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STALWARTS STILL FIGHTING FOR GOAN ASMITAI!
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STALWARTS STILL FIGHTING FOR GOAN ASMITAI!

Jan 10- Jan 16, 2025, Stray Thoughts January 9, 2026 , by

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Konkan-speaking people of Goa expressed their anguish and anger over the loot and plunder going on in Goa courtesy politicians in collusion with builders. For a Saturday following the week when on the painful reaction of Talulah d’Silva, the veteran architect, over the remarks of Padmashri Norma Alvares at the new Goa Bachao meeting held on Tuesday (Jan 6, 2026). For a Saturday following the week when on the total insensitivity of the ruling BJP government to the loot and plunder of Goa.
 AND a few stray thoughts on when the Konkan-speaking people of Goa expressed their anguish and anger over the loot and plunder going on in Goa courtesy politicians in collusion with builders. The meeting convened by Justice Ferdino Rebello brought back a flood of memories, triggered by the people on the dais and in the audience.
Judge Ferdino Rebello and I go back a long way. We first met at the Club Vasco da Gama which was then the watering hold of the professionals and niz Goenkars. Ferdino’s office was quite close to the Herald offices where I was working in the heritage Latin Quarters of now Fontainhas district. Ferdino would come to the Confidant Advertising office which also had a video library. Ferdino and I with Vero Nunes, the owner of the Bambolin Beach Resort, would meet almost every evening at his flat at Preci Building at Mala. To watch the late night and early morning football matches.
Ferdino Rebello, the lawyer, represented me in the first contempt of court case I had to face. A Prof Ann Menezes teaching in the St Xavier’s College in Saligao was facing issues with the panchayat. She wrote a letter to the editor of the “Herald” which was published under the heading “Justice Goan-Style.” A hypersensitive high court judge, the late Gustav Couto, took offence and thought that I was casting aspersions on the judiciary of Goa. Never mind that I had nothing to do with the heading which was given by one of my sub-editors and which I thought was innocuous.
Justice Gustav Couto initiated a suo moto contempt of court against me since I was the editor of the Herald then. What do you mean by “justice Goan-style”? Is Goan justice inferior to justice by other courts in the country? Ferdino Rebello tried his best to convince Judge Gustav Couto that we were not even referring to the judiciary, we were just reproducing the opinion of a respectable professor against the functioning of her village panchayat. Gustav Couto was unrelenting.
In his judgment Gustav Couto was willing to forgive Prof Ann Menezes as she was a lay person and may not be aware of the nuances of law and justice. But in a 20-page judgment he declared me “a habitual contemnor” and forced me to apologize to the court and in the newspaper. My lawyer Ferdino consoled me pointing out that the truth was not a defense in contempt matters. Any comments on any judge was seen as a comment on the entire judiciary. Thereafter Ferdino Rebello and I spent many evenings together and fought many battles together, including the Konkani agitation in 1987.
We were all happy when he was elevated as a judge of the Bombay high court. I lost contact with him because he moved to Bombay. However, he was gracious enough to attend the mini-reception given by me at the Holiday Inn in Juhu following my marriage to Pankajbala Tara Patel in 2001.
THE sight of Rohit Desai, the 80 years plus freedom fighter on the dais at the thunderous “Enough is Enough” meeting at the Menezes Braganza Hall on January 6, 2026 also brought back fond memories. Rohit was very low-profile despite being a revered freedom fighter of Goa. His brother Moti Desai, who was an office bearer of the Congress party and close to Luizino Faleiro was much better known publicly. Rohit Desai, popularly called “Dad,”used to visit a small bar in one of the bylanes of theMunicipal garden where the Herald offices were than located. It used to be our refueling station after working hours in the evenings for a quick drink. Later of course we shifted base to the Clube Vasco da Gama; Dad was a fund of information on the Liberation struggle of Goa. Dad spent 14 years in Aguada Jail for protesting against the Portuguese government. It was much later that his sons and nephews set up the iconic Ritz Classic restaurant first in Panjim and subsequently at the Panjim Gymkhana. Recently, Dad also opened a branch of the Ritz Classic in Calangute. It was good to see him going strong at the meeting to express the anger of the Goan people.
 Amongst the other golden oldies were the perennially young 80 years old plus Lata and Aravind Bhatikar; the present generation may not know that Aravind Bhatikar is a veteran of the Opinion Poll going back to 1967. Immediately after Liberation there was tremendous pressure both from Karnataka and Maharashtra to merge Goa with either state. The pressure intensified with the formation of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party by a group of politicians from Maharashtra including YB Chavan, the then home minister in Delhi and VP Naik who was the chief minister of Maharashtra.


