Author: Amita Kanekar

By AMITA KANEKAR

The sociologist Dipankar Gupta recounts an amusing anecdote from the UK in his 2004 book, ‘Mistaken Modernity: India between Worlds’. When Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister, his underage son was caught drinking by a policeman. When questioned, the boy offered a false name and address. But the cop had recognised him and the next day a summons landed at 10, Downing Street. Like any other parents of delinquent children, Blair and his wife had to make a visit to the nearest police station, followed by a vastly-amused media army, where they had to listen to advice about how to bring up their children. That was the law in such matters, and they had to abide by it – something, as Gupta pointed out, that would be unimaginable for a prime minister or any bigshot in India. But the most interesting part, says Gupta, is the lie told by Blair’s son. He gave a false name because he KNEW that his parents would be hauled up; he knew that the law would be followed.  Compare that to India, said Gupta, where nobody like him would have ever dreamt of lying; their question would instead be ‘don’t you know who I am?’. In fact, the cops here try not to interfere with anyone who looks remotely well-connected. That, says, Gupta, is the difference between a modern society and one with just has a veneer of modernism – mostly just in terms of technology and gadgets – but no modern attitude at all. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

To take up cudgels against the latest Hindutva offensive against the Catholic community, on why S. Francis Xavier’s popular title of Goencho Saib (Lord of Goa) is more deserved by the god Parshuram, is fraught with risk in today’s Goa. Because, although one is free to discuss the merits – and even more so the demerits – of the Catholic saint, discussing the Hindu god can, as we have seen, bring down the brute force of the State on you, in the name of hurting religious sentiment. Thus, it has become normal to judge Francis Xavier by the values of today, and therefore to condemn him for advising the Portuguese king to set up the Goa Inquisition. But applying the same modern values to Parshuram is out of the question; the many acts of violence ascribed to him, including against his own mother, are not to be criticised. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

Twenty crore rupees of public money has been set aside in Pramod Sawant’s state budget for ‘reconstructing and restoring temples and heritage sites destroyed by the Portuguese’. The words “and heritage sites” sounds almost inclusive, like the government is actually thinking beyond Hindu temples – except that this is the party that itself campaigned widely and violently against the historical site of the Babri Masjid. What heritage would such a party reconstruct? But let us, for a moment, give them the benefit of doubt. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The more things change, the more they remain the same. So goes an old French saying, implying that even apparently turbulent changes can result in a continuation of the status quo. The Goa election scene 2022 might have been one of the most turbulent in the history of the state, given the astonishing number of parties in the fray, their huge rallies, big-shot campaigners, and strangest of promises, not to mention the last-minute party-hopping – both real and sham – by politicians of every hue, all in all leaving the electorate with a headache from trying to keep up with everything happening even in a single constituency. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The run-up to Goa’s elections 2022 has been, as expected, like a bad joke, a circus of promises (the more bizarre, the better), defections, u-turns, allegations and counter-allegations, along with displays of the usual money- and muscle-power. And, whether you are amused or sickened by all this pre-election hoopla, the post-election scenario is not difficult to foresee, when it comes to the interests of the ordinary voter. While many Goans speak of the urgent need for change, we all know – given Goa’s last elections, as well as elections elsewhere since then – that just voting may not ensure this. But what is even worse is the question of – if indeed the BJP is voted out – whether a different government will mean different governance? (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The election scenario before Goans has perhaps never looked grimmer. We need change, most ordinary Goans would agree. But does this election offer a chance for change? Or is it that, given what happened after the last elections, as well as in other states – and despite the plethora of unlikely parties jumping into the fray, making the strangest of promises – is it that, whoever we vote for, we are going to get the same rotten governance? The same destructive projects, land-grab, and environmental destruction? The same casinos and similar attractions for the depraved tourist? The horrifying neglect of essential health services, and the equally criminal neglect of school education? The same lack of jobs, opportunities, and respect, that drive Goans abroad? (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

So Chief Minister Pramod Sawant wants to rebuild the temples destroyed by the Portuguese. And, at a time when the pandemic continues on the rampage, when Goans have seen two years of lost jobs and depleted incomes, when Goan kids are out of school for the second year running, and when environmental destruction is threatening our lives in not just the long term but also the short, this Chief Minister of Goa asks us to “once again preserve Hindu sanskriti and mandir sanskriti.” (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

I have written in the past about how the policy of caste-based reservations enjoined by the Constitution is systematically violated in Goa. The purpose of this violation is simple, to deny representation in government and higher education to the marginalised communities, and ensure that these positions are illegally swallowed by the already over-represented dominant castes. After a recruitment scandal at the Goa University in 2014, Goa has seen many efforts by individual citizens and groups to get the authorities to implement the reservations policy fully and correctly, as mandated in the Constitution and laid down clearly by many court orders and government memorandums since the 1980s. Petitions were made to the University, the Governor and the state government; long meetings were held with many worthies in these institutions (most of whom shamelessly claimed ignorance of the rules, as if ignorance is a valid excuse); the issue was also discussed in the print media. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

Another educational institution has been announced, again very prestigious. As always, it needs huge amounts of land, and, as always, the government of the tiny state of Goa has more than enough to offer – and on long lease no less, which means practically free. The project is a new India International University of Legal Education and Research, to be run completely by the Bar Council of India (BCI). This proposed university requires 2,00,000 square metres of land, which Goa’s government says it has already identified in Dharbandora taluka. A state bill has also been passed, formalising the setting up of this university, one of whose objects – according to the bill – is to reserve 20% of the university’s seats for ‘permanent residents of Goa’. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The recent news that bonded labourers were working on the infamous double tracking project of the Indian Railways through the Mollem forests should cause no surprise. The labourers were rescued from their abusive situation only because of complaints made by ARZ, a Goa-based NGO, and the efforts of an Adivasi organisation in Telangana. The Indian Railways now claim that the labourers were not bonded at all, but ‘only’ underpaid and ill-treated by their contractor. According to the workers themselves, the oldest of whom was a 72-year-old woman, they were paid less than minimum wages, were prevented from leaving and going home, and were forced to live right next to the tracks, without adequate shelter (in the monsoon) and without toilets either. (more…)