By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
One is often non-plussed by the way the word ‘choice’ is used, be it by Hindu nationalists, by corporate fundamentalists, casteists and sexists. Whether it be in the rhetoric of the anti-farmer laws, or in the ‘Love-Jihad’ law, or Goa’s relationship with the Union of India and the citizenship of Goans in India, the term choice is used in completely different frames. (more…)
By AMITA KANEKAR
It was widely reported – in practically all the Indian media reports on the farmers’ protest in Delhi of the past week – that the farmers’ representatives had refused the central government’s hospitality, even water. The protests, against the new farm laws which will open the doors to big corporate players in agriculture while ending the miniscule government support now available to farmers, started in Punjab months ago but garnered no response from the centre. With the protests having converged massively on Delhi now, and promising to become bigger and more widespread, the government has started talks with representatives of the farmer unions, but these talks, of which five rounds are over, have, according to the farmers, offered nothing. Except water, tea and lunch, all of which were refused by their representatives. They made do, instead, with refreshments brought from the langar at the main protest site at the Delhi-Haryana border. (more…)
By DALE LUIS MENEZES
The end of a calendar year often makes us reflect on the ‘old’ that we leave behind and the ‘new’ that we hope for. When most of the economic, social, and political problems that Goa faced last year, or even over the last few years, remain firmly in place, it makes little sense to hope for a better 2021. The pandemic, of course, gives us reasons to be even more pessimistic. We really do not know how 2021 will unfold, especially because the government everyday reinforces its spectacular inefficiency in handling the pandemic. It is for this reason that, rather than offering the usual clichés about a new calendar year, it might be better to reflect on some of the positive changes over the last six months. (more…)
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
I met Dadu Mandrekar sometime in the late 80s. It was shortly before Dadu along with a group of Dalits converted to Buddhism. I also remember that, although invited for the conversion ceremony by Dalits to Buddhism, I did not go for it. It stemmed from my limited knowledge then. I thought this is yet one more religion, and, if they are abandoning one religion only to join another, I am not going to be endorsing such an endeavor. I was of course pulled up by Dadu in his characteristic way, and that began a decades-long association that had a lasting impact on me. (more…)
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
The Goans v/s Migrants politics is not working for the people in Goa. It is not working in the same way as good women v/s bad women politics does not work. (more…)
By AMITA KANEKAR
Even God cannot provide government jobs to all, declared the wise Pramod Sawant, making it clear that he at least has no ambition of even trying. Government positions and incomes are for a chosen few like he himself and his cronies. But he would like, he says, unemployed households to have an income of 8000-10,000 rupees a month, for which he has a scheme which will provide – not jobs – but suggestions for ‘self-reliance’. Can his own household survive on such a princely income? Obviously not. Is it what government jobs pay? Nowhere near. So, basically, our CM wants to ensure that those unemployed today earn starvation incomes tomorrow. (more…)
By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA
As we know SEZs are, by the Government’s definition, supposed to be foreign countries within the country, for the purposes of trade operations and duties and tariffs, with special rules for facilitating foreign direct investment. This means that the Panchayats or Municipalities in whose jurisdiction the areas covered by the SEZs lie cannot take a call with respective to any approvals within those areas. In 2008 Goa awoke to what was called a New Year gift, that SEZs would be scrapped. Rather the SEZ policy would be scrapped to imply that there would be no SEZs. However, SEZ-like set ups continued to exist in Goa. Information Technology Parks and Biotechnology parks continued to be possibilities as the IT Policy and the Biotechnology Policy , which make these possible, as they speak of SEZ like parks, were not scrapped. (more…)
By DALE LUIS MENEZES
From Canacona to Sattari, the chorus is loud and clear: ‘Amka Naka.’ Goans once again in large numbers are saying no to ‘mega projects,’ be it an IIT (that was shifted from Canancona to Sanguem) in Sattari, or the expansion of the coal hub in Mormugao with the supplementary project of double-tracking the South-Western railway line. Underlying these vociferous protests is a rejection of an economic model, called ‘development,’ that destroys the livelihoods and landscape of Goans, and a political establishment that promotes such crony capitalist ventures. This development makes Goans and Goa disposable in the interest of (inter)national businesses. (more…)
By AMITA KANEKAR
There are many memes on social media that refer to today’s political situation in India as fascism. But, if this is fascism, most of it is not exactly new. The Hathras case, horrifying as it is, is not the first such case of brutal violence against people belonging to Dalit or Adivasi or other discriminated-against communities. It is also not the first time where people in government office – expected to uphold the law – have made efforts not only to derail the investigation, but to hound, arrest, and file draconian cases against those demanding justice and those supporting the family of the victim. Nor is it just a matter of the BJP; the Congress too has presided over brutalities as terrible, as at Khairlanji, and with the same callous disregard for both the victims and the truth, and a hammering of those who protested. (more…)