Aravind Bhatikar, who had just passed his Masters in economics from the Bombay University, had picked up a job as a lecturer in the Dhempe College of Arts & Commerce in Panjim. Which is where he met his lifetime companion, Lata Panvelkar, who later became his wife. She belonged to one of the big Bhatkar (landlord) families of Raibandar. Lata derives her name from Paneli which is a part of Raibandar.
The Opinion Poll intervened and Aravind Bhatikar was virtually sacked from the Dhempe College for actively participating in the movement against merger during the Opinion Poll years. The Dempos at that time were sympathetic to the demand for merger with Maharashtra. Aravind and Lata had decided to marry each other. Aravind, however, had earlier told Lata he would marry her only if he managed to get into the IAS. Aravind is one of the first few Goans who passed the very competitive Indian Administrative Service exam. He and Lata married and since he had opted for the Tamilnadu cadre he had to move to Chennai for more than two decades. In the process, both Aravind and Lata learned to speak fluent Tamil, which is a requirement if you’re assigned to the state cadre.
Lata used the opportunity of Aravind Bhatikar being posted as Collector of Vellore to pick up a degree in counseling and subsequently wrote a book called “Mothering & Smothering” in Konkani which the “Goan Observer” published in English translation by Lata Bhatikar. Aravind was one of the first persons to support the “Goan Oberver” when it was launched in 2003 and was the chairperson of the board of the company.
Aravind and Lata continue to be active in their 80s now writing and translating books in Konkani and English. The couple were declared as the “First Couple of Konkani” by Audhut Timblo while presiding at one of the book launch functions. Even after the Pramod Sawant government was formed Aravind continued to write a column critical of the BJP
For the “Goan Observer” which was critical of the BJP. It was good to see him in his much loved signature bright red shirt with Lata at the new phase of a save Goa movement on January 6, 2026.

TALULAH D’SILVA RESPONDS TO NORMA
AND a few stray thoughts on the painful reaction of Talulah d’Silva, the veteran architect, over the remarks of Padmashri Norma Alvares at the new Goa Bachao meeting held on Tuesday (Jan 6, 2026). Norma while speaking on the subversion of the Regional Plan 2021 made a reference to “the new tribe of architects” who were used by builders and real estate lobbies to undermine RP2021.
Norma lashed out at the new architects who would provide the justification for cutting down a hill or filling up a pond on the client’s property. Norma, who has closely worked with Goan architects like Dean d’Cruz, who was the spirit behind the Goa Bachao Abhiyan agitation in 2006, did not mean to offend the dedicated Goan architects who have been committed to protecting Goa. Who in fact have been victims of the Town & Country Planning department minister, Vishwajit Rane.
The bitter ground reality is that far more farsighted Goan architects have been harassed and prosecuted by the TCP department and permission is not denied for their projects, and even to the extent of stopping the issuance of f NOCs and occupation certificates.
Tallulah herself conceded that a new tribe of architects from outside Goa and some within Goa have no scruples colluding with their wealthy clients buying real estate in Goa. She took pains to distance herself and other architects from the destruction of Goa which has been ongoing for some years now. She pointed out that the architect’s code of conduct obligated them to respect the environment and ecology of a coastal state like Goa. She further stressed that if architects colluded with builders to destroy Goa they would not be able to show their faces in Goan society. They would not put their parents and families to shame. Tallulah reiterated that all professionals both Goan and non-Goan should respect mother earth and protect father sky, the hills, lakes, beaches, wells, water bodies of Goa’s yet natural ecology.

LOOT AND PLUNDER OF GOA
AND a few stray thoughts on the total insensitivity of the ruling BJP government to the loot and plunder of Goa, which is reflected not only in the violation of the TCP act but also in the subversion of other departments like the Tourism department, and perhaps more importantly the Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services.
Nightclubs have been springing up in Goa in recent years masquerading as restaurants. Licenses for these illegal night clubs are being given by the panchayats and as also admitted by Michael and Delilah Lobo, MLAs of Calangute and Siolim, respectively. Moreover the panchayats are being pressurized into giving the nightclubs permissions without checking whether they have NOCs regarding fire safety systems in place. If the Birch by Romeo nightclub at Arpora had abided by fire safety norms, the inferno which claimed the lives of 25 plus people could have been avoided.
What is most shocking is that the nightclubs sealed post-inferno for functioning without NOC for fire safety were allowed to open for the Christmas and New Year season. This despite the very honest Director of Fire Services Nitin Raikar making it clear that they had not been given the green signal to re-open their nightclubs, shut down after a fresh inspection following the Arpora inferno. Even Chief Minister Pramod Sawant did not come to the defense of the Director of Fire Services. The ruling party BJP in Goa obviously believe that it can continue to take the people for granted.
Even thought recent agitations have forced the chief minister to backtrack on permissions given for filling up the Carambolim lake and the cutting down of a hill at Arambol. Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao is seeking to move a motion for discussion of the loot and plunder, going on in collusion with the TCP department, in the legislative assembly. The Goa Forward party too wants a discussion on the inferno in Arpora. Alas, the BJP has decided that a discussion on Vande Mataram is more important than the threat to the loss of Goa’s asmitai.

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