“Parivartan” of Goa or not??

Vanisha Rodrigues

“Goa is losing it’s identity as farm lands are being intruded by the powerful people”, said Paulo, a local farmer in Margao. The government that boasted of “Zero tolerance to corruption” is slowly making it’s way into corruption thus disclosing the flip side of their personality. The recent issue of the fields in Margao being used for a new KTC bus stand is what one can hear, read as well as see on the local news channels. Plans are on the mind of utilizing these fields for a new KTC bus stand. But is there a need of a new one?. Right now the need of the hour is conserving Goan heritage as it is on the verge of being confined to books and pictures. As the scenario of Goa is changing with concrete jungles at every juncture therefore a call should be given in order to preserve the fields. but is this “Parivartan” that the government had claimed of bringing about in Goa?. If so than the people need to ponder upon this. Shifting the KTC bus stand is not the ultimate option. Present KTC can be renovated without shifting it to a new venue. If the fields are not preserved and protected now than the coming generation will have to face problems. As the mining activity is slowly dying out leaving some Goans without income a time will come that Goans will have to starve if fields are not preserved. 

Are artists the soft targets of political gimmicks???

Artists should be given a free hand in depicting their art without any interference from politicians. However, this is not the case. Off-late it has become a fashion as, whenever an artist depicts a painting of any Goddess or a Hindu or be it a Muslim religious figure, they have been given religious colours by the fanatics who try to politicize the whole situation for their own personal agenda. They not only do so, but they also incite religious feelings and make the people to get into fights on religious lines.

Few years back in Bombay, a world famous painter M.F. Hussain’s painting of Sita was asked to be removed from the art gallery by the Shiv Sena supporters. They construed that the painting was hurting the sentiments of the Hindus. Later, they also filed cases against Hussain in the court, which led him to leave the country and renounce the Indian citizenship and opt for the Delhi citizenship. Bearing all this he passed away recently, deeply hurt.

Few months back, there was another cartoonist in Bombay whose cartoons were considered as inflammatory, which led to his arrest by the government. Subsequently, he was released on bail after public outcry against the government’s decision.

Every artist, be a painter or an actor, have been the soft targets of the politicians. Take for instance the recent banning of Kamal Hassan’s movie ‘Vishwaroopam’, due to political enmity between Kamal Hasssan and C.M. Jaya Lalita. However, the movie was released after few cuts although there were no objectionable scenes.

This was another political interference in the life of an artist, who even threatened to leave the country if the artists are targeted in this matter. The artists all over India are depressed lot, fearing that the art will be sacrificed at the altar of politics. The artists too should be careful in not hurting the sentiments of the people; allowing the politicians to capitalize on such blunders.

- Luella Fernandes

Where does the buck stop- blame game in the case of sexual assaults?

“If I don’t get justice, there is no point in living…”

These are the words of a gang rape victim Roopa (the pseudonym) from Haryana.

Soon we will be celebrating International Women’s Day. All over the world there will be some or the other activity or events taking place for the women. People around the world will be praising and giving long speeches on women power, development, women rights, importance of women etc. But do they really mean when they say or comment anything on women? I don’t think that people really care when they comment anything about women. These are the same people who do not even step forward to help the women when they are in danger or faced with any crisis. The whole nation waits for things to happen and then to react, but are never thinking of changing things around so that such incidents never take place.

I mentioned a comment in the start which was said by Roopa, a victim who was gang raped by five men on 28^th November 2012. She is a dalit woman from Haryana who is married and has two kids. One night when they were asleep and her husband was at work, these five men came and broke the door. They pulled Roopa out of the house and took her to a cowshed out of the house. They tied her mouth and “then the five of them raped her repeatedly”. She couldn’t shout and saw that two of them even had pistols. When they heard the children crying, these men ran for it. When the family came to know they wholly supported her and went to the police for help. The local police accused her of "making the story up" and delayed in filing the case and it was not until police superintendent Sharma intervened and registered her case.

