San-Jao, São João, ghunvta mu re
The celebration of São João seems to have a problem -- in some places it's dying, in others it's too commercialised, this, the scrapped ODPs and more in this week's edition
Welcome to yet another edition of Gerard’s Gazette, a weekly newsletter in which I attempt to break down the events of the week gone by and offer a bit of context, as well as a dose of news you may have missed and news behind the news.
If this is your first time here, thank you for signing up, and I hope you stick around!
San-Jao, São João, ghunvta mu re
There is a problem with how we are celebrating São João. And depending on what your views are, you dislike how the festival was celebrated both in the past and the present or you just dislike the present.
When I say dislike the present, I don’t just mean the government and tourism department’s involvement in the organising of the festival’s flagship event in Siolim, but there are some who even have a problem with celebrating the festival with artificial showers, makeshift pools loud DJ music and a free flow of alcohol.
Broadly speaking there are two camps -- one that says that St John the Baptist was an ascetic who didn’t even touch alcohol and celebrating his feast with drunken merriment is antithetical to what he stood for -- and the other that says he feast should be celebrated, but like in the old days.
Thankfully, there isn’t a third category, who says the feast should not be celebrated at all, and if there’s one thing that everyone who has an opinion seems to agree on, is that the feast should be celebrated -- it’s how to celebrate it, where everyone’s opinions diverge.
This, in part, is down to how they remember the feast being celebrated. You talk to anyone and the first thing they will mention is how they used to do it back in the day and how today’s generation is the one that’s taking things down the drain.
The debate is not going to go away anytime soon, nor should it. That São João is going the way Carnival went, is not really something to look forward to. But to me the real danger lies in the feast not being celebrated at all.
There have been stories on social media, maybe you’ve seen them too, of wards and villages where the feast is not celebrated anymore -- the village ponds, springs and wells that once used to come alive on June 24th every year to the sound of laughter, merriment, drunken singing and splashing about wore a desolate look this year simply because the people who used it celebrate it with vigour and gusto are no more -- or at least there’s not enough of them around anymore.
Either that, or the festival has been replaced by something that is devoid of serenading through the village singing hymns and songs and distributing fruits, instead has DJ music, water sprinklers and no natural body of water or well to jump in.
But deep down the story isn’t about a dying tradition or a spirit of community that is being erased, it really is a story about how there’s fewer and fewer young people left in the villages to celebrate it.
According to what I’ve heard, celebrating the feast of São João with gusto was a thing even in places like Bombay many eons ago and continues to be celebrated in pockets of Vasai. Rapid urbanisation put paid to the celebration, which is now seeing a revival. Who knows what’s in store for Goa next?
But before you despair, one must remember that Goa faced this before too and came out with flying colours. The Siolim São João celebration that is today all the rage, was originally a tradition that had died out.
The celebration goes back at least 150 years when São João revelers from Chapora and Zhor villages of Anjuna, Badem in Assagao and Siolim, some from as far as Morjim would come up year after year in boats (which was he most convenient form of transport then) to the chapel of São João, Siolim, to pay homage and take part in the traditional ladainha at the Chapel. It was Alexyz Fernandes (yes, the cartoonist) who along with a few others, who back in the 90s went to the people of these villages to restart the practice.
That’s how the practice of decorating the boats came about.
Back then, Remo, who hails from Siolim, was requested by Alexyz and Co, to play a gig or two depending on the crowd, which he did, spurring the popularity of the celebration, which has now turned into what it is today.
While one can argue endlessly over the direction things are taking, we should be happy that it is being celebrated at all -- instead of cribbing about how the celebration is encouraging vices and oafish behaviour, as in the not too distant future even what we have today will be lost forever. At least those who are still doing it are creating memories that will stay with them.
The pot who called the kettle black
There has been some good news from the land defence front. The Bombay High Court at Goa decided in favour of petitioners the Goa Foundation, the Calangute Constituency Forum and other petitioners who had challenged the Outline Development Plans (ODPs) of the village of Calangute and Candolim and Arpora, Nagoa and Parra.
Now, a copy of the order is not yet available so the full reasoning behind the court’s decision is not yet available but what we do know, via petitioner Goa Foundation, is that the Court has cancelled the two ODPs of the five villages and all the zoning certificates issued under them.
So what are these ODPs and is Michael Lobo speaking the truth when he says that the recently scrapped ODPs are not “his” ODPs?
The story starts with the notification of Calangute and Candolim as ‘planning areas’ during the tenure of the BJP government (2012-2017) when Michael Lobo was elected from the Calangute constituency for the first time. The two villages got their first ODP in 2016 and two years later in 2018 the three other villages of the constituency (Parra, Arpora and Nagoa) were brought under ‘planning areas’ and got their own ODP. During this entire time, Michael Lobo was the chairman of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority, until he relinquished the post when he became a minister in 2019 under Pramod Sawant.
