VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 202 Date: 22.05.2017
Contents:
1.
Anointing Saints Et Al
2.
Chidambaran and Lallu Yadav Brought To Book
3.
Twin City Agreements With Panjim
4. HO-HO Buses Should Respect Ecology & Safety
Norms
Anointing Saints Et Al
The papers carried news the other day that the
Pope has anointed the three shepherd children who had seen the vision of Mother
Mary at Fatima in Portugal as saints. This brings to question whether just
being witness to a vision entitles you to be declared a saint. There are of
course stories that are created after the incident along with the evidence of
'miracle' cures to support the declaration of these children to be saints. In
all this process is the Christian religion not succumbing to superstition.
Christianity that was declared once as a simple faith has in modern times been
converted with all the trappings of religion with its associated institution of
pomp, grandeur, dogma and what have you to bind the faithful firmly in its
vicelike grip. One of my Christian friends had once commented that we Hindus
have some 64,000 gods in our pantheon. My reply was that our religion is an old
one and these come along associated with their legends to keep the flock
together. I had also told him that Christianity is a young religion and has to
play catch-up and in time will have its own pantheon filled with innumerable
lesser gods like the saints who are this day venerated as much as the principal
gods. This tendency seems to be the case in anointing the shepherd children as
saints by the Pope recently. In the same context, we have seen in Goa how
desecration of churches and wayside crosses are made a big issue of though in
the majority of cases it was found that deranged persons of sometimes even the
Christian faith responsible for such action. Where we stay there is a chapel
whose main gate has at its centre the representation of a cross when the gate
is shut while when the gate is opened the cross is split down the middle in
two. One would believe that the cross being one of the most important
symbols of Christianity should be in one piece.
Chidambaran and Lallu Yadav Brought To Book
The furore on the raids organised by the
law enforcement authorities on the kin of P Chidambaran and Lallu Prasad
Yadav makes for amusing reading. Implicit in their outrage is the fact that the
BJP has broken the golden rule that politicians are above the law. There was
some hint of this golden rule existing when senior Congress leader, Ghulam
Nabi Azad some time back had said
in a somewhat uptight manner that we did not do things like this when we
were in power. He was talking when Robert Vadera was hauled up in
connection with his irregular land and real estate deals in Haryana. The BJP
was bent upon throwing mud at Priyanka by trying to draw her into her
husband's wrongdoings. So, Mr Azad, were you trying to invoke the quid pro quo?
As for Lallu Prasad Yadav and corruption, they are common bedfellows for a
long time now with taints ranging from cows to fodder and what have you.
But what is surprising is that with the size of the deals involved of some
hundreds of crores of the Yadav family in and around Delhi, the patriarch Lallu
was at the forefront of the demand to raise MP's salaries. It was believed
then that being no longer in power at that time with JD(S) ruling the roost in Bihar,
Lallu Prasad Yadav then a MP was finding it difficult to make ends
meet since the 'upri aay' was no longer flowing in. One will have to
conclude in the light of the disclosure of the present assets of the Yadav
family that Lallu did not probably want to dig into his stash and would rather
have preferred to spend only out of his present earnings. The BJP needs to be
complimented in trying to bring these politicians and their kin to book for
whatever reason that they may be doing this since all politicians should
realise that the law is the same for everyone in this country.
Twin City Agreements With Panjim
Last week it was reported in the news that Panjim
was in the process of signing sister city status with Lishui of China.
Immediately upon reading this one felt odd that when our relations with China
are at its lowest ebb what with many issues like
China's territorial claim in Arunachal Pradesh, then about
the Dalai Lama and the latest with India officially boycotting the
meet on OBOR (One Belt One Road) meet at Beijing, Goa is taking a friendship
initiative. In this context Surendra Furtado, Mayor of Panjim is best advised
to check with the MEA before proceeding any further in signing of the
agreement with the Chinese city representatives. We should not
end up putting the country in an embarrassing position by this move. This is
more said since China plays a very devious foreign policy and actively seeks
brownie points like taking such initiatives that it can use in
international forums to show off its 'good' intentions. We should therefore not
have the Panjim Mayor walking into a carefully laid trap. Moreover one should
ask whether these twin cities arrangements get any benefit for Panjim city and
its residents except for some fleeting publicity for the officials involved.
Like in 2004 there was an arrangement with Cannes just prior to or after
holding the first IFFI in Goa. In fact if one remembers the key of Cannes was
ceremonially handed over to Manohar Parrikar, the then Chief Minister and
sitting Panjim MLA at that time. After that it was Singapore's turn and
now it is this city in China which few people have actually heard and Surendra
Furtado should verify whether a city like that exists because China
is quite capable of signing an agreement for a non-existent city and gleefully
enjoy themselves at the expense of Goa and India.
HO-HO Buses Should Respect Ecology & Safety
Norms
When we were returning today - 14th May
2017 from our Sunday morning walk from Miramar beach to the Panjim market,
we saw both sides of the D B Bandodkar Marg randomly dotted with similar
cut branches of trees. This has been ostensibly done to make way for the Hop On
- Hop Off (HO-HO) open deck - double decker buses that are being
introduced for the benefit of tourists. Considering that the tree branches will
endanger the safety of the top deck passengers we are told that the branches of
the trees on the route have been trimmed. This is completely irresponsible
since for the pleasure and benefit of humanity you go around cutting branches
of some of the old trees on the the D B Bandodkar Marg and maybe
other roads also. There must be some limit to man's greed and stupidity.
This is just one such instance where the GTDC should have known better.
To expect anything different from GTDC is rather remote since this was the very
same organisation which had asked the GCZMA recently for a blanket
clearance to hold tourism related events by the Mandovi riverside in Campal in
blatant disregard of current environment laws. The problem in Goa is that we
have this tendency to ape others like for the HO-HO buses since if London
has it and now Mumbai, why cannot Goa have it? This is not the right
approach since we should do something that is unique to Goa and just not copy
others. We could have introduced special ferry or cruise services that
connect the various tourist sites making this experience something different from
other tourist destinations. Even with the HO-HO buses GTDC to commence on
its eco-friendly initiatives could chosen routes that avoid cutting trees. Like
Campal could have been avoided and access to Dona Paula given via the
University Road. This would also have saved the added risk to the
passengers from low overhead wires carrying electricity. The problem with our
people is that they rarely think through a proposal before implementing and
then agonise on the problem for days on end. It is time that things changed
since with Manohar Parrikar at the helm of affairs surely the people expect a
more practical and efficient approach in doing things. Otherwise the HO-HO
buses true to their abbreviation can turn out to be a joke!
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