Distracting AND Derogatory
Sure, Velingkar's utterances demanding a DNA test of the relics of St Francis Xavier are a distraction, but should we ignore them? This and more in this week's edition.
Where do I begin? To tell the story of a Goa that has been This past week that seemed to start so well But crash-landed in an ugly lathi-charge Where do I start?
The ham-handed lyrics aside, on a more serious note, do I start with the hugely attended protests on Monday that demanded the ouster of Chief Town Planner Rajesh Naik? Or do I start with how the week ended with even bigger protests, roadblocks that paralysed normal life that ended in a lathicharge, demanding the arrest of ex-Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar for his comments demanding a DNA test for the sacred relics of St. Francis Xavier?
Instead, let me first address the elephant in the room that straddles both issues.
Is this a deliberate distraction?
A fairly simple question to answer. Yes, of course, Velingkar’s statements have sparked a controversy that is needless, unnecessary, and counterproductive, the result of which will mean attention has shifted away from putting pressure on the government to undo its hugely damaging ongoing process of land conversions and mismanagement and shift it towards religious strife.
To understand that, what one needs to understand is how much the movement building against land conversions has succeeded in achieving. Here are a few examples. The government was forced to issue a show cause notice to the developers of the Bhutani project asking why permissions issued should not be revoked (wonder what’s happened to that?); the protests that have been building against the land conversions have meant that for nearly one and a half months no new gazette notifications have come notifying fresh land conversions under Section 17(2) and 39A of the TCP Act; and finally, the ongoing protests against land conversions to mega projects have spurred on people in other villages to come out against the rape of the hills. Just last week, protests were held in Socorro, Old Goa, Chopdem, Fatorda, Chinchinim, and others against the ongoing land conversions in the state.
It has also taken the heat away from Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane, who was getting much of the flak for not just the land conversions but from his own party for speaking out of turn, much to their embarrassment.
To that extent, intended or not, there is no hesitation in saying that Velingkar’s statement has indeed served as a ‘distraction’ or at least interrupted the momentum that was building against mega projects in the state. It is a view that has been espoused by nearly all campaigners, including Swapnesh Sherlekar, Dr. Oscar Rebello, Claude Alvares, and the Council for Social Justice and Peace, among others.
What is Velingkar talking about?
The story dates back to the year 2014, when a certain Jewish man of Norwegian origin by the name of Ivar Fjeld, a former journalist and self-styled Goa representative of the Norway-India Chambers of Commerce and Industry, arrived on the scene. Fjeld, who back then was a resident of Goa (possibly still is), has written two books, ‘The Jewish Martyrs of Old Goa: An Untold Story’ (Broadway, 2014) and ‘The Golden Age of Goa: Ruled by descendants of Queen Esther of the Bible 1310-1510 AD’ (Broadway, 2017), both of which make fantastic claims. But that’s not why he’s important now.
Back in 2014 (note the year), Fjeld sponsored a Sri Lankan journalist by the name of W T J S Kaviratne, flew him down to Goa, and got him to address a press conference in Panjim to regurgitate what was then a 25-year-old conspiracy theory that the body of St Francis Xavier was lost at sea during its transportation between Sancian Island, where St Francis Xavier died, and the Portuguese accompanying him switched his body with that of a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, Thhotgamuwe Sri Rahula Thera (1408–1491). That theory had been debunked back then but has been brought up now once again for obvious reasons.
Nobody in Goa or the Goan media took Fjeld or his claims or the claims of the so-called Sri Lankan journalist seriously. The only paper that carried the story back then was The Goan on Saturday, then a weekly newspaper (whose weblinks are now dead). On the contrary, at the press conference (I would know since I was in attendance in the press conference, then as a reporter for O Heraldo), Kaviratne faced such a barrage of questions that he completely disowned the theory and blamed it on unverified sources and stories reported in Sri Lankan media.
