In the war to save Goa from the avarice of builders and profit-seeking entrepreneurs, the force seems to be on the side of the good guys.

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

Peaceful resistance, the latter’s only weapon, is making steady inroads

Peaceful is an adjective that is often used to describe laid-back Goa. So an uprising isn’t an act that is quite in keeping with the serene spirit of the tiny coastal state. But what if the uprising happens to be peaceful? Well, then it would be different. It indeed is.

This isn’t about armed Maoists of the Red Corridor, agitating villagers of Niyamgiri Hills or angry farmers up in arms against land acquisition in the boondocks of Uttar Pradesh. In the tourist hotspot of Goa, anger is frequently parlayed into song and even a litany of woes has a lilt all its own.

So, in this sun-kissed, sea-lashed coastal state where life is primed to float into susegad mode at every opportunity, a successful civil society mutiny against the attack of land sharks and their political backers has demonstrated that an all-out war can be waged without resorting to physical violence.

As cineastes attending the 41st International Film Festival of India in Panaji’s Old GMC Heritage Precincts savoured a sampling of world cinema and swigged draught beer – it was, of course, rather difficult to tell what held the greater appeal – a tectonic shift was taking place in Goa. And Dr Oscar Rebello, who was until recently the face of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA), had reason to rejoice. So did the residents of the villages of Lautolim, Verna, Sancoale and Kerim.

On November 26, the Bombay high court in Goa upheld the state government’s decision to scrap its SEZ policy and quashed the allotment of land to several SEZ promoters by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC). This ruling signalled the death-knell of the contentious Regional Plan 2011, which had triggered the Goa Bachao Abhiyan in 2006-2007 with Dr Rebello as its convenor.

GBA received instantaneous support from a cross-section of Goans determined to save their state from being turned into a concrete jungle by greedy builders. “The campaign was propelled by the people. It was purely non-political. We did not want the movement to be hijacked,” says Dr Rebello.

Earlier in November, Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat had, in letter and spirit, also accepted the draft Regional Plan 2021, drawn up by a task force spearheaded by architect Charles Correa, town planning expert Edgar Ribeiro and Dr Rebello. On November 24, a ban on all construction in Eco Zone-I and strict regulation of development in Eco Zone-II, as enunciated by the task force, took effect all across the state, beginning with formal notifications for Pernem and Canacona.
Goa’s most popular musician and singer, Remo Fernandes, lent the power of his voice to the agitation when, at a massive public rally in Panaji’s Azad Maidan in 2006, he strummed his guitar and spewed fire: ‘Hey minister, I see your desire/I see that your loins are on fire/Please don’t violate your mother/Please don’t violate my mother’. The following year, Fernandes turned down a state government award in protest against the Regional Plan 2011 and requested the state to donate the prize money to GBA.

In the end, this was a completely bloodless insurrection. The will of the people triumphed. On his blog, an elated Dr Rebello wrote: “The week that lapsed must be a golden week for Goa. The SEZs were given a decent burial... and the Regional Plan 2021 finally left its womb (unaborted and undeformed) to chart out a brave new path for this innocent little lamb standing for slaughter by the Arabian Sea.”
But no movement in India can be without its share of controversy. Konkani filmmaker Rajendra Talak, whose newest film, O Maria, addresses the question of land ownership, says: “The movement is going in one direction... My case is that development of the state should not stop. But yes, we need sustainable growth.”

Talak emphasises the need for better transportation facilities. “Merely fighting the builders’ mafia won’t do. We must aim for all-round development of the state’s economy,” adds the director whose previous film, Aleesha, dealt with the theme of mining and its long-term impact on Goa.

Accepting that there is bound to be some carping about the road map that RP 2021 has laid out for Goa, Dr Rebello, who quit as the convenor of GBA last year, asserts that “a balance between environmental concerns and economic exigencies is essential for any plan to succeed in the long run”.

Sitting in his clinic in the heart of Panaji Municipal Market, Dr Rebello says: “The Regional Plan 2021 could serve as a model for the rest of the country.” And what a model it would be! It bears testimony to the fact that peaceful resistance can do the trick against corrupt politicians and greedy builders.

Emotions ran high when the Regional Plan 2011 was notified in 2006. The plan went against the wishes of Goans and sought to open prime forest land, ecologically sensitive mangroves and coastal regulation zones to unbridled urbanisation. The people raised their voices and sang angrily in protest. Not a shot was fired, not a stone pelted and not a life lost. Within a year, the government was forced to put its land allotment policies on hold and set up a task force to make recommendations acceptable to the people of the state.

All this happened under the provisions of the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Indian Constitution, which make it mandatory for any plan of long-term public import to be circulated among the people for their endorsement before being adopted and implemented.

In RP 2021, the wishes of the people have been incorporated. “Every square inch of the Goan landmass, down to the last detail, has been mapped. Every hill, valley, forest, water body, paddy field, orchard, road and mine has been put on the map to prevent manipulation. Any violation can now be detected and severely punished,” says Dr Rebello.

The new plan envisages the creation of alternate economic thrust areas connected by road and rail links. As Dr Rebello puts it, “People need jobs to survive. They can’t surely sustain themselves on love, fresh air and moribund economic theories...”
Congress MP from Goa, Shantaram Naik, has since met Union commerce minister Anand Sharma and sought denotification of the three SEZs against which the Bombay high court has ruled – one each in Verna (24 lakh sq meters), Sancoale (2 lakh sq meters) and Kerim (12 lakh sq meters).

Addressing a rally, Remo Fernandes had once said with characteristic eloquence: “Everyone comes to Goa. They fall in love with Goa. They want to buy Goa.” But Goa isn’t for sale anymore.

So is the battle to save Goa finally over? Yes. But the war isn’t. Just a year shy of the 50th anniversary of its liberation from the Portuguese, Goa is seeking freedom from those who, given half a chance, would happily sell the state. It is easy to see why politicians are such a hated lot here.

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