Wednesday 3 August 2022

Unsupported school libraries and govt. patronized illegal bars? Is our ‘bhailo’ CM joking? -- By Nisser Dias

Trust it on our imported Chief Minister of Goa to utter cheap solutions to issues plaguing our state. Be it crimes, accidents and even history he has warped and distorted theories which makes him a laughing stock. He then goes and advises us to have libraries at home instead of a bar, when his thoughts are always under influence but need not be under alcohol or substance. After the fateful motor vehicular accident on the Zuari bridge were four individuals travelling in a car lost their lives after toppling into the river, ‘bhailo’ CM said that people should have libraries instead of a bar at home. A year back when young girls were raped on Benaulim beach when they were with their friends, this same man who the Goans are ashamed to call their chief minister said that the parents should not allow their daughters to stay out so late. In 2021 commenting on Goa’s 60th Liberation Day, he blamed then Prime Minister late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for the delay in freeing Goa from Portuguese rule without realizing the entire exercise that went behind Goa’s Liberation. And this man, a non-Goan chief minister of Goa is recommending to have a library at our homes justifying it with his wife maintaining a library at his home. Goans have become so used to the inarticulate brainless chief minister running his motor mouth without giving sufficient time for his brain to process his thoughts has embarrassed Goans nationally. It is not important to have a library at home but what is important is to understand and construe what one reads from the author’s point of view, that of the period or era when it was written and the conditions prevailing then. But given the imported chief minister Pramod Sawant’s perspective, his background, and his convoluted mindset, he reads and interprets through the lens of his ideology thereby distorting all facts and figures. Hence for such a person to advise us to have a library at home is a travesty. Books are written in various forms. It is either fiction or non-fiction, scientific and otherwise, history and doctored history it can go on. What the BJP is interested in is doctored history. They will go to any length to misinterpret history to their point of view in their agenda to indoctrinate the masses. That is the type of library the chief minister wants us to set-up in our homes. Since the non-Goan Pramod Sawant was promoted as Chief Minister of Goa as part of the late Manohar Parrikar’s legacy, the former also holds the Education portfolio. Sawant’s only contribution to school and state libraries has been to continuously reduce budget allocation for libraries. In fact, he has stopped funding school libraries and drastically slashed expenditure on state libraries. In the recently concluded Assembly Session Fatorda MLA Vijay Sardessai called his bluff. While exposing the imported chief minister of Goa, Sardessai said that capital expenditure for libraries was Rs. 2 crores in 2021 but has been reduced to mere Rs. 10 lakhs this year. Former deputy chief minister in Sawant cabinet went on to strip down the chief minister stating that Rs. 50 lakhs were allocated in 2021-2022 to purchase books for school libraries but for 2022-2023 no budget provision has been made. The duplicity and two-facedness of the chief minister of Goa are that while he stops budgetary allocation for libraries in schools, he promotes bars to be run by his party colleagues and workers without proper licenses.

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