Weekend special Rechado shrimps

Requirements:-

 Shrimps (Dish in the picture is made of solar shrimps found only during this season)

Rechado masala

Onions

Preparation:-

De-shell the shrimps and wash.

Add salt and keep it for 15 minutes.

Then steam it.

Add rechado masala to it.

Slice onions.

Take a shallow pan, add some oil and fry the shrimps.

After a while add onions and stir fry.

(Un)covering the Mask that hides economic face of MOI Issue -- By Fr. Victor Ferrao



Fr. Victor Ferrao

The rising commodification of education does not seem to raise eyebrows in our society. It has brought about privatisation of education even at the primary level. But unfortunately it does not seem to concern us. It appears that the MOI issue is directly linked with the privatisation of education.

There are hyper anxieties displayed by the leaders of BBSM about the MOI policy of the Government. But they do not seem to be credible as the very same people either run schools whose MOI is English or have their wards exercising a choice that is clearly pro-English. Although, the hypocrisy of these leaders is glaring in our eyes, it does not seem to disturb them and their followers.

While a rich educationist can exercise his/her democratic choice to run a primary school that has English as a medium of instruction as a business, the parents of the children have no natural choice. They have to buy the same choice for a price from some of these very salesmen who are in the forefront of the BBSM movement. That is why the mask that hides the economic interest under the cover of love of mother tongue and its deemed primacy for the education at primary level has fallen away. The economic denominator of the MOI issue cannot be trivialized and brushed aside. Indeed, it has to be identified as the primary factor that is responsible for the entire MOI imbroglio.

The economic factor that we have discerned here also comes in the way of the denial of a democratic right to choose freely the MOI when it comes to the parents.  The fact that there appears to be a murder of democracy when the parents do not enjoy the freedom to choice of a MOI for their wards also reveals the economic fangs that undergird the issue. When even a begger is paying tax for a simple match box in our country, how could we think that denial of grants to schools where mainly the poor study can be morally acceptable? Is it not crass pro-rich policy that the BBSM is standing for? Why is it not asking for a closure of all English schools to save Konkani and promote its ideology that deems mother tongue as the best medium of instruction at the primary level?  Is not that the children of the poor have the burden to save the culture and the mother tongue? If the mother tongue principle produces good education then why it is not applicable to the private schools that trade on English? Who is promoting English and thus setting clock back on Konkani is clearly visible to all.

Shouting and leading public demonstrations against the children of the poor while closing one’s eyes to free trade on English Medium only makes the tall leaders of BBSM look dwarfed.  This selective targeting of the poor exposes the tyranny of both free traders of English and leader of the BBSM and the RSS.

The fact that BBSM is bending backwards to accommodate the privatization and sale of education at the primary level in Goa cannot remain unquestioned.  If the principle of primacy of mother tongue at the primary level is valid then it must be valid for all children. How is it not valid where education is for sale? How are those who trade education at the primary level not agents of de-nationalization? Does it mean right to trade and commerce gives us licence to destroy our culture? How do we understand the silence of BBMS/RSS when it comes to the private primary schools? How can we be so blind to the damage that these free traders of English inflict on our Goan culture?   The fact that BBMS chooses not to target these schools on the basis that they do not receive grants from the Government manifest the lack of its seriousness and love of Goan culture. Can no receiving of economic benefits from the Government become a principle of insulation that saves them from the effects of destruction that they inflict on our culture?  These questions do matter and cannot be trivialized on grounds that these schools enjoy economic independence. It only shows that the BBSM leaders are only protecting the interest of the free traders that run the private school.  Hence, the fake facade that BBSM has crumbled down and it has the responsibility to free itself from the burden of collaborating with those who are agents of destructions of Konkani, our mother tongue.

The real face of movement of BBSM unfortunately is destructive of the very Konkani that they intent to save. Even if we grant that these leaders do not really willingly intent the same , they become signatories of the destruction of the large section the children of the rich parents that study in the private school. This is so because the universally valid principle of mother tongue is not enforced in the private schools. Moreover, the rich parents as well as the free traders of education who stand on the stage of BBSM/RSS do not grant universal validity to the principle of mother tongue when it comes to their private schools.  Besides, the fact that the leaders of BBSM/RSS also do not deem it fit to bring these free trading schools under the purview of the principle of mother tongue  that they force the poor only shows that they themselves do not believe in it. It appears that principle of mother tongue at the primary level as a means of handing over our culture applies only to the poor. By that token, those who can pay can forget their culture and mother tongue and it does not produce any anxiety for the BBSM.