It is this Kaviratne, about whom little else is known and who hasn’t even stood by his own claims, that Velingkar is citing as an authority to buttress his demand for a DNA test on the relics of St. Francis Xavier. He said as much in his offending speech:
"Some years ago, in 2014, a journalist from Sri Lanka had come here and addressed a press conference and said that the relics belong to Rahula Thera; this is what we believe in Sri Lanka. When the body was being shipped from China to Goa, it was switched and that it should be returned to Sri Lanka. This is his claim. I'm waiting to gather more evidence, and then our demand will be to conduct a DNA test, and if it is confirmed that it is of Xavier, we will have no problem. Do the DNA test and compare it with that of the people in Navarre, Spain, where he was born," Velingkar said.
His demand is neither new nor more believable than the one made ten years ago. But, every ten years at the time of the exposition, the critters crawl out of the woodwork to make these claims with a deliberate attempt to stir the pot.
What should our response be?
While one acknowledges what the present controversy distracts from, on the other hand, it is also difficult to stand behind the argument that the people of Goa should let this one pass because there are larger, more pressing issues and issues of greater consequence in Goa that require our attention. This despite it being a very valid argument, especially from the point of view of the fact that rarely do people come out onto the street in protest as they do when their “religious sentiments” are hurt.
But at the same time, the world we live in today is not the same as the world of 2014. Back then, even Subhash Velingkar dared not publicly jump onto the Ivar Fjeld bandwagon (even though, as per his own admission, he did save the news clippings).
No government has handled Goa as incompetently as the present one, under whose tenure the state has seen the most dangerous communal provocations carry on unchecked. It isn’t the first time that Velingkar has felt emboldened to taunt St. Francis Xavier. Back in 2022, Velingkar declared that St. Francis Xavier was undeserving of the title of Goencho Saib, which should instead be conferred on the sage Parshuram, he being the true lord of Goa.
Velingkar also, without any consequence, laid claim to the ruins and frontispiece of the Old Church in Sancoale, claiming it was Goa’s Ayodhya and elements who, in the dead of the night, attempted to lay claim to the land by installing an idol and worshipping it. Those miscreants faced no consequences either.
It isn’t just Christians who are being targeted either. Right-wing organisations are allowed a free run, as was seen last week when they gathered in large numbers to oppose an annual Julus procession in Canacona, in which allegedly provocative speeches were made, and faced no consequences.
In fact, it’s not just that communal polarisation is being condoned by this government; if the utterances of the chief minister himself are to be examined, ranging from promising to “rebuild temples destroyed by the Portuguese” to calling for “wiping off the signs of the Portuguese,” the not so subtle uncomplimentary language is evident.
None of this would have been tolerated by any government in the past, not even the BJP governments headed by Manohar Parrikar, who famously banned Pramod Muthalik, the leader of the Sri Rama Sene, from entering Goa, a ban that continues to this day.
It’s for this reason that Velingkar feels emboldened to make these statements every now and then, knowing fully well that a government run by a weak chief minister, who for every decision of consequence needs to turn to the party high command in Delhi, will not have the courage or authority to act against him.
The false equivalence
True to form, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, by late evening, promised that action would be taken against Velingkar “on the same lines as that taken against Fr. Bolmax” for his allegedly derogatory statements against the warrior king Shivaji.
The ruling party’s and the government’s desire to draw an equivalence between the two utterances was apparent on Sunday morning when new alerts quoting “sources” emerged saying that the government will act in the same manner as it did in the Fr. Bolmax matter.
Later in the day, Siolim MLA Delilah Lobo (not that her opinion counts for much) made the same argument before Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself said that action would be on similar lines.
However, the two instances cannot be compared for two reasons: firstly, because Velingkar is a repeat offender. While his past utterances may not have earned him a booking or a case registered, they were nonetheless diminishing towards Christians, and secondly, Fr. Bolmax was quick to apologise for having hurt the sentiments of the Shivaji bhakts and withdrew his statement—something Velingkar is yet to do and has instead doubled down on.
