Well, hoping against Hope, the Divorce is well and truly done.
Whoever is to be blamed, it doesn’t matter for it takes two hands to clap, The two prominent—and only—faces of RG have spiralled conclusively to Splitsville and the RG family is like that kid in Kramer vs Kramer.
The family reaction is truly
WTF...
There will now be gloating, and multiple post-mortems dissecting and analyzing the split, and champagne and celebrations in the boardrooms and ballrooms of the vicious economic lobbies who are the champions of Goa's destruction to see the backs of these pesky revolutionaries who were out to spoil *THEIR* party.
Whether it is the Congress or the BJP, who for decades have played lip- service to Goa's land issues when in opposition, and then brought in legislation to facilitate the savage annihilation of Goa, or The GFP (led by a devious supremo) whose mission is How do we form the Government with the Congress or the BJP, Enough of Fatorda carnival fests.
Everyone, everyone is happy!!
They can now milk the populace on more pressing and existential issues.
Like search for "insults” to SFX or Lord Parshuram.
Exploit the perennially “hurt Goan sentiments” and keep Catholics and Hindus at each others throats and win their respective constituencies.
The bigger picture of saving Goa and fight for Swarajya is for a poor 70-year-old judge to do.
They will all latch on to the “Enough is Enough” sentiment till Election Time. Then, once in power, they will dismiss the good Judge with contempt.
That is the nature of the duplicitous, fork-tongued Goan political beast.
Coming back to RG then.
Knowing Manoj, Viresh and a host of other members, I will still swear by their integrity and passion for the Goan Land issues.
I do not doubt that even now.
I will say it again and again, much to the chagrin of my sanctimonious activist friends, as well as “the RG is a B team of BJP" political commentators,
RG was our best and last, absolutely last, hope for Goa.
So for me this split causes no Schadenfreude, but a feeling of total sadness and emptiness.
We are now descending the proverbial cliff.
We have slipped over the Edge.
There are just two observations I need to make.
All the activists, who smashed and crushed RG with their social media, posts and village gossip, what is the political formation that you are offering to the people of Goa??
We need to get out of that holier than thou bubble in which we live, galvanise protests for five years, and then hand over the keys of the Treasury to the very forces that are set to destroy Goa.
If this isn't schizophrenia then it certainly is hypocrisy posing as virtue.
And to Manoj and Viresh: let me give you an analogy. Goan politics is like Indian cinema.
The BJP is like Sholay, huge star cast, a production budget that is near endless, precision mathematical directors from up above, grand cinematography and musical effects.
The audience will go to see it in droves.
Congress is like Bajrangi Bhaijaan: modest budget, heart in the right place and a loveable buffoon who goes on yatra after yatra like Salman Khan.
It too has a sizeable audience, comprising Salman Khan fans and you cannot change the adulation they have for him.
RG was like a wonderful art film, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri and Shabana Azmi in the 80s, helmed by sensitive, sensible directors like Benegal and Nihalani.
Low budget, no special effect frills, but a script that was acted and directed with integrity and passion.
And it had a terrific audience that stood by them through thick and thin.
Most importantly, like RG, it had a purpose more than just entertainment.
And so, Manoj and Viresh, by putting up this appalling, arrogant, abysmal and atrocious family feud in full public view, the most important thing you forgot was
*THE AUDIENCE*
And in a democracy, it is always, always, always, the Audience that matters—
First and Last.
Not the movie.
BJP wants to engage a larger audience.
The Congress wants to woo its old audience back.
Goa Forward knows the value of an audience:
it has already started building bridges with its detractors.
AAP in Goa believes that Arvind is the only audience that matters.
And you RG, you have blown away an entire audience that believed in you, in a heartbeat of intrigue, pique and paranoia.
It is a Shakespearean tragedy as it unfolds, but I am convinced that RG is not the only loser in this.
The demise of Goa now is absolutely certain and cast in stone.
The legislators we will get in E-27 will be recycled stuff in different avatars, carrying out the outright sale and destruction of Goa with an even greater, venomous ferocity.
This is not being pessimistic.
This is not being fatalistic.
This is not being downbeat.
This is a f***ing fact.
GET USED TO IT.
*OSCAR REBELLO, GOA*