Is this not culpable and malicious insulation of the free trading schools from all responsibility of destruction of our culture? If not then the sham movement of BBSM in league with the RSS is a movement against the poor that is unleashed in our society only to protect the interest of those who have put education for sale at the primary level. 

Fr. Victor Ferrao is a Professor  of Rachol Seminary.

Weekend Special Monsoon Mushroom Fiesta

Requirements:

Seasonal Mushroom (available during monsoons)

Onions

Tomatoes

Chiles (Green&Red)

Tumeric powder

Cumin seeds

Dry kokum

Salt.

Preparation:

Wash a portion of mushrooms thoroughly (they are muddy) in running tap water.

Tip:- use a soft tooth brush.

Break or make strips of the mushrooms. Keep aside.

Cut 2/3 large tomatoes into one inch pieces.

Cut green chillies into one inch long pieces.

Slice 6/7 large onions into halves and then cut them long.

Fry tomatoes and chillies together till it turns into paste.

Then add onions and stir fry.

Add mushrooms to it and keep stirring as it will release its juice.

Now add salt, turmeric powder and cumin seeds and let it boil for a minute.

Add 8 to 10 pieces of dry kokum and if required dry red chillies.

Let it boil for half a minute. Switch off the gas and cover it.

Benaulim Assembly Constituency Election 2017 Pot-boiler -- By Nisser Dias

Undoubtedly Benaulim Assembly constituency election is going to be the pot-boiler among all the constituency segments of Salcete taluka. If during the last hustings it was an eight sided fight, the real battle of the ballot was between Congress’ Valanka Alemao and Goa Vikas Party’s (GVP) Caitan (Caitu) D’silva.

MLA Caitu D'silva

Though widely publicised Valanka was preparing for almost two years to contest from the constituency, Mickky Pacheco had propped up comparatively unknown name in the constituency which raised almost all the eyebrows.

If Valanka had the backing of her father Churchill Alemao then PWD minister, finances and government machinery, Caitu was a non-entity with just personal finances he had earned as an assistant oil rig driller. Secondly Caitu had earlier contested panchayat election and lost.

In the end the constituents voted decisively to give a winning margin of 2001 votes to Caitu D’silva.

This time round it is going to be even more interesting as many political bigwigs are preparing for the electoral carnival due early next year. There is the sitting MLA Caitu D’silva, all time veteran Churchill Alemao, his supporter turned rival and Zilla Parishad member Maria Rebello, former sarpanches of Varca and Cavelossim – Anthony (Tony) Pinto and Edwin Baretto respectively. Besides there is Aam Admi Party, Goa Vikas Party (GVP) and Goa Forward scouting for candidates not forgetting BJP who will field a candidate even though they do not have much presence in the constituency.

During the last general election in 2012, the sitting MLA had romped home with a winning margin of 2001against his closest rival Valanka Alemao.

At that time there was discontentment against the Congress for mis-governance and allegation of corruption. To add fire to fuel in the Congress bastion of Salcete the grand old party Congress allotted three party tickets to the Alemao clan, moreover Valanka was seen as brutish by the voters. The end result was that people ensured that all the 4 Alemaos’ (Joaquim Alemao’s son Yuri had contested on NCP ticket) bit the dust.

Goa Vikas Party decided to embrace BJP government. Initially the honeymoon period went fine but when BJP government did a U-turn on issues like MoI, airport at Mopa, shifting of the Navy from Dabolim voters wanted the MLAs to withdraw support to the government but it did not happen, peoples trust in GVP developed cracks and support base started waning. To add to that there were constant skirmishes between GVP chief Mickky Pacheco and Caitu. Secondly, Benaulim MLA has not been able to go beyond his coterie of supporters and create a mass base.

