Category: Popular Essays

Who can forget that famous statement by Marie Antoinette, Queen of France? When she heard that the poor were complaining that they did not have bread, she is said to have responded: then let them eat cake. What followed was the French Revolution in which Marie Antoinette was guillotined, along with almost the entire noble class of France. But this attitude is alive and kicking Goans even today, as pointed out recently by the people of Codar village in Ponda Taluka. (more…)

Once again we have scathing reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the Government of Goa. In its latest audit of the finances and financial functioning of the government, tabled in the State Assembly a few days ago, the CAG is reported to have revealed several financial “irregularities” across practically all departments; so many and so universally visible that they should really be called regularities, rather than irregularities. (more…)

Communidades should see reason. So said Minister Mauvin Godinho, criticising the opposition of many communidades to the Goa Government’s plan to ‘regularise illegal structures’ built on government and communidade lands. There are illegal structures all over Goa, he says, and so, “Can you demolish all the houses and put people on the streets?” (more…)

Let me clarify at the outset, in case the title of this article sounds like a cricket match, that what is being referred to is the recent clash between Goa’s Health Minister and Goa’s doctors. (more…)

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant likes to talk about how the Portuguese committed atrocities against Goans during their rule. Recently he made the same point while speaking about how they did not rule the whole of Goa for 451 years, but only the Old Conquests (Tiswadi, Bardez, Salcette, Mormugao); with the New Conquests region (Ponda, Bicholim, Pernem, Sattari, Quepem, Canacona, Sanguem) coming under Portuguese rule only much later. This, according to him, was thanks to the Maratha king Shivaji. As a result of this delay, again according to Sawant, the New Conquests were saved from the atrocities perpetuated by the Portuguese, including religious conversion. (more…)

These are times when land issues and concerns and rampant destruction of Goa have reached their nadir, land being beyond the reach of the average ordinary Goan. These are also times when divisive politics is at its peak. The latest being the effort to pit one minority against another. The Waqf Board controversy rages in the country, and efforts are being made by the powers that be to play further divisive politics in Goa by getting the Church on their side. (more…)

In the middle of surely one of the hottest March months in Goa’s living memory, we hear from the Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte, that Panjim is going to get – what? More shade? Drinking water fountains? Tree plantation? New gardens? Some control over activities like construction and road-digging which are adding to the heat? No. Panjim is going to get the construction of an ‘aarti ghat’ on the banks of the Mandovi. (more…)

Who needs a break from taxes in India? According to the Union Finance Minister, it is those Indians with annual incomes of many lakhs and or even crores. As per the new tax regime introduced in the recent budget, to be implemented for the fiscal year 2025-26, Indians earning salaries of up to 12.75 lakhs a year (almost doubled from Rs 7 lakh previously) no longer have to pay income tax on their income. And the highest tax slab is 30% for an income of over Rs 24 lakhs a year; it is 30% currently too, but on incomes above Rs 10 lakhs. It is noteworthy that, as a result of these proposals, the government will forego revenue of about Rs 1 trillion in direct taxes, and Rs 2600 crore in indirect taxes, according to the minister herself. (more…)

The land of ‘fun and frolic’, as Goa’s tourist advertisements used to portray it, appears to be bursting at the seams with newer and newer kinds of rot. Many might actually see today’s Goa as the land of lawlessness, given the unlimited land scams and now job scams; the number of top ‘public servants’ suspected of breaking the law, like the former Chief Secretary; and now the way police are actually assisting prisoners to break out of prison. But on the surface, and surely thanks to the powers-that-be, Goa is nowadays depicted as a land of festivals – almost continuously celebrating something or the other. There were always the old festivals, most of them religious, many centered around individual shrines across the region, like the fests, zatras, and urus; the Hindu temple celebrations, in particular, thanks to Hindutva in power, are expanding and being increasingly sold to Indian Hindu tourists as attractions to rival the churches of Old Goa. But these traditional sites and celebrations cannot compete with the host of new and ultra-new festivals like Serendipity, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the National Games, Lok Utsav, and the latest Proud Ponjekar (!!), besides food festivals, wine festivals, heritage festivals, music festivals, you name it… increasing every year, and almost totally focused on tourists. (more…)