Real estate is back (in the news)
The reality of Goa's real estate sector, a shortened assembly session and more in this week's edition
Hi folks,
We meet again after what has been a somewhat eventful week in Goa. For starters, there was a two-day session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, which, being the first session of the calendar year, opened with a speech by the Governor of Goa – a speech that was interrupted by members of the opposition led by leader Yuri Alemao, who rose up and asked whether the Governor, in his speech, would address issues like unemployment, inflation, crimes, failures of the police, drugs, failure in the tourism department, tourists visiting the state, mining resumption, and corruption, etc.
Ignored and threatened with expulsion, the Opposition then walked out… Almost all of them, save for Vijai Sardesai, who chose to register his protest by wearing black and holding up a placard during the duration of the speech.
It gave the impression that the opposition wasn’t united, given that they didn’t have a coherent strategy, much less an ability or willingness to speak in one voice against the government.
Clearly, all isn’t well in the opposition. Not that things in the ruling are all hunky-dory, but if the Delhi election results are any indication, then it is important that the opposition gets its act together sooner rather than later.
Other than that, there is little else to write home about from the farce that was passed off as a winter session of the Goa Assembly, and while the opposition did raise the issue of the government’s failure to collect green cess, especially from coal transporters, that of water shortage, etc., ultimately nothing could take away the feeling, expressed not just by opposition parties, that this session was just a farce, called only to meet the constitutional requirement of holding a session at least once every six months.
In the wider Goa-sphere, however, there is another story that is emerging, or rather reemerging…
Real estate is back (in the news)
The state’s real estate sector is back in the news. Not in a big way, but back nonetheless. This is important because, if you remember, after the heights of the anti-Bhutani agitation in Sancoale and later in Panjim, which seemed to have the government on the backfoot, things seemed to have cooled down a bit.
But this week, there was a story in The Print by Karanjeet Kaur, who articulates quite succinctly what the real estate demand is doing to Goa. You really should read the article found here, but this paragraph in particular stands out:
“Gentrification is inevitable, but it is not as problematic as gated communities,” she tells me. “In a standalone house, you are still a part of the fabric of that village. But there is no interaction with your surroundings in these huge apartment complexes.” Nadaph is referring to the traditional Goan home, which was premised on connection. Its balcãos – raised porches with built-in seating – invited neighbours to pause for a chat. Inner courtyards created shared spaces where extended families could gather. These architectural gestures find no echo in today’s self-contained complexes. Behind high walls, each apartment becomes its own island, complete with amenities that eliminate any need to engage with the village beyond.
She couldn't have said it better. Gated communities seem so out of place in Goa’s villages, always known for their sense of openness and completely unused to the concept of an ‘enclave’ that, though physically located within the village, is actually outside of it with high walls and gates designed to keep the rest of the village at an arm’s length. It’s a concept designed for exclusion, and not uncommon in cities where people who wish to escape the chaos, riff-raff and societal realities aspire to live.
Gated communities have their advantages, but when in a Goan village, what exactly are you trying to exclude yourself from or escape from? And why?
The Print piece followed another detailed piece in the independent news portal Article-14, which went live in mid-January, highlighting how recent amendments to Goa’s TCP Act accelerate Goa’s urban sprawl and devastate its lush commons.
There was the Herald story too, that articulated how Goa is quietly being ‘taken over’ by the industry it once so vociferously fought at the time of the successful anti-RP 2011 agitation, the 2023 Pernem zoning plan agitation, etc.
The stories give voice to Goa’s concerns,, especially at a time when protests and agitations seem to fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile, it’s not just the common folk who are being ignored. Town and Country Planning minister Vishwajit Rane told members of the opposition that he’s not obliged to give answers concerning questions they raised about the Town and Country Planning Department, saying that the matters were ‘sub judice’.
Matters discussed in the legislative assembly are usually outside of judicial purview, and legislators can pretty much get away with whatever they say, so long as it is within the ‘House.’ Hopefully the opposition doesn’t simply take no for an answer and leave it at that.
It’s not all doom and gloom in the sector, however.
‘Don’t turn Goa into a concrete jungle’
In a victory of sorts, the Supreme Court of India dismissed an appeal filed by the Goa government that challenged a decision of the Bombay High Court at Goa, which had restrained the state government from issuing permissions based on the Calangute Candolim and Arpora Nagoa Parra ODPs.
These ODPs, if you recall, were initially draughted during the tenure of the previous government. For convenience, let’s refer to them as the Michael Lobo ODPs. However, after Rane became TCP minister in 2022, he railed about how the process of draughting the said Michael Lobo ODPs was vitiated by arbitrariness and riddled by corruption and involved large-scale denuding of Goa of its green spaces.