He was succeeded by Francisco Silveira for the remainder of the tenure until 2022.
So the story, to put it briefly (and in simple words), goes like this. Lobo joined the Congress ahead of the 2022 assembly elections and consequently ended up in the opposition. Incumbent Vishwajit Rane took over as minister and almost immediately began a campaign against Lobo, accusing him of large-scale illegalities in drafting the ODPs. He (Vishwajit) even got a report drafted in which officials were quoted as saying that Lobo was personally directing them to change the zones of plots from no development to settlement or commercial and as such the entire drafting process was riddled with “shocking illegalities” to benefit Lobo, his family and his associates.
Lobo’s ODPs were then scrapped.
Vishwajit Rane then introduced his own ODPs for those villages in 2022. But then what’s bad for the goose has to be bad for the gander, right? And that’s exactly what happened. The High Court stayed the Rane ODPs saying that they were “more drastic” than the previous “Michael Lobo” ODPs.
Unhappy with the stay, the government brought out its infamous ordinance to nullify the High Court’s order. Back to the High Court it went. While the ordinance wasn’t stayed, the High Court ruled that no permissions could be issued based on the Rane ODPs and ruled that the Regional Plan would have to apply.
The TCP Department first went to the Supreme Court, which reverted the matter back to the High Court, which in turn prompted the Government to bring out a Bill in the Goa Legislative Assembly last year.
The Bill, which ultimately didn’t pass, attempted to ensure that “neither any court nor any authority” would be able to “overturn the approvals, certificates and reports that have been granted by the Town and Country Planning Department.”
And that brings us to the happenings this week. The High Court, which was hearing the case over the last year or so, and which had already stayed the operation of the ODPs (both the Michael Lobo ODPs and the Vishwajit Rane ODPs) has now delivered its judgement.
The ODPs, which essentially override the statewide Regional Plan, were faulted on grounds that they “allowed for large-scale conversions of agriculture-tenanted lands, non-developable slopes, mangrove areas, etc. The return is absolutely silent about facilitating large-scale construction of hotels and other commercial establishments on the one hand and, at the same time, shrinking road widths to protect illegal constructions.”
In summary
To sum it up, here’s what happened. Michael Lobo oversaw the drafting of ODPs for the villages of his constituency which, according to a report brought out by Rane, included massive illegalities and were hence scrapped. Rane then brought out his own ODPs, which according to the High Court were even “more drastic” than those of Lobo.
I’m not sure what’s the more “shocking” part of this entire saga. The fact that the pot called the kettle black or that after calling the kettle black, the pot did the same thing he kettle was doing and when questioned, went to the Supreme Court, brought an ordinance and even attempted to bring a law so that it could blacken everything it could lay its hands on, without oversight.
This is of course not the end and things will definitely move to the Supreme Court much like how the section 17(2) case has reached the Supreme Court despite the government initially saying it was a win and there was no need to go to the Supreme Court.
Holy Smokes!
I don’t know who’s more foolish. The people who notice the cannabis plants sprouting along the footpaths of the state capital or the cops who come to “seize” the contraband and take it away using gloves and evidence bags like it is some unexploded bomb that they have come across.
Like who in his right mind sees a cannabis plant -- which by the way is native to India and grows naturally here -- and thinks that the best course of action is to inform the cops about it? Like why? Why can’t you STFU about it and go about your day? No offence has been committed and no one was harmed. If someone happens to drop a few cannabis seeds onto the earth, come rainy season they will germinate and grow. It is not without reason that the plant is called “weed”.
The less said about the cops the better. Don’t you guys have something better to do? Go and catch some charlies doing ‘charlie’ or harassing women tourists along the beach, if you want to make yourselves useful.
Meanwhile, a bunch of guys got caught throwing balls of ‘ganja’ into the compound of the Colvale jail by flinging it over the wall. They got caught because a prison sentry happened to notice the balls lying on the ground sometime in mid-June and reported the matter. Now that they’ve been busted, I expect such methods to proliferate. Maybe not immediately, but over time.
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.
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!
Can we celebrate feast of St. JOHN the baptist by what he came into this world for i.e. to preaching repentance for our sins and led his life to martyrdom.
We should be honouring him through, prayer, penance and fasting & true repentance for our salvation.
What kind of tradition is it to celebrate his life by drinking and merry making.
Let us stop this nonsense.
If you want to drink, dance and swim..
Please do it by all means but not in His name.