Caitu says, “as of now I will contest as an independent if Congress offers a party ticket I will not refuse it, but I will not ask for it”. Asked whether he will ask for BJP’s backing, “I will not ask and don’t want BJP support”. When asked whether he is being fielded by BJP to break the Christian votes, “BJP cannot win this seat as their supporters are few, in fact it is Churchill Alemao who is breaking the Christians votes”.

Churchill Alemao has his die-hard following in the constituency but over the years his mass base has eroded substantially. For example his confidante ZP member Maria Rebello has thrown her hat in the ring and is bound to dig into Churchill’s vote-share. Churchill says, “If Congress allots me the ticket I will contest on the party platform otherwise independent”. Asked whom he sees as his closest rival, “I do not have any rivals”. Undoubtedly he had mentored Maria political career, when confronted, “anybody can contest elections there are no friends or enemies in politics”. When asked till what age should politicians to contest, “as long as they have strength to campaign”. The former chief minister of 19 days after losing 2012 elections in Navelim had tried his luck at Parliamentary election in 2014 under Trinamool Congress banner there too he had failed miserably.

Maria Rebello is the underdog of this constituency, being ZP chairperson earlier and now a member she is in touch with her voters. Besides she knows most of her mentor’s supporters and well wishers. Secondly coming from the Brahmin background, there is sizeable voters of this community and most of them from Benaulim village itself. Knowning that she is good candidate regional political outfits are wooing her. GVP chief Mickky Pacheco says, “my candidate in Benaulim is Maria Rebello”. However Maria says, “I have not decided, these parties have approached me but I have not committed to any”. However sources close to her say that her preference was AAP, but as things have not materialized for her there she has shown interest in Goa Forward. Vijay Sardessai is playing his cards close to the chest, “as of now we do not have a candidate in Benaulim”, he says.

 Vijay Sardessai
Goa Forward Chief

The real politicking is happening in the Congress as usual. Caitu is hopeful of being asked to contest on their platform, Churchill has put in his demand for the party ticket. Three times elected as Varca panch and two times sarpanch Anthony (Tony) Pinto has urged the grand old party to give him an opportunity this time and Congress own loyal soldier, its block president and former sarpanch of Cavelossim Edwin Baretto is also vying to be nominated by his party.

Anthony Pinto because of the work he had done in Varca claims that people are demanding that he throws his hat in the ring. Without a shade of doubt he is well known in the constituency and beyond because of his catering business. Some months back he did approach the GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro and was told to discuss the matter with Edwin and both of them should decide who should get the ticket. Pinto said, “I will speak to Edwin to give me an opportunity as I have a broad base support”. “I have not yet decided to contest independently.” However deep inside Congress circles rumours are making the rounds that Pinto is a BJP man given his closeness to Manohar Parrikar.

Edwin says, “the party should nominate me as I have been its loyal foot soldier for 25 years”. When asked what are his chances of winning the seat in a situation where Congress votebank has dropped drastically, where there is trust deficit within the party, when the old generation is still ruling the roost and in constant conflict with the young turks, Edwin said, “party should realize young faces should be promoted if they want acceptance among the people”.

Now the dark horse among the entire political scenario is Aam Admi Party, there is a tremendous whisper campaign that is going on in support of the party even though nobody knows who the candidate is. Even some of the probable candidates mentioned above are vary of AAP. Two of them said wherever you go voters are talking of AAP that they are an alternative from the same old faces. AAP convenor Rajeshree Nagashekar says, “we have not yet nominated any candidate for Benaulim constituency even though we are in the fray.” “AAP has adopted a peculiar system wherein our supporters and sympathisers choose their candidates”.

In these circumstances the picture that is evolving is that the voters are disenchanted with both the national parties as of now as they do have anything different  to show, while the regional outfits and AAP are trying to infuse young blood in the system there is hope of freshness.

