Mining policy: What’s in it for Goa's Aam Aadmi

In a week or two, when the cabinet meets again next, Goa will for the first time have a 'mining policy' after five decades of a handful of 'privileged few' having shovelled out more than half of the state's iron-ore rich soil. But at least better late than never, and to that extent, Digambar, who has the distinction of being Goa's 'Mines Minister' for eleven years on a trot since he first became minister in 1999, deserves a pat on the back for whatever the policy will be worth.

But then, what's in the mining policy for Goa's 'aam admi' who's Diggubab's favourite? Nothing but for dust in the breath and the taste of mud in the mouth! 'Jobs' the mine owners would scream. It's the 'back-bone' of the Goan economy the many mining-friendly politicos would second. An 'economy' which earns the State government peanuts if anything in taxes and royalty.

Not very long ago when economic liberalisation came to be heralded as the path to prosperity, many of the mining industry's captains here in Goa jumped on to this bandwagon. 'Corporatise' the government and its functioning to meet the challenges of economic liberalisation, was their refrain at the many GCCI-sponsored seminars and talks. Can we ask them now, almost two decades later, to do the same through the 'mining policy'? 'Corporatise' all of Goa's private limited mining companies. Throw them public in a semi-nationalisation mode with the state compulsorily holding a stake. Will anyone in the cabinet give this a thought and propose for incorporation in the 'mining policy' that it will ratify at the next meet. After all there's been enough of private profit for these five decades and more from the natural resources of Goa, perhaps the only state of India where iron-ore mining is 100 per-cent privatised, thanks in a way to the legacy of the Portuguese!

Can Carnival shed politics?

There always is so much brouhaha before, during and after carnival about carnival, that every year the event itself turns out to be a damp squib. There sure is a whole load of colour, splendour, music, dance, legs and off course tonnes of money to make for the many 'stake-holders' but it just does not have that 'oomph' it used to once have. The zing, which used to come with the spontaenity of Goans' participation in Carnivals of yore, is extinct. The result: floats that espouse politically correct green messages but in most cases put up or sponsored by the very perpetrators of atrocities against Mother Earth. The hypocrisy oozes.

For instance, there was this float sponsored by the 'eco club' of a blue-chip IT company from where an announcer kept ranting eco messages such as: 'Save trees' and 'Do not cut trees'. Cool. But as the float kept rolling along the DB Marg, it had for its backdrop this huge monstrosity jutting out of the lush green Betim hill on the other bank of the Mandovi. Incidentally, this monstrosity was built on the pulp of hundreds of trees by the Housing arm of this blue-chip IT firm's parent company. It's this hypocrisy that carnival has come to personify these last few years that's robbed the festival of the 'oomph' it once possessed.

Perhaps if all the bench-strength po-li-ti-ci-ans that go to make up the organising committees of carnival in the major cities are ejected then the festival could limp back to its past glory. For, as Remo's famous lyric goes, Po-li-ti-ci-ans donno rock 'n' roll!

Skipped the show

The names of the guys who make headlines every now and then chasing butterflies, snakes and frogs are conspicuously missing from the attendance rolls at the best chance Goa had till date to give the tiger his due. With attempts being made by two powerful Sattari satraps and a top forest department official to put Goa's most respected wildlide conservationist Rajendra Kerkar in the dock as an 'abettor' in the tiger poaching case, not one of the so-called greens have flexed their green thumbs to save Goa's only legit avtar of Sunder Lal Bahuguna. Stores selling organic food & coir mats or taking lessons on garbage management from some random 'berg' in Sweden may not be Kerkar's cup of tea but the man has red earth and probably a torn blade of grass stuck between his thumbnail and the coarse flesh beneath it.

As for the snakes who masquerade as greens, perhaps its time to go after them with stick-and-drum and chase them out from the weeds into the clear... for all to see.

Austerity? What’s that?

On New Year's eve, Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad was seen all red-faced at the Delhi airport. The reason? He was taking a flight to Goa business class. No reason to be red-faced though, except that his boss and his boss's mom -- Sonia Gandhi and Mama Paula Maino -- were also on the same flight, flying economy. Embarassing indeed for Azad, specially when the austerity measures imposed by UPA-II and Sashi Tharoor's 'cattle class' tweet, were in the news.

A similar scene happened on the same Delhi-Goa route last week at the Dabolim airport. Except that this time, the man who should have been embarassed, wasn't.

Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira was flying to Delhi on an Indian flight. Sharing the plane with him was Information and Publicity Secretary, Narendra Kumar, but they didn't meet or greet. For, the former flew economy and the latter was way in front -- business class. All at Diggubab's favourite aam admi's cost!