Freedom from hangover of Liberation

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Are we supposed to spit venom on Portugal and the people of Portugal at every sunrise and sunset to prove our patriotic credentials? Is Goa and India so weak that we need to be offensively aggressive under a perceived threat of the often used phrases like denationalization and de-culturalisation meant to incite and divide the people?

I know that pensioners have to produce a life certificate once every year. This is to testify they are living to enable disbursement of pension. In a similar fashion a few organizations or select members of the civil society keep trivial issues and buried skeletons alive by using the overpopulated media. This keeps them in public gaze and gives the vicarious satisfaction of espousing social or nationalist causes. On the other side, these are irritants in the struggle for freedom of speech and expression. They can also cause damage by projecting divisive and regressive agenda as ideals.

 Dum Maro Dum is just another Bollywood tamasha. Our activists indirectly accorded to it the status of Goa’s ambassador. The issue to espouse is the degeneration due to lop-sided tourism. A movie is another vehicle which communicates the malaise. Why should we flog the errand boy?

N. Shivdas is being thrashed by the well known women activists of Goa. I am told that the issue is a poem which is alleged to be derogatory to commercial sex workers. Here again, the issue to be addressed is the rights of sex workers for decent life and livelihood and not gun for a leaf of poetry.

A handful of (freedom) fighters have woken up again. They still feel that the liberation struggle is not over and we need to fight against whatever is Portuguese--------the language, the cultural organizations, the consulate and all that we have inherited.

They prefer to remain blind to the distinction between the colonial rulers and dictators of those times from the democracy in Portugual today. Their brains are paralyzed to understand that the fight for liberation was from colonial rule and denial of civil liberties. I know I should refrain but I am tempted to say that the class or caste of such freedom fighters is also a remnant of Portuguese rule that we have to live with.  They live in the past glory without drawing any lessons for the present and future. They cloud our literary and cultural freedom. They block mutual exchange and bonds of friendship with Portugal only on the ground that once upon a time a despot from Portugal colonized Goa and we were not young enough to join the struggle for liberation.

Are we supposed to spit venom on Portugal and the people of Portugal at every sunrise and sunset to prove our patriotic credentials? Is Goa and India so weak that we need to be offensively aggressive under a perceived threat of the often used phrases like denationalization and de-culturalisation meant to incite and divide the people?

I always believe that Shivaji or Aurangzeb were heroes or villains of those times and there is no point in taking the issue forward or castigating the present mortals as faithful descendents of those heroes or villains. The same holds true of the Portugese rule in Goa. This is the time of mutual exchange and mutual enrichment in all spheres of life across the globe with our foot firmly rooted to the soil.

 Undoubtedly, the struggle for liberation has to continue. Liberate politics as the easy and quick vehicle to amass a fortune. Liberate citizens from the politicians who steal their cream. Liberate the religion loving and god fearing from the preachers who say that for every Cross, we need a shrine and a mosque. Liberate parents from the indelible conviction that English language at primary stage of education will give our children the edge in the global market. And also liberate from the talukdari of the freedom fighters, if necessary.

I cannot end this without making a reference to the freedom fighter showing us one positive way, Gurunathbab Kelekar and the likes through the MARG.