Attractive benefits lured Goans to UK -- By Jose Maria Miranda

Jose Maria Miranda

With Britain’s impending exit from European Union, thousands of our fellow Goans, living in UK with a Portuguese passport, will, sadly, be deprived of most benefits made available to them, thus defeating the very purpose of their stay there, if at all they are allowed to remain. Though not many acknowledge it publicly, the fact remains that what prompted Britons to vote for the exit is that immigration from other countries, particularly East Europe and former Portuguese colonies, besides Goa, was putting a tremendous burden not only on the infrastructure but also on the finances of the country. If want of well paid jobs in India, motivated people to migrate to UK, this country’s generous doles available per child plus subsidized accommodation as well pension of Pounds 150 per week per person or 200 per couple to people of pensionary age made the proposition extremely attractive. Further, the employer was bound to pay minimum wage only to his employee. But, if the employee’s family lived with him, the Government would top it up.

Needless to say, these benefits were misused by many, as lack of manpower precluded proper check of whether pensioners and employees’ families really lived in UK or had gone back to their country after claiming these benefits on regular basis. Though this left Britons fuming, is there any wonder that Goans left for UK in hordes? Philip Hollobone, Tory MP, referring to Goans migrating to UK in thousands had called it “an outrageous loophole that must be closed. This is yet another case of issuing of passports by an EU country to people who have no intention of going to that country, but head straight to Britain. If we left the EU, we could introduce border controls that would prevent these people from coming in” he had said.

It must be noted that while the British have contributed towards their own social security benefits, the immigrants were eventually getting these benefits without any contribution of their own. This was certainly unfair to the locals. A similar situation arises in Goa, where facilities at the GMC and perhaps certain doles are available to people who do not actually reside in Goa, all at the cost of Goan taxpayer. Surely many of these are also on the voters’ list, courtesy unscrupulous politicians and spineless and crawling bureaucrats. 

Goa had migration to India, Pakistan, British East Africa and other Portuguese colonies during the Portuguese regime, as there were rather few job opportunities here. However, despite families being large, the cost of living was somewhat manageable. No exodus was witnessed unlike what is happening now with some villages like Agacaim, Siridao & Goa Velha, nearly empty. In good many cases, people sold their houses, surely not imagining that their stay in UK could be short lived. Most of our youth who left their beloved Goa, did so not of their own will but compelled by dire need of supporting their families, in absence of good job or business opportunities in Goa or even elsewhere in India. But this Government is trying to hit them hard, when it did and does nothing to get them jobs. What does it expect them to do? Starve to death? Their departure though sad for us, true Goans, but not for this insensitive Government, will at least help bring down its shameful statistics of unemployment.

The Prime Minister, who rightly promotes “Make in India” is surely aware that even qualified people are leaving the country disgusted with the happenings here. If he is sincere in his quest to lift India, he should take up the challenge to ask NRIs to return to India and watch whether there is a single one who heeds to his call. Did he venture doing that during his umpteen trips abroad? Does it not hurt his patriotism or his pride, as an Indian, that millions of Indians are compelled to earn their bread abroad with most having given up their Indian citizenship?  

It pains us to say but the truth is that while many Goans left out of need, a sizeable number did it out of greed. Many had reasonable jobs and business here and yet left in search of “greener pastures” One is a king in one’s own land and the love for our land should not be lost in the lure of “a little extra”. True, people are also leaving out of sheer disgust, frustration and utter helplessness in improving things in this State.

Surely “Liberation” did not mean only freedom to bark and scribble, while the Government itself subverts and fails to enforce laws, indulges in illegalities and rides roughshod over the wishes and interests of the people. We have a CM who defends reinstatement of his brother-in-law caught redhanded accepting bribe, while he transfers two upright Police officials for their involvement in nabbing the culprit. And he shamelessly says that the culprit being his wife’s brother is not directly related to him. Perhaps he may stretch a little further and say that his wife too is not directly related to him. And yet the BJP has the gumption to say that there are no cases of corruption in their Governments. Is the PM aware of this or do we need to bring this to his notice? Have our rulers lost all sense of shame and dignity?

