New Role For Rajinikanth
ALL eyes are on legendary Tamil film actor Rajinikanth, who has announced that his party would contest all the 234 seats in the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly elections. Rajini has cleverly cultivated a goody-goody image for himself in Tamil films after an initial struggle which saw him don villainous roles. The multilingual Rajini is seen as a clean and pious man. His uncountable roles as a common man taking on the establishment have kept him in people’s good books. He should hope to encash on people’s goodwill. The man who ruled Tamil cinema for decades together has deciphered the fact that he is no MGR or Jayalalithaa, whose demigod status was ‘unreplicable’ as much as they were unbeatable. All that is passé now. The popular cinestar has to play the caste politics with aplomb. His team selection has to be flawless. Rajini has disclosed his ‘spiritual’ bent of mind that has sent tongues wagging. Then there is the eternal issue of ‘coalition politics’. Can he juggle with his new equations as astutely as he was known to do with his signature cigarette flip? But a veteran actor of his standing need not be told that politics is not hunky-dory and the profession requires meticulous planning and timely execution. The biggest advantage for Rajini is that the political situation in Tamil Nadu is quite fluid. The people of the state are peeved by corrupt ways and lust for power of politicians belonging to both the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK. The ‘brand Rajini’ of reel life should do encore in real life.
GANAPATHI BHAT, AKOLA
