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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