Goans need to be alert. Don’t be surprised if the law regularizing illegal houses and encroachments is soon followed by another allowing non-Goans to occupy vacant or rented houses of NRIs. The imbecility of this Government has no bounds!  It needs to go at the earliest…

 

 

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‘The Goan is Dead’! -- By Fr. Victor Ferrao

Our life seems to have gathered momentum to such an extent that what we visualise as future is displacing our present. The future is coming towards us at a rate that we fail to keep pace with and are tossed by its affective intensities that seem to put us in a chaotic direction. The emergence of a future that is refusing to wait to be born immerses us into a responsive mode that loses sight of the present and its opportunities. This has brought about the death of Goan in us. We seem to be ready    and willing to give up our Goanness to belong to the future that will never really be ours. 

This schizophrenic de-centring or split of a Goan seems to have reached its completion in our days. Some would say that fragmentation of Goans really begun during colonization. But we may have to disagree with this proposal because we may not have Goa had colonization not occurred. Perhaps, others might hold the fissures began under late colonization in the nineteen century and grew steadily under post-colonial appropriation of Goa in the Indian Union.  The threatening ellipse of a Goan is already producing ripples of anxieties among us as the death of Goans seem inevitable. The rates of in-migration and out-migration exhibit that we might soon have to celebrate the funeral of ‘Goykar’. But the shrinking space of Goans in Goa by the day is yet to ring alarm bells amidst us.  

This (dis)articulation of the death of Goan has to be viewed within the tradition of Nietzsche’s declaration of death of God, or the Foucaultian (Michel Foucault) celebration of the funeral of Man or the bold assertion of the death of the author by Roland Barthes.

It is metaphoric attempt to (dis)articulte a feeling that fails to undergo the false freedom of repression. The fragmentation and schizophrenic de-centring of the self of a Goan in our post-colonial society both in Goa and abroad seems to have reached the point of no return. This leads us to understand how a Goan is living in the borderland, in a condition of being in-between both in Goa and abroad. Hence, we may have to ask the Freudian question: ‘What does a Goan want?’ 

Some of us feel more Goan when we become more like the white colonizers and hence  are on a migration trail to Europe, America and Australia etc., while others seem to feel more Goan by seeking to become more Indian while at the same time ironically several Indians celebrate the in-between, third space that Goa excites in their imagination.

These ambivalent psychic identifications indicates the complexity behind the dying Goan. Is this an amputation or an excision of our Goan-ness? The dismembering memory of the past colonial separation and conversion of  significant part of Goan community seems to continue to afflict Goans who strive to seek their lost self in two identifiable directions, one into a transgressive cosmopolitan realm while the other into conformist domain of a religio-cultural nationalism. But other minorities Goans like the Muslim and mull-nivasi people are also tossed around by the raging storm.   The original Goan Muslims are lost in the inflow other Muslims brethren from Karnataka and elsewhere and the mull-nivasi people are left to find their place in an ever evolving Goa.   

This double alienation of Goans from Goa has produced a culture that feeds our tourism industry which certainly thrives on the loss of a master narrative of Goa. The loss of integrative master narrative of Goa has allowed the tourism industry to construct Goa as an exotic tourist destination while keeping the two major Goan communities in an embrace of unease. This unease has also been politically milked by major political parties in the Goan political scene. The loss and recovery of self under colonization has set Goans in search of Utopian/ dystopian identities, one of which looks at the mainland India while the other goes beyond it. 

This mimics the self of colonizers in doubly alienated Goan self, wherein, on one hand significant number of Goans are pushed to  image the white men by way of attaining of the Portuguese Passport while several others join those who reproduce the civilizing mission (through Hinduization) of the colonizers even through violent acts of de-civility.  One might trace psychic violence on both paths that are being sought by Goans today. Somehow colonial trauma seeks healing in a continuous repetition that hybridizes into a mimicry of the colonizers. It is ironical that Goans move in two direction pushed by colonial trauma without feeling embarrassed in any manner. Both are taking differently the place of colonizers leading to an accelerated extinction of a Goan.

Hence, it is as if the proverbial mad man of Nietzsche who declared the death of God and boasted that his ilk has killed him seems to be replaced by a mad tourists roaming on our celestial beaches stating with a sense of déjà-vue that ‘Goan is dead and we have displaced him/er’. But, before we go into the sunset, we need to resuscitate the dying Goan. But is this possible? Can we really put the clock back as some among us might feel confident to do so?

