By Nisser Dias
15th August 2013
Last week Nuvem MLA Mickky Pacheco was back in the eye of the storm because of the arrest of a famous tiarists Francis de Tuem upon the former’s complaint of defamation and extortion. The episode that has played out in the public domain has lot of aspects to it. Be it the influence of the politicians or the popular support to tiarists or the powers of the police to act arbitrarily. But somehow politicians and tiarists are so intertwined that they need each other for their own gains. And hence the thin line between entertainment and public life tend to get blurred sometimes thereby causing frictions between the political class and the tiarists.
And
when the going gets tough for the politicians they start using their influence
to get back at the tiarists and in the recent case similar is the instance. The
only difference to my mind is that Mickky acted at the behest of someone higher
in the political set-up because being a mere MLA, police would not have acted
so swiftly to register a complaint and affect an arrest and that too from
Mickky as firstly he is always at war with the police, secondly he himself has alleged
criminal cases registered against him and in one case has even been convicted pending
appeal for assaulting a electricity department engineer. So for the police to
act with great speed on a mere complaint and arrest Francis de Tuem seems more
like an orchestrated plan.
For
some years now poking fun at politicians or showing them in poor light in
tiatrs has gone down well with the public. Infact political tiatrs have become
runaway successes making tiarists and singers popular overnight but also
vulnerable. Vulnerable not only to threats but also to enticements and
inducements thus set in the trend of using tiarists for political campaigns to
tarnish the image of political opponents through plays, songs and humour. As
the general public accepted it wholeheartedly it was introduced on stage and
the public just walloped it. But the difference between political campaign and
tiartr is that during political campaign the tiarists who dabble in it are
under political protection while the candidates however powerful and popular
are vulnerable of losing the elections if they resort to violence. But in a
mainstream tiatr where politicians are made laughing stock the tiarists have to
fend for themselves and in some instances even their own colleagues do not come
to their rescue. That is because they either owe allegiance to some politician
or another or simply afraid of getting involved.
But
those tiarists who have been gaining popularity at the cost of politicians have
been biting more than they can chew and swallow since they failed to realise
that some politicians cannot take criticism in the same spirit and had to hit
back to send a message to exercise restrain or face the music. To some extent
tiarists have faltered by overstepping their brief in being personal and the
result is the arrest of Francis de Tuem.
Maybe
tiarists needed the shock treatment so as to make them realise that their
imagination was running wild. In more
recent times or rather in a currently running tiartr of a reputed director and
actor they allegedly started targeting the common man also. To be specific
against those handful of individuals who conduct litany (Ladain) in Latin.
These handful of individuals are wrongly criticized for demanding Rs. 500 to
conduct it. To my knowledge those individuals who sing in Latin do not demand
but hesitantly accept if some remuneration is given to them. Before tarnishing
these individuals could the tiarists tell us why they jump on the politicians
ill gotten wealth when the candidates open the purse strings during elections.
Then why do tiarists have chief guest particularly politicians for their shows,
is it not for money they receive from the chief guests equivalent to the price
of tickets given to the latter? Some could say it is a marketing strategy but
others could also argue differently.
If
tiarists have objection to people giving a financial token of appreaciation to
this generation of Latin singing individuals who are keeping this tradition
alive then the tiarists should sing in tiartrs without financial consideration.
At the same time learn Latin liturgy and attend litany in villages. Have we not
heard of an award winning tiarists who used to attend mass and disturb the
laity by singing so loudly so as to mute the choir, just for the sake of
publicity? If tiarists are said to have promoted or propagated Konkani, Latin
litany singers are also credited for keeping traditions alive.
That
is not all can the tiarists publicly state that members of their fraternity are
paragons of virtue, can they tell us that all tiarists do not have vices. There
are so many instances of tiarists being alcoholics, womanizers, divorces and
living in relationships. It is time for the tiarists to turn the mirror towards
themselves or look inwards.
Now
coming to the third player in the entire episode of arresting Francis de Tuem
based on the complaint. Police sub inspector Hiru Kavelekar is a controversial
figure. That is the reason that he is still a PSI while his batch mates have
been promoted to police inspectors. Kavelekar is an officer who would crawl
when merely asked to bend by anyone in power. Arresting the tiarists merely
based on a complaint without conducting any investigation to indicate that
Francis de Tuem did make a demand for ransom over the phone was unjustified and
thus exposed that the police officer was acting at the behest of someone with
absolute power. Secondly if common man with no influence had to make a similar
complaint would the police acted so promptly? We all know the answer.
The
common man, tiarists in their own way had contributed to the defeat of the
Congress led government thinking the new regime would improve law and order,
curb corruption among other issues but today it seems that there is no
improvement in law and order at all, police have become hooligans of the
politicians and general administration is in doldrums. When will Goans see
better days is a million dollar question.
