandodcar took elementary education to rural
Goa”. I disagree with this statement. Much before Bandodcar came to power in
Goa, it was somewhere in 1958 the newly arrived Portuguese Governador Vassalo e
Silva introduced compulsory and free primary education in Portuguese for every
Goan child attaining the age of 6. Thru this ordinance Governador Vassalo e
Silva attained the status of the architecht of the introduction of compulsory
primary education in Goa and not Dayananda Bandodcar who was the most rubbish,
most communal, and the most anti Goan Chief Minister of Goa. The construction of the New Primary Schools
were already initiated by the Goa Governador and all these schools were of the same pattern all over Goa; two of such schools
were already built in our areas, one in Candolim at Dando and the other in
Calangute at Sauntavaddo.
Besides, the Portuguese
Governador when he was passing thru Candolim road while returning from Aguada
in the mornings approximately at about 7.30 to 8.00 AM, many times he used to
halt his simple vehicle without any display of pomp – namely no red Beacon
light, no police escort jeep neither in front nor behind, no posse of heavily
armed body guards - in fact there were only 3 security personnel each carrying
a small Revolver fixed to their short Pant, one of them was the Goan driver,
the other who was the Paklo sitting in the front seat next to the driver and
the last one yet another Paklo sitting next to the Governador in the middle row,
entered our Portuguese School and also Marathi Xalla and distributed the School
Bags to the poor students.
As a matter of interest I would like to share one episode to prove how
good the Portuguese Governador was and how bad our Goan casteist teachers
were. Once, in the morning when
Governador Vassalo e Silva returning from Aguada at 8.00 AM, abruptly stopped his vehicle
next to our Portuguese Primary School, wearing a nice Suit bluish in colour and
along with one of the security officers carrying a Bag filled with something
which we did not know till it was opened. The Governador stood at the entrance door to draw the attention of our professor and
asked the professor, in a very humble manner as if he is dependent on our
Professor, “ CAN I COME IN?” Then
Professor got up from his chair and we all the students got up in unison and
wished him in one voice saying “Bom Dia Senhor Governador!! He nodded his head
answering our greeting in the same manner saying BOM DIA
– BOM DIA , all with his smiling
face. Then he walked right up to the
front Bench where I was sitting, stood still there for a few seconds, looked at
me and coming closer to me, bending his head to reach to my ears and asked me “
Tem Sakola”? Seeing the Governador was speaking to me a simple commoner boy with simple and common background, wearing torn uniform and in
barefoot, I suddenly lost my mental balance and became dumb and turned into a totally nervous boy. Seeing my uneasy situation, Governador gave a
very charismatic broad smile and condescended himself and put his right hand in
my drawer and checked for himself whether I have a Bag to carry my books. When he found no bag there, he called me out
and told me in Portuguese ‘come here and stand up there at one corner”. Then he
told our Professor to select another 11 students coming from the poor family
background and having no School Bag and to keep them standing where I too was
standing”. Then he asked his Paklo officer to take out 12 Bags and distribute 1 each to all the 12 students. But the rascal
Professor of ours who was the big “Bhattkar” and casteist, when told by the
Governador to select all the 11 students from the poor background, he selected
all the 11 students boys and girls from
the rich and affluent family background and all from upper caste background. Governador was happy that he did a nice job of
projecting himself and his Portuguese government a Secular but poor guy what he
knew that he was made a fool by this Goan Christian Professor thereby denying
the privilege given to the poor Goan students by the most kind and benevolent
Portuguese Goverador of Goa, Vassalo e Silva who indicated his great love and
affection for Goans? From here, who can say who was fooling Goans in the name
of Portuguese? Were the Portuguese
really our enemies or our own Goan Portuguese like my Professor our worst
enemies?
The same excersice was performed by the same Governador a little away
from our School in the Marathi Xallah where the Marathi Xalla Mastor selected
all the 12 students from top and rich Hindu Brahmin boys and girls. While going back, they the Hindus who were at
the Tinto when got this news
immediately, they shouted slogans so vociferously in praise of Governador and
Portugal that its sound was reverberating even in our School which was 200
metres away from Tinto.
A.Veronica Fernandes.