Some might feel that Colonial residue or karma can be washed away by  forcing on the strayed other (Goan)  what is a metabolized and singularized as national culture in our days. But such mimicry of singularized Indian self itself is un-Indian and certainly un-Goan. It appears impossible and therefore, foolish to reclaim a pure, original and substantive Goan self. The Goan self is not fixed in the sands of time but has metamorphized over challenging changing conditions.  What we have is a hybridized reclaiming of the selves of Goans looking in two directions and hence we Goans live in an uneasy embrace.

May be we need to open ourselves to the platitudinous and salubrious possibilities of being Goans within the precarious conditions that confront us intimately today. There is no point in looking for the missing Goan in Goa of today. We do not have to look for a Goan where he/she is not.  Such scopic strategies that look for the missing Indian in a Goan can only quickly bring the death of a Goan that is threatening us.  Indeed, we have to give up our ‘tendencies of looking and speaking without being seen’. This means what we need is come to the (dis)comforting table of plurilogue that promises to inaugurate the new Upanisadic moment that will Goanize as well as truly Indianize us all.          

 

The Politics behind the Uniform Civil Code -- By Fr. Victor Ferrao

Fr. Victor Ferrao

Several Issues that are facing us today has brought the analytic potential of the concepts of hegemony and sub-alternity to the centre of discussion.  Within this conceptual framework, it has become possible for us to understand how hegemony has put on a new avatar of   retroactively creating   interests it claims to represent. This will open us to a new awakening that might lead us to a discomforting realization that we are often guilty of reclaiming these interests stirred by the hegemonic forces. It is more than clear that the divisive politics of the BJP and its allies seem to stir the interests of the majority group and successfully polarize our society.  If BJP is viewed as programmatically communal, the Congress is seen as pragmatically contaminated by the same virus. Although, there is very little to choose between the two national parties on the poison of corruption, BJP is notorious for its communal politics.  Several political pundits have already greeted the balloon of   uniform civil code floated by the Modi Government as a new attempt to polarize our society with an eye on the elections in Uttar Pradesh.  The issue is ...will the majority community bite the bait and fail to understand the polarization games of our National Government to win a state election?  

No one seems to know what exactly is meant by the uniform civil code.  In fact, it has been a Damocles sword that has been hanging on the head of the minorities, particularly our Muslim brethren for a long time in our country.  It has been politicized from time to time and has been used to terrorise and sub-alternize the minorities for a long time.  The fact that the political right is positioning the eventual enforcement of the uniform civil code  as a fulfilment of  our  Constitution while the very same uniform code having a negative reception mainly among the Muslims brethren, betrays the unifying effect  of the same code. Hence, the pretentious noble goal is doomed to fail on the ground.  What seems to ring in fears among several Indians is a perception that our Constitution is being used as tool of divisive politics by BJP-RSS-VHP combine.  The mask of divisive nationalism has already fallen away from the face of BJP and it suffers from trust deficit with regard to its intensions concerning the unity and integral harmony in our country.   Nationalism is said to be the opium of unsuspecting middle classes and therefore sometimes the divisive teeth of uniform civil code may not be visible to a great section of the people.

There is no doubt that the sudden announcement of imminent coming of the uniform civil code has sent shivers down the spine of  our Muslim brethren who unfortunately  suffer from a perception battle concerning the rights of married  women. Yet forcing a uniform civil code does not appear as a solution to several of these ills that plagues our society.  It only seems to indicate that India is now moving from a disciplining society to a society of control.   The political right seems to think that the diverse religious groups in our country cannot be disciplined through their respective personal laws and hence, have to be brought under the control of a uniform civil code. The uniform civil code is not just a mere name but a law that would attempt to homogenize the diversity and plurality in our country which would certainly damage the openness to the plural ethos of our civilization. That is why I believe we   do not need a uniform but a pluri-form civil code to harmonize and not homogenize the diversity in our country. The cry for uniform civil code in psychoanalytic terms is   an oedipal cry for the law of the father.  It appears to be triggered by an anxiety of loss of control. It seems to be based on a belief that our society is running into chaos and dreams to push an order of things that has been identified as one that is tainted by Hindutva. What is masquerading as a uniform civil code is suspected to be a camouflaged Hindutva code. 

