Dempo!

To my peers and me in our school and college days, ‘Dempo’ didn’t mean Padmashree Vasantrao Dempo, his son Vassudev (Naguesh) Dempo, or his grandson and one academic year our senior, Srinivas Dempo. Or for that matter, any of the many other Dempos.
'Dempo' to us was an expression of sheer supremacy, perhaps subconsciously evolved from the laurel after laurel earned by its then invincible football team. 'Dempo' was also used by many of us as an expression to acknowledge victory in many spheres not so sporting, much akin to the usage of the term 'Colgate' to refer to toothpaste, perhaps because of the sheer size of the group's economic muscle.
So, it would be fool-hardy if I skipped mention of the biggest event of last week - the Dempos selling their mines lock, stock and barrel, to Sesa Goa. So before I forget, or run out of space to put down this little tantrum, I thought it fit to begin with it.
Ever since the event became known - on newspaper editions of Friday, June 12, 2009 - my mind has been battling my thoughts as to why the media, and almost everyone I met who spoke about it, went ga-ga over the mind-boggling deal of Rs 1,750-crore (at least on paper…the Swiss Banks still exist, don't they?).
It certainly isn’t good news for the ‘Goa for Goans’ battle-cry, which I believe is the real issue of all the walk and talk on ‘Special Status’ for amchem Goem. Yet, all who’ve spoken about it, only had good things to say. Except, of course, the leading lights of the other mining families, who suddenly seem to have gone dumb.It sure is a great business deal from the Dempos’ viewpoint, and perhaps an even ‘better deal’ from Agarwal’s, but from the ‘Goan’ viewpoint? Well… It sure is disturbing that the net worth of a fairly large chunk of our valuable ‘tambdi maathi’ has now got transferred to the hands of someone who’s not 'amcho'.
There’s a silver lining though. Now, every Joao, Ramdas or Imran, knows how much our 'tambdi maathi' that the Dempo’s reigned over all these years, is really worth. Besides, we can also hope to own a part, even if it’s a microscopically miniscule one, and be ‘mine owners’ ourselves by simply picking up from the bourses a few Sesa Goa shares at all of 200-odd rupees!
But I am still wondering if the media and all and sundry, would react in the same ga-ga way if an Agostinho or a Joao or for that matter the Pintos of the Cidade de Goa fame, had sold a few thousand square metres of their 'aframento' for less than a crore of rupees.

Oh, Rane Sr has spoken!

The undisputed Raja of Sattari has spoken, even if he sounded more like a helpless subject rather than a raja.Speaker, Pratapsing Rane, after all those years of being a politician and for most part Goa’s top one, has finally discovered that some politicians are the genesis of all that's evil about mining, the pollution included. And, they should be brought to book, says he! Why didn't he, in all those years as CM, beats me.It's better late than never though! Should the former CM walk his talk, all our Sebys, Ramesh Gaunses, Rajendra Kerkars, Claude Alvareses and their likes will well have to call it a day!
But then, he's unlikely to. Instead, it seems to be a salvo fired at political adversaries who have of late begun dabbling in mining. It could also be a cocky snub at his successor and the incumbent in the CM's kodel, Digambar Kamat, who's presided over the mines ministry uninterruptedly since he first became minister in 1999. Let’s wait and see!

Roar or a croak

What’s more deafening, a roar or a croak?
The young turks among Greens in Goa seem to be telling us it’s the latter!Even as this year’s reluctant ‘Big Goenkar’ Rajendra Kerkar wages a solitary battle with the officialdom, politicos and a head-strong, anti-tiger Dr Sashi Kumar, to save the east Goan habitat of the majestic striped cat, a whole load of his peers, albeit the Pierre-Cardin adorning ones, swear by the frog, croaking their voices hoarse!
The 'Bull-Frog' will disappear they argue, Dr Sashi Kumar in tow, as they gun for the hunter’s jugular, while the striped cat is left to fend for itself amidst maurading miners and a lonesome Big Goenkar and his band of earth-loving teens remain its sole backers.
Drop the croaking and roar for the tiger, even if it’s a solitary, two or three ‘Migratory Tigers’ as Dr Sashi Kumar wants us to believe, the one killed in Keri, was. It’s a tiger for god’s sake, not a migratory bird!

Dr Willy’s salvo

Wasn't hard to believe it when reports filtered into our newsrooms that the grand old man of Goa's politics, Dr Wilfred de Souza, had said goodbye to Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party after 10 long years. We had predicted in one tantrum published in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. The surgeon’s done it now, albeit, sans an anesthesia to leave the scars hurting.
Dr Willy, since he lost the 2007 assembly poll from Saligao, has had reasons dime a dozen to be upset with the NCP, and thus, had justification for what he did -- quit. But what probably was the proverbial final straw that broke the camel's back, was the way he was 100 per-cent sidelined in the campaign for the Lok Sabha poll. According to sources in the Willy camp, the surgeon was not even entrusted the campaign in his Saligao assembly segment. Instead, Jitendra Deshprabhu, Hede and Co entrusted the job to his former aide and now adversary, Trojan D'Mello.
Now, no politician worth his salt will take that lying down, not in the least Dr Willy!

Industry’s muscle-flexing

Last week, Environment Minister, Aleixo Sequeira, announced the appointment of Dr Simon de Souza, a former deputy director of NIO, as chairman of the Pollution Control Board, but not before he had to counter strong lobbying for the incumbent Dr L U Joshi, from an unlikely quarter -- industry.
Now, industry and the Pollution Control Board we know have an inherrent conflict of interest and should logically be at loggerheads. It doesn't seem so in the case of the Goa State Pollution Control Board in the two terms that Dr Joshi headed it. Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), it turns out, had passed a formal resolution in its executive committee meeting urging the government to grant Dr Joshi a third term! Not just that, the chamber's former president, Nitin Kuncolienkar, is said to have followed it up with two written 'reminders' (sic) to Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat.
It's bad enough that the government gives the GCCI representation on the GSPCB through its president. What business it has, to so brazenly influence the government's decision on appointing a chairman for the board, beats us.