Hey, journos! Leave them kids alone…

Over this year, my peers have forced upon readers a several dozen times the ‘news’ (sic) that Baba, Babush and Patnekar are joining the grand old party. One of GT’s peers - which prides itself with ‘The Paper You Can Trust’ 'mission statement' and uses it right under its Masthead - even predicted the date, hour, minute and second of their celebrated entry a few times. And each time, its 'mission statement' got murdered!

Yesterday December 13, it repeated the act. It led its Sunday edition with the ‘news’ that Baba and Baush will be joining the Congress on Monday. The mission statement got murdered, yet again.

As if not to be outdone, other newspapers followed suit and one paper had a Page 1 lead on Monday that said the home-coming was delayed. Ditto with the Miramar edition of the Old Lady of Boribunder, which gave the Babush-Baba re-entry event a timeline -- sometime after the upcoming session of the legislative Assembly session ends on December 21. Thankfully for our profession, the world’s largest newspaper, quoted the horse - Babush - saying this.

Let the 'Bs' come and go when the kingdom comes. Not a pin in this administration will move any faster or slower if it eventually happens (that's if pins actually move in this administration at all). Beats me how this bit of pure speculation repeatedly turns out to be 'news' in our dailies. In the Congress or outside, the 'Big B' from Taleigao and the 'Small (piqueno) B' from Valpoi will be part of Goa's political palate for many years to come, if only for the sheer colour of their money.
For the moment though, the NCP, for whose 'group of six' Baba seemed the pivot, will be left licking its wounds... unwanted by Big Brother to run its government in Goa.

It's best that these kiddish politicos are left alone on this political theatre. I'd borrow a line from Pink Floyd's 1980s 'Another brick in the wall' hit -- Hey journos, leave them kids alone!

Mickky’s ‘rape capital’
Tourism Minister, Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco, made the news last week for more reasons than his birthday celebrations. The 'enfant terrible' of the cabinet is apparently still not in talking terms with the CM, and so, he had to take his point across to Diggu through a letter -- that Goa could soon be touted the 'Rape Capital' of India - if he, the CM, does not set things right in the police department.The provocation obviously was the December 1-2 incident in which Mickky's tormentor at the 2007 assembly elections - John Fernandes - has been accused of raping a Russian. In normal course, John should have been arrested, and Mickky was reportedly hovering near the Colva police station, around the time the Russian filed her complaint. But it did not happen, perhaps because PI Edwin Colaco, who is said to be the minister's blue-eyed boy, was on leave and the case was being handled by Maina-Curtorim PI, Sidhant Shirodkar. And, when Edwin returned, he got just 12 hours on the case before it got transferred to the Crime Branch, which has a history with Mickky on the 'I-owe-the-casino and casino-owes-me' front!

So, the 'Rape Capital' of India letter makes the news even faster than the letter reaches the Chief Minister's office, with help from a fair and lovely young journo, who allegedly distributed copies to his journo mates at the behest of the Minister's office. Beats us why the overtly accessible OSD of the Minister couldn't officially dispatch the letters to newspaper offices!

Nevertheless, the letter per-se was a marvel from the tourism minister, except that it came a wee bit too late. Mahanand Naik had already made Goa the country's 'Rape-and-Murder Captial' months ago!

Churchill’s ‘white skin’ funda

Not to be outdone, Mickky's foe (or friend?) Churchill Alemao too made the headlines with his 'media is obsessed with white skin' remark. Clearly on the opposite side of the spectrum as Mickky on the Russian's rape episode, Churchill lambasted the media for what he called its penchant of hyping reportage of rape case where the victims are foreigners. Several rape case involving local victims get shunned to obscurity, he lamented.

But what from what Churchill said, perhaps caught the mind of the average Goenkar, the aam admi so to say, is his remark on the cultural invasion that tourism has forced on to the local populace, at least in the coastal belt. 'I have five daughters. They all come home from partying by 11 pm, max by mid-night. What are these girls doing in shacks at 2 and 4 in the morning?' was the elder Alemao's refrain. Certainly strikes a chord with the fifty-something and sixty-something Goans!