DR OSCAR REBELLO 23rd Jan 2025
THE BAHUSAHEB LEGACY
I do not know whether you are into the controversy or not. But recently, my good friend Venzy Viegas of Benaulim compared current CM Pramod Sawant to the illustrious Bhausaheb Bandodkar, founding father of modern- day Goa.
The equivalent of comparing Donald Trump with Abraham Lincoln.
Predictably everyone added their own ingredients to the souffle.
Vijay Sardesai made disparaging remarks about Bhau and Goa's Asmitai.
Sawant got riled up, heaven knows why?
And social media was all lit up.
So, using this backdrop, I thought it prudent to dissect Bahu's legacy.
๐ Venzy Viegas
He is much like the cowboy in the salon.
Shoots first.
Asks questions later.
One understands he wanted to hug Pramod, for being nice to an AAP MLA (when is a BJP CM ever nice to anyone in the opposition?).
But then to go overboard and compare him to Bhau , was a disaster he unwittingly unleashed upon himself.
As political adversaries, please hug one another.
It's good for our social health.
But don't let the hug you are offering end up smothering yourself.
๐ Vijay Sardessai.
Ever the political opportunist and Fisherman-in-Chief (in troubled waters), he jumped up and said both Sawant and Bhau were inimical to Goa’s Asmitai.
He needs every one of this Asmitai vote, at any cost, now that Damu Naik, his bete noire, is straddling Goa—let alone Fatorda.
Whatever else, Vijay is the classic politician:
Goa one step forward,
Two steps Backward,
As the situation demands.
๐Pramod Sawant.
Many tell me that the only reason Pramod remains in the saddle is because he is affable and accommodative, and not as vindictive as his ilk are prone to be.
But someone must tell him before he builds a statue for himself.
Sir,
You are not Bhau.
No way,
Not by a mile,
Not by a patch,
Not in a million years!!
Bhau built Goa.
The government, under your watch, has destroyed Goa.
End of Argument!!
As for the Asmitai folk (and l was fed a healthy diet of don panna through my youth and formative years), this is the reality check.
Bhau was, is, and forever will be, the Nelson Mandela of Goa.
Without any rancour to the vanquished Portuguese, and without firing a single bullet, he lifted an entire Bahujan Samaj generation out of their poverty and illiteracy.
Poverty and illiteracy that was inflicted upon them by the Portuguese and the land-holding, suave and usually obese elites from both the Christian and Hindu community
(the big champions of Asmitai, if you will).
So when you speak of Socialism and Secularism, and breaking down caste hierarchies, Bhau did it in his inimitable style, without hurting anyone.
Of course he batted for Marathi because that was the language and culture the dispossesed Bahujan Samaj clung to for centuries, to keep their flame alive.
And he gracefully accepted the verdict of the Opinion Poll, when it went against him.
What is to be noted in the current context, however, is that neither Bhau nor Jack ever dreamt of putting Goa up for sale and endorse the savage destruction of this little Land of Ours.
Something every scandalous, duplicitous, scumbag of a politician of the present generation do on a regular basis, all the while feigning to be caretakers of the legacy of Bhau and Jack.
Without Remorse,
Without Heart,
Without Soul.
I have this one, very humble suggestion (though you could never accuse me of humility) for the families and well-wishers of Bhau and Jack.
Both their homes, where they ignited and dazzled their respective political careers, still stand intact today.
One in Altinho.
One in Campal.
Can one urge their families to lend a few of those rooms to a truly world-class museum, detailing the lives, the exploits, the heartbreaks and the triumphs of these two 24-karat heroes of Goa??
Ours is the one and last generation with accomplished historians at our disposal who could curate these two highly personal and historical museums we can genuinely call our own.
Enough of the statues—that have become more a resting place for crows, with an occasional political crow climbing it once a year to garland it.
Goa as we knew it is doomed and gone.
Wake up to it!!
So, everytime we get despondent and depressed, these museums could be our to-go sanctuary sites, to ponder, reflect and perhaps weep
over the Goa that might have been, and what these two sterling sons of the soil imagined what it may have been.
DR OSCAR REBELLO
GOA