77-FOOT BRONZE LORD RAMA AT PARTAGALI MATH

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Uncategorized November 28, 2025 , by Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts and a few observations for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed the course of Indian history while hoisting the flag on the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The Ram Mandir symbolizes the new version of Indian history. It is intended to give a deep burial to Lord Macaulay and his history lessons.
To quote Modi, Ram is not a person but a value from a discipline and a direction. India must break free from the mentality of slavery and take pride in its own “civilisational” identity. What this implies in practice is that the Moghul era of Akbar the Great and Shah Jahan — the builder of the Taj Mahal — will be erased from history textbooks. LK Advani and his kar sevak who demolished the Babri Masjid will be hailed as heroes. The focus will be on Indian scientists like Ravana who developed Pushpak Vimana, not to mention of the founders of Aurveda like Dhanvantri and Charak who founded the ancient Indian system of medicine. Now rich tributes will be paid to Kautilya (also Chanakya) who was the Keynes of India who laid down the principles of economics. Not to forget the Arthashastra which contains the secret science of governance. We will throw out all Galileo because Indian astronomers knew their stars much before they were discovered by European astronomers.
Already the NCRP textbooks for children have shifted the focus to Chandragupta Maurya and the Rani of Jhansi and Pratapsingh. The stress will be now on local rulers though there may be a dispute about the great warriors of the south like the Rashtrakoota and the Pulleksi dynasties who colonized most of South-East Asia. The Hindi-Tamil divide will not be breached by Rama, as in the south they prefer Krishna, Lakshmi and their own gods like Murugan and Venkataswara of the famous Balaji temple.
Modi of course did not forget to acknowledge the contribution of the Sikhs paying homage to Guru Tej Bahadur on the 350th anniversary of his martyrdom in AAP-ruled Punjab.

‘LORD RAMA’ IN GOA
AND a few stray thoughts on Lord Rama who will soon tower over Goa. The Partagali Math which is sponsored by industrialist Shrinivas Dempo is sponsoring a 77-foot bronze idol of Lord Rama at the inauguration of the 3D project set up at the Partagali Math down south Goa in Canacona on Friday, Nov 28, 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the bronze Ram statue at the Partagali Math. It may be recalled that Shrinivas Dempo along with his entire family were present at the inauguration of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Also, Pallavi Dempo was the BJP candidate in the south Goa parliamentary seat.
As usual, it is ordinary pedestrians who will suffer when there is a major event in Goa. The south Goa collector, Cleetus, who is the wife of the Chief Secretary, has issued orders of road closures, diversions and traffic arrangements to manage any traffic congestion. The collector has also banned excavation of roads throughout south Goa.
We hope she will also extend the ban on excavation of roads in north Goa and Panjim. There will also be a weeklong public devotional concert between Nov26 to Dec7 at the Partagali Math. This will include Anup Jalota (Nov 27), Shankar Mahadevan (Nov30), Neeladhari Kumar (Dec5) and Maiteri Thakore (Dec6). There will be a Naandi Darshan by Goan Saraswat temples on Dec2 on the day before the annual feast day of St Francis Xavier.

SET UP TIGER RESERVE!
AND a few stray thoughts on the Supreme Court directive to set up the tiger reserve in Goa within the next three months. The SC had directed the Central Empowered Committee to facilitate the setting up of the tiger reserve at the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary. The CEC has recommended that initially the reserve should be notified at the Netravali wildlife sanctuary over 211 sq kms and the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary (85.7 sq kms) which will be the core of the proposed tiger reserve. Subsequently the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife sanctuary (69.9 sq kms) and Bhagwan Mahavir National Park (107 sq kms) should be notified as a buffer zone. The State government of course is not willing to accept the directive of the SC.
In an evasive tactic Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant claimed that the government had not received the report. The Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Dessai insists that it would lead to large scale displacement of the tribal population residing in the areas demarcated for tiger reserve.

ZILLA PARISHAD PROBLEMS
AND a few stray thoughts on the forthcoming zilla parishad elections facing major problems. It may be recalled that the Election Commission has announced reservations for women and other backward classes for the zilla parishad elections. A petition has been filed in the high court challenging the reservation of constituencies in north Goa for the zilla parishad elections. The Goa State Elections Commission urged the court to issue the order before Nov28 to enable the conduct of the ZP elections.
All the opposition parties have come together to fight the BJP in the zilla parishad elections. The reservation for women and OBC will force many of the male parishad members to drop out, though they are trying to get their wives to contest on their behalf. The reservations will have a major impact on the elections. The OBC population in north Goa is 33.9% while in south Goa it is 23.9%. There are 25 ZP seats each north and south Goa. The number of seats allotted to OBCs in the north is 6.9 percent, in south Goa 20 percent will go to women and other OBCs.

UNFRIENDLY IFFI VENUES!
AND A few stray thoughts on IFFI venues not accessible to the disabled community despite Goa spending huge amounts of money on the recently held Purple Fest, and even at the ESG offices. The disabled have no easy access. The founder president of the Disability Rights Association of Goa (DRAG) Avelino D’sa has protested about lack of reserved parking spots for disabled at IFFI venues.
To quote D’sa, “The North Goa Collectorate has notified reserved spaces for persons with disabilities under the Motor Vehicles Act at the Maquinez Palace at INOX complex, but persons with disabilities are not allowed to park in the reserved space.

FILMSTAR DHARMENDRA TRIBUTES
NOVEMBER 25 at IFFI venue was devoted to commemorating the memory of filmstar Dharmendra who passed away at the age of 89 years in Mumbai. I recall two incidents involving the late “garam Dharam” as his fans like to call him. The star came to Bombay having won a contest conducted by “Filmfare”, a magazine belonging to the Times of India Group.
Dharmendra called the managing director JC Jain on his personal phone as he had been advised to. Now JC Jain had a very squeaky girlish voice and an impatient Dharmendra yelled over the phone that he wanted to speak to JC Jain and not his secretary. I was there at the Eve’s Weekly Group offices in Bombay then which was also coming out with the “Star & Style” magazine and remember how the story made the rounds of an incensed Dharmendra chasing veteran film journalist Deviyani Chaubal all around the Bombay Race course and assaulting her – for writing about his affair with film star Hema Malini, at a time when it was all hush hush and top secret.

GOANS VICTIMS OF CYBER FRAUDS
AND a last stray thought for yet another Saturday. Goans seem to be the major victims of cyber frauds. In the latest instance the Goan senior citizen living in Panjim was reportedly defrauded of Rs4.7crore by a Suraj Savat, a resident of Maharashtra. Apparently, the accused, using a WhatApp number and a UTube channel impersonated a reputed investment firm. The accused allured the complainant into investing in a fake listed initial public offer scheme. Curiously, the police have not mentioned the name of the victim, presumably out of fear that he may be victimized by the Income Tax Department.
In the recent past there have been eight other cyber fraud cases across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat and Goa for a cumulative amount of over A a whopping Rs100 crore.