The fundamentalist aesthetics dreams of nation where a monist, singularized and homogenized   people are crafted through one law, one religion, and one language.  Though such an aesthetic sensibility is anti-India, there is no dearth of people who support it.  This sensibility produces an ethics that is based on a monism that believes in a naive mantra that states that unity is uniformity.  The proponents of uniform civil code claim that they wish to bring equality to every citizen of our country. But they seem to remain blind to the fact that one uniform that they are tailoring for all Indians will not fit everyone. Hence, openness to a pluri-form civil code may bring us closer to what is true equality. But unfortunately, equality is based on a pragmatic sameness which is curled out by subtraction of diversity.  This constructed sameness can never be truly equal to all and  cannot be beyond suspicion of privileging one section of people over the  other. Hence, several thinkers today have replaced the term universal with pluriversal. The term pluriversal lends its inclusive cognitive power and embraces diversity and does not require subtraction (supposed levelling down) which is central to uniform monism.  Hence, true equality before the law is not in a mathematically rendered singular uniformity but in an inclusive and all embracive plurality.  This is not merely a linguistic/ terminology  issue but one that touches the plural heart of our country. In this context, even with several of its short comings the uniform civil code that is operative in Goa is a good model that is truly pluriversal in spirit.  But for our country, we do not need the pluriversal spirit  trapped  in out-dated terminology like the uniform civil code. Hence, a change in terminology as well as one that is authentically plural and opens room to personal laws of all religious groups to operate with autonomy is the real need of the hour.  As of now the pluri-form approach which is the guiding principle of law does not need any uniform civil code, though several religious groups may stand in need of reformation of their personal law. But this reformation can never be attained by a uniformity forced from outside.

(The author is a Professor at Rachol seminary)    

GMC under treatment whilst our government is busy treating itself -- By Saturnino Rodrigues, Seraulim

Saturnino Rodrigues

A short visit to Goa’s premium institution Goa Medical College Hospital, a government hospital with over thousand and four hundred beds handling about nearly two thousands patients a day tells the story of most other government hospitals in the State. It is now mostly crowded by migrants coming from the neighboring states. A recent study has revealed that majority of the Goan population including the poor prefer going to a private hospitals than to government run hospitals not by choice but by compulsion.

The prestigious ‘Escola Medico Cirurgica da Goa’ was established in the year 1842 during the Portuguese rule later renamed as Goa Medical College & Hospital is the oldest medical college in Asia which is now into shambles due to the negligence by the consecutive governments. It has been more famous for various scams than in delivering quality treatment for the patients. Not because of any inefficient and incompetent staff but for the mismanagement and due to the sheer negligence by the government.

Overcrowded wards, unclean surroundings and non-functioning equipment, is almost synonymous with government hospitals but it has become the trade mark of GMC hospital with dust-filled floors, waste strewn all around the GMC complex and unbearable stench tells the story of the unhygienic condition within and out of our prestigious institution. Waste is dumped in open bins with flies having a field day feeding on it.

Before penning this article, I was camping at the hospital in the cardiac ward beside my dying friend when I happened to enquire with some responsible sources about the condition of the hospital when I noticed the filth, water shortage and dirty linen. It was even more shocking with revelations that most of the time, there is water scarcity, the toilets are overflowing with human waste and stench is unbearable as was evident therein. It is even worst to know that many a machines don’t work, many of the sophisticated equipments are not operated due to lack of trained personnel, doctor’s, nurses and other staff are not showing much interest at times due to the mismanagement of the whole institution. It was also understood that political favoritism towards a selected staff has demoralized the motivation of other sincere, hardworking and dedicated staff. GMC hospital can boast of a huge fancy gate at the entrance but the affairs inside are not so fanciful.

The maintenance of the hospital should be done on regular basis and not only when VIP’s or Ministers come to visit the hospital or to cut a ribbon. Our politicians or MLA’s seldom takes treatment at government hospitals or admitted there unless they are caught in a crime, arrested and taken for medical when they suddenly develop ‘Chest Pain” and get admitted in air-conditioned wards to escape being lodged in jail. Otherwise, they or their families prefer not to visit the poor patients who may be their voters now admitted in the hospital. One can observe at GMC hospital that several wards are overcrowded, To make things worse, people are deprived of proper drinking water facilities as there is no sign of water vending machines, one can notice poor people filling bottles from the taps in the toilets that too if they drip by luck.