The department then proceeded to draft a fresh set of ODPs for the same five villages, which the Goa Foundation, in submissions before the Bombay High Court at Goa, said were even worse for the state’s environment and landscape than the Michael Lobo ODPs. The High Court subsequently stayed the second set of ODPs or, rather, directed that no permissions be issued based on the new plans.
The Supreme Court too has seemingly agreed with the High Court and even went on to tell the state government to not “turn Goa into a concrete jungle.”
And while on the subject, I would finally like to draw your attention to two videos by activist Swapnesh Sherlekar, who, through persistent perusal of documents from the Town and Country Planning Department,. The videos (in Konkani) are frankly self-explanatory. I’ll only say, for the sake of briefly introducing the content, that the videos highlight how decisions were (and presumably continue to be) taken in the TCP Department in a manner that reeks of arbitrariness and contempt of established procedure, and if judicial precedent is something to go by, are liable to be struck down after such scrutiny. Hopefully we live long enough to see the day. Do check them out here and here.
In the name of Bhausaheb…
Not too long ago in Goa there was what seemed to be a controversy brewing over the legacy of Goa’s first Chief Minister, Dayanand Bandodkar. The controversy has since died down, but there’s a reason I’m re-upping it now.
It began when AAP leader Venzy Viegas, at an event in his constituency, back in January, equated Chief Minister Pramod Sawant with Goa’s first Chief Minister Bhausaheb Bandodkar.
In response Goa Forward’s Vijai Sardesai claimed that such a comparison was superficial and even went on to say that Bandodkar had an allergy to Goa, prompting the chief minister to then rebuke him for insulting the legacy of the first chief minister, a man revered by many sections of Goan society, even if he has divided opinion among others.
However, rather than offer my own take on this, I thought I’d point you to that of Kaustubh Naik, a researcher from Goa whose take on Goa’s historically oppressed castes is always refreshing to read. You can find the original here:
Certain individuals have deliberately sought to blame Goa's current decline on Dayanand (Bhausaheb) Bandodkar and the tenure of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) as the ruling party. In a recent video, Uday Bhembre claimed that "MGP caused irreparable loss to Goa." Unfortunately, such criticism often goes unchallenged, revealing a persistent lack of nuanced understanding of Goan history.
The narratives surrounding Goa's merger with Maharashtra remain largely one-sided. The rejection of this merger is frequently framed as a cultural awakening among Goans, but this interpretation oversimplifies a complex historical moment.
We still lack a thorough exploration of why the demand for the merger emerged, why it garnered significant popular support, and how it propelled a newly formed regional party representing peasants and toddy tappers to prominence in Goan politics. While debates over whether the merger would have harmed Goa can continue, that does not take away from the strategic politics played by the deprived sections of Goan society.
In retrospect, the opinion poll essentially preserved the status quo, when MGP's pro-Bahujan politics was seen as a challenge to the entrenched caste hierarchy perfected by the Catholic and Hindu elites through their collaboration with the Portuguese colonial state.
Bandodkar's MGP has often been vilified as an obstacle to Goa's so-called singular Konkani identity by figures like Bhembre. History will ultimately judge Bandodkar on his own merits. However, if MGP was so bad according to Bhembre, why did he align with Shashikala Kakodkar—whom he now blames for Goa's decline—during the Medium of Instruction issue? And what are his views on granting official language status to Romi Konkani, an undeniably just demand that has been ignored for decades?
Blaming Bandodkar and the MGP is an easy way to provoke Goan Catholic sentiments. But this rhetoric also acts as a convenient facade, deflecting attention from the sinister role individuals like Bhembre have played in enabling the steady marginalisation of Goan Catholic communities. This is the same Bhembre who was the spokesperson of the RSS-backed BBSM that wanted to align with MGP during the MoI controversy.
The said video follows another video where Bhembre said that Dr Jack Sequeira cannot be called the father of opinion polls. The video obviously attracted a backlash. So now, the shrewd way to salvage the situation is to shoot at Bandodkar and the MGP.
That’s all I have for you this week. Make sure you comment or write in, should you have something, anything to say.
I would also invite you to contribute via sending in your views, especially on a subject you know something about, and I will be happy to include it as part of the newsletter, just as I have included Kaustubh’s take above.
You are also welcome to write in with leads and tip-offs or anything that you think might be interesting enough to include here.
As always, please share and help spread the word.
Until next week, then. Tchau!
Hopefully, Supreme Court's rebuttal of State Government, would come as a "Shot In The Arm" for Activists's like Goa Foundation and Sir Swapnil.
Not for Supreme Court's intervention, it was looking as if, Rane is the "Lord Of The Ring" of Goa.
Thanks for writing about this! I love how the old houses have low boundary walls so that you can look to the side and often see into your neighbours yard and vice versa. Always a good excuse for an impromptu hello and chat