The whole community has ostracized her and her family. Nobody talks to them and her friends also hated her. Her husband is sitting at home after this incident as he is removed out of the job and nobody is ready to give him work as a result their they have lost their source of income.

Vivek Sharma, police superintendent in the nearby city of Rohtak, said that of the five accused in the gang rape, one is in jail, two have absconded, and two others allegedly jumped in front of a train and killed themselves within hours of being named. It was known that some of them were members of the powerful Jat caste that dominates politics and agriculture in Haryana.

Now the question arise that why were the police hesitant in filing the case? This makes us believe that ‘money is power’ and because of which crimes are increasing every day. In this case Roopa was snatched in the cowshed which makes me think that people who worship cows end up doing such evil practices in her shelter home. But these days cows are also treated the same and therefore we can see many dead cows on the roadside. There is no much difference left in women and animals as both are treated in the same manner.

In the end the women are the target and the cause for all the incidents might be because she is a dalit, backward, illiterate, educated, independent and warm hearted like the cow. But it’s high time now that we actually show the world ‘The Women’s Power’.

But how do we go about doing things, when the system in its whole is corrupted and doomed in money power? Whom do we blame and point out in such situation when all are to be blamed? Money power has overpowered the human values. It is indeed very difficult task to come out of such plight and make all things go in right manner. We still hope to have a safer and better future for women, but it is up to us as to how we make these changes happen…

By Sofia D'costa

V-VI students to get tablets for Rs 25

Are you a student of standard V or VI?? If no den you’ve lost an opportunity at being the owner of the latest craze of having a tablet in hand. Students of standard V and VI will soon be getting a tablet or a notebook for mere Rs 25 by end of the academic year. Students from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe will however be charged only Rs 10. The state government is known to have made a provision of Rs 95 crore for the purpose. The Directorate of Education (DoE) is expecting around 40,000 applications from Std V and VI for the tablets or notebooks.

An undertaking will have to be taken from each parent, having no objection to supplying their child with a tablet. The Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Parrikar, plans to utilize the tablet for e-learning, using Goa Broadband service and the data centre, through which the content prepared by experienced retired teachers will be made available to the students. 

I personally hope that these tablets do not prove to be faulty and have problems with their working as the students of my batch faced when we gained computers through a similar scheme of paying Rs, 1,000 for each system. Most of us had to spend more money in fixing our faulty systems within the same year. Electronics make our life easier, but having good quality ones makes it worth the price.

By Ovia Xavier

The horror of the terror attack

The twin blast in Hyderabad (Feb 21) have taken a toll of 16 innocent lives  with almost 120 people injured. Political fallout is the most demoralising thing about terrorist attack. Instead of thinking about the welfare and the future of the country, the politicians are busy exposing each other. The opposition try to hammer the government everytime a terrorist attack takes place. After the twin blasts in Hyderabad on Thursday, leaders of the BhartiyaJanata Party sprung against the UPA government  saying that it was unable to deal with terror attacks. The opposition must have forgotten that it was a time the country must react as one united instead of blaming each other. We can rightly say that the terrorist have succeeded in dividing the polity. “All they have to do is trigger a blast or two and the socio-political fabric suffers a deep tear.” (The Navhind Times).The Home Minister said that a general alert was passed on to state governments. It was also known that an Indian Mujahideen operative confessed last year to the Delhi Police to staking out areas in Hyderabad including Dilsukhnagar, which was the site of the twin blast. Its becomes clear that the state and central police forces couldn’t prevent the attacks though they were given the ‘tip-off’ quite early. The question to be asked is ‘were they waiting for the blast to make themselves active and investigate further?’It is said that the terror attack was a way of taking revenge against the hanging of either AjmalKasab or Afzal Guru. But there is no evidence to prove it. Investigators have no clues to link terrorist outfits to the attack, even though the hand of the Indian Mujahideen is suspected. Idont think that the investigating team will need another bomb blast to wake them up from their sleep. Its high time. Even the political parties should learn to keep their political problems aside and think of India as one united front to tackle with the problem of terrorism.