THE 42nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was inaugurated at Ravindra Bhavan in Margao - Chief Minister Digamber Kamat’s constituency - on Wednesday, November 23 without the usual confusion and chaos that has marked inaugural ceremonies in the past. Not only was the venue spruced up at a cost of a mere Rs 11 crore as against the Rs 40-odd crore spent on the renovation of the Kala Academy for the first two editions of IFFI held in Goa, the cultural programme was a seamless capsule of India’s rich cultural heritage. Among the highlights was an on-the-spot portrait by a Goan artist of the lifetime achievement award winner Bertrand Tavernier. For a change, protesters, who had lined up demanding a change in the dates of the film festival that now clash with the novenas and feast day of St Francis Xavier, were handled with kid gloves. Apparently the protest registered on the Union Minister for Broadcasting Ambika Soni, who in her speech at the inauguration, promised to take up the issue with the international body which creates time slots for international film festivals worldwide.

THE INCUMBENT president of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Manguirish Raikar, has been accused of upholding the dubious traditions of the former president of the GCCI, Nitin Kunkolienkar. It has now been revealed that Manguirish Raikar has allegedly offered to get a 20,000 sq m plot of land for a computer software company at the market rate, which is more than 10 times the rate at which the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) officially allots land. The plot that Manguirish Raikar allegedly offered to the software company is among the many plots that have been identified as underutilised by the committee appointed by the government to probe allotment scams by the GIDC board, of which Blaise Costabir is a member.

THE ECONOMIC Survey reveals that the net sown area in the year 2006-07 (which means net cultivable land) was 1,37,039 hectares comprising 37.95% of Goa’s total area of 3,61,113 hectares. The Economic Survey for 2006-07 showed the area where multiple crops were harvested was 35,069 hectares comprising 9.71% of the total area. The gross cropped area, which is synonymous with cultivable land, was shown as 1,72,108 hectares or 47.66% of the total land area of the state. The total area under cultivation, as per the Regional Plan 2021 is less than an average of 5% for the entire state of Goa. Clearly, it is the land sharks who have gobbled up all the cultivable land in the state of Goa. The historical presumption that Goa is a green paradise is no longer true because more than 55% of Goa is urbanized, which implies that there are only concrete jungles and very little real jungles in the state of Goa.

THE WRITING on the wall is clear. The mining industry in Goa is sinking. Along with the sinking mining industry ship, the politicians who had been involved in mining themselves or have been extending patronage and protection to the mining industry also face the prospect of drowning along with the mining industry. An indication of the impending decline if not the demise of the mining industry are the results of the second quarter and six months unaudited consolidated results of Sesa Goa Ltd, the largest mining company in the state. Sesa Goa has reported that for the six months ending September 30, 2011, iron ore sales were 1.55 million tonnes as compared with 1.82 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year. The company has acknowledged that during the second quarter of the financial year July to September, iron ore production was 1.12 million tonnes as compared with 2.88 million tonnes in the corresponding period due to the ban on mining in Karnataka announced on August 26, 2011. In Goa, the company exported only 0.83 million tonnes of iron ore in the second quarter and 3.98 million tonnes of ore in the first six months of the financial year as compared with 0.92 million tonnes and 4.71 million tonnes in the corresponding period, last year. Consequently, Sesa Goa has reported a decline of profits before tax of 94% in the last quarter and 37% during the first six months ending September 30, 2011 as compared to last year.

I had the tragic experience of covering one of the strangest wars in history: the march of 4,000 unarmed satyagrahis into Goa on August 15, 1955. Satyagraha, the marvelous tool used by Mahatma Gandhi first in South Africa and developed here in In­dia against the British, was never before used on an international scale. But on August 15, for the first time in history, satyagraha was directed by the nationals of one nation against the governor of another.
Before beginning my story of my experiences inside Goa, let me explain that I went to Goa as a freelance journalist for several American and European periodicals. While some foreign journal­ists had their way paid from Karachi to Goa by the Portuguese gov­ernment and were their guests while there, I paid my own trans­portation from Bombay to Goa and return. However, I accepted their offers of free transportation inside Goa, but otherwise paid all my bills myself. While transportation facilities were thus put at my disposal-and also guide-translators-in fairness, I must state that I was free to move about in Goa with or without transporta­tion, with or without a guide-translator.
However, the limitations of nature (jungle and roads) and of time made my tours fairly circumscribed. Also, since it is obvious–in­side as outside–that it is a police state, I chose not to place Goans in jeopardy by visiting them and thus I could not at all times use the freedom of the country which technically I and the other mem­bers of the press were given, at least on August 14-16.

Yes, basically illegal mines work only because they have a lot of money. Mining is like extracting gold because you spend nothing and get huge profit. Say for example, a truckload of mineral ore containing 15-16 tonnes can fetch you anywhere upto Rs 25,000 profit. So obviously everyone is interested in making money. You can make money if you can extract immediately. Now who will stop illegal extraction? Is it the Police, Department of Mines or Department of Forests? Those who are controlling these departments themselves are involved in illegal mining or those who are very close to them are. Obviously it is going to be…a scam! It is bound to happen! It is political patronage with corruption in bureaucracy…

The civilizing mission of the Portuguese colonial regime in collaboration with the Church comprised forcing Goans to wear suits in 40 degs Celsius, encouraged them to drink and smoke, and increase their cholesterol levels by gorging on pork vindaloo and bebinca.

ON FRIDAY, I telephoned the leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar, who was till recently the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee which has exposed the illegal mining scam in Goa. Since the Honorable Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Pratap Singh Raoji Rane refused to allow the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Manohar Parrikar, to table the report following the refusal of three Congress members and one MGP member of the committee to sign the report, it has not been made public. Indeed Speaker Pratapsingh Raoji Rane, compounding the felony as it were, by sacking Manohar Parrikar from his position as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and appointed in his place Vijay Pai Khot, the MLA from Canacona who is expected to join the Congress. Since there was no way I could officially get a copy of the Public Accounts Committee report which exposed the illegal mining scam, I decided to ask Manohar Parrikar, the author of the report, to give me a copy.

WHILE the event managers of the Congress party in Delhi, including Sonia Gandhi and her political advisor Ahmed Patel and junior executives like the Congress party observer for Goa, Jagjit Singh Brar, are preparing for the mega Battle of the Bands, various band leaders and Djs are shouting hoarse for attention. The bands and the DJs are competing with each other to draw attention of the event managers of their skills to make the Goan voters dance to their tunes. Even as various band leaders are shouting from the rooftops about how they are best equipped to band bajao the BJP, veteran Goan pied pipers have began to protest over young upstarts and outsiders threatening to sideline the veterans who claim that they have not lost their touch and can give the new band leaders and DJs a run for their money.

FOR ALMOST a month now, a former personal security officer (PSO) has been hounding me for a job as excise inspector in the Directorate of Excise. Apparently he has tried twice in the past and, despite passing the written exam and doing well in the interview, he has not been selected because he was not able to raise the amount of Rs 25 lakh demanded as a bribe by the job ‘broker’. Which is incidentally considered an extremely remunerative and profitable job as the excise inspector, who is supposed to check the production and the excise paid by the liquor industry, can earn — through illegal gratification — over a lakh of rupees a month. My former PSO is aware that I know the Excise Commissioner P S Reddy, who has been promoted to the Indian Administrative Services cadre, fairly well. My former PSO tells me in a whisper that he has just managed to sell part of his ancestral property and, therefore, has enough money to pay for the post of excise inspector.