Author: Amita Kanekar

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…)

Por AMITA KANEKAR

O templo goês está a desaparecer a passos largos ao ser substituído por formas arquitetónicas de outras partes da Índia.

Ler Mais.

By AMITA KANEKAR

The new Union Education Minister is expressly charged – so we are told – with the fast-tracking of the New Education Policy (NEP). A new approach to education is actually something that this country needs desperately, given the huge failings of India’s Brahmanical education system, like the continuing lack of universal access to education, and the stratified system of education quality, which ensures that a child from a disadvantaged background remains disadvantaged in education too. But will this NEP make any difference? As has been discussed in this column earlier, this NEP is actually hardly new at all, for, like earlier such policies, it ignores or brushes over all the fundamental problems of the education system. All of which have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as we shall see below. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

Goa’s government finds itself the butt of almost constant ridicule nowadays. From the widely-appreciated twitter-thrashing of Mauvin Godinho by Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister P. Thiagarajan, revealing, among other things, the former’s anti-people support for GST on COVID19 drugs and vaccines; to the surrealistic declaration that the government wants to forest areas in Madhya Pradesh to compensate for forests destroyed in Goa; and the unbelievable announcement that Goa is a top performer in the Niti Aayog’s Sustainability Development Goals’ (SDG) ratings, every bit of news about this Sawant-led government gets greeted with disbelief, scorn, jokes, and memes, not to mention hashtags like #PramodSawantMustGo. (more…)