A complete abdication of responsibility
Even as protests raged against Velingkar in Margao, Fatorda, and Anjuna, the ruling party was completely missing in action.
It was left to activists Claude Alvares, Dr. Oscar Rebello, Sabina Martins, Xencor Polji, and others to appeal for calm. Similarly, the Congress’ Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira, Goa Forward’s Vijai Sardesai, the Council for Social Justice and Peace, and Fr. Bolmax himself issued appeals for calm. But none from the government, who continued as if it were business as usual, perhaps gleeful that their plan for distraction has worked.
Which brings me to the second part. What else has happened this week that the government is eager to distract us from?
Putting a lid on it
The ruling BJP sought to finally put a lid on the boiling feud between Goa Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. Both were summoned to Delhi, given a talking to, and sent back to the state.
Very little is known about what transpired in the meeting. Reports have since emerged that claim that the duo have been told to shut it and that nothing that happened in the meeting that involved Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda, and national general secretary B L Santosh should be leaked to the media.
However, given how intrepid some reporters are, reports quoting sources claimed that it was decided in the meeting that the selection of non-gazetted posts in the government, which was to be done by the Staff Selection Commission, would now be handled by the respective departments. On the face of it, this decision, if true, will benefit one of the two warring BJP stalwarts more than the other.
It is Goa’s worst kept secret. Rane, whose bread and butter depends on stuffing Goa Medical College and the Health Department with candidates of his choosing, was sorely upset that with the constitution of the staff selection commission, power was slipping out of his hands. Is this a win for him then? Time will tell.
The Comunidade amendment
The other big development this week was a cabinet decision to amend the comunidade code via an ordinance to ensure that land that has been allotted by a comunidade to a party be used only for the purpose for which it has been allotted.
The amendment has been hailed by the ruling party as one that will safeguard the assets of Goa’s age-old comunidades from being squandered away for purposes other than what was originally intended (looking at you Zuari land), but as pointed out by Congressman Carlos Ferreira, the announcement was more noise than substance.
Which begs the question: why has it been introduced and why now?
The answer to that lies in the videos and articles that recently did the rounds on social media claiming that the land was taken from the Sancoale Comunidade at Rs 0.25 per square meter to set up the Zuari Agro Chemicals Plant at Sancoale, parts of which were then sold to real estate parties at a price of Rs 1.15 lakh crore, resulting in a Rs 50,000 crore scam. Yeah, well, this is the Chief Minister’s countermove against those who were raising the'scam’ in a bid to counter the allegations they were facing for large-scale land conversions in the state.
A final word...
One might be tempted to blame the chief minister or the town and country planning minister Vishwajit Rane or other ministers in the state government for all that is wrong with Goa today. One might even be tempted to sympathise with one over another as being the victim of the other’s machinations. But remember who it is that has allowed this situation to come to pass. Despite knowing fully well how unabashed and brazen the Goa government has been going about running the affairs of the state, no attempt has been made by the BJP as a party to act against its corrupt minister or hold them accountable for mismanagement, to the point it will not be wrong to believe that the present situation is to their liking. Let us not take our eyes from the fact that none of this is inevitable or normal but could be very different if we had a government that was responsible, feared the people’s power, and was able to look beyond its own narrow interests.
The party, if it wanted, could easily have replaced its ‘troublesome’ ministers, but hasn’t instead actively allowed the present loot to continue and only tried to stifle the scandal from becoming public. The problem, my friends, traces itself right to the top.
I hope you enjoyed reading this week’s edition of my newsletter as much as I did writing it. Make sure you leave a like, comment or do not hesitate to write in, should you have something more to say.
As always, please share and help spread the word. Until next week, then. Tchau!
Excellent Gerard ! Thanks for this Gazette, which keeps me well informed about the "disintegration " of Goa. It is truly depressing and infuriating. If I still lived in Goa, I would have exploded by now! Glad to know our people are finally taking to the streets to protest.
We need to get the original headlines back on the front page and put the heat back on the serving/elected party (oh i hate the word ruling).