A visit to the GMC hospital will also reveal more sorrowful state of affairs, to mention that the bathrooms are pathetic will be a severe understatement. Most of them don’t even have taps and there is no water inside the washrooms. One can simply fall sick by being exposed to the unhygienic condition inside the bathroom. Sources within the institution confirmed that it is difficult to wash hands after handling accident victims soaked in blood while some toilets are labelled as ‘only for staff’. It is evident from this that the staff does not face any scarcity of water owing to these locked private like toilets. It is below respectable standards even to compare GMC hospital to a district hospital of Belgaum, across the border in terms of cleanliness and hygiene. The Goa health minister needs to certainly take serious note of the things and happenings at GMC hospital with his men to work overtime to achieve acceptable and respectable standards. The canteen inside is full of stench with flies zooming all over. A place supposed to be hygienic is like an open gutter.

The negligence by the government can be attributed to several reasons amongst one of them being that it is not a money spinning affair for the government. But it is the duty of the State to look after the health care of the populace. Recently in 2013, it was rocked with a scam of sending blood samples for testing to private laboratories of the choice of certain politicians. In 2015, it was rocked with another alleged scam of Rs. 32crs with the deliberate delay in tendering the supply of medicines to various government-run medical institutions to certain people with an objective to fit them in the supply exercise with an eye to divert commissions to their accounts. This even rocked the Goa Assembly but nothing came out of it.

Even the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court took suo moto cognizance of various media reports and action was demanded. Are our politicians afraid of anything? Whether Congress or BJP ruled Goa, the affairs of GMC hospital remained the same in a pathetic condition.

Our Goa government with hundred percent tolerance to selected corruption is now busy setting up beer industries, also busy at MOPA, Quittol in Quepem taluka and of course very-very busy in mooring the fifth casino in the River Mandovi. These are the assets, it thinks worth investing to fund the forthcoming elections. Welfare of the people is not on their agenda and neither supreme. Earlier, the Chief Minister Parsekar was extremely busy transferring the two honest Anti Corruption Bureau Officers who caught his brother-in-law in action in the alleged bribe taking incident, then was busy reinstating him back to IDC without clearing his name in the alleged bribery scandal. Unfortunately, some corrupt officers those were themselves allegedly caught accepting bribes earlier are now manning the ACB and could be sharing common grounds with selected persons of interest to play vengeance. What an irony?

The government is also busy favouring and promoting unwanted projects through the back door by using the Investment Promotion Board to hurriedly approve those projects which otherwise would have not seen the daylight in Goa. It is in the name of creating infrastructure and jobs for our youth. The actual infrastructures for the common man are the basic amenities. Better healthcare, Education, standard roads, public transport, footpaths, street lights, drainage system and clean drinking water lie in the pipeline albeit in a limbo.

And not to forget those departed and lying in the morgue of GMC for final burial, there is neither a not so good feeling for them in the morgue. It is often reported that the air-conditioning units are malfunctioning or not functioning at all. When the government does not care for the living, what can we expect from this government to care for the dead?

A fire incident in the pharmacy area in the past, the government should have been on a war footing mission to check the condition of this premium health institution to avert any further untoward damage but the recent collapse of the wall of the teaching faculty unit only tells us that this government too will collapse like the wall itself before the next monsoon.

Weekend special Salad roll.

Requirement:

Fine slices of Cold meats

Red and yellow peppers (Capsicum)

Carrots

Olives

Lettuce

Mayonnaise

Cheese spread

Salt

Method:

Rare fry the cold meat and keep aside

Cut peppers and carrots into fine longs strips.

Mix two portions of mayo to one portion of cheese-spread.

Add salt and pepper for taste. 

Add peppers and carrots to the mayo and cheese-spread.

Lay this on the slices of cold meat and roll it.

Use olives and lettuce to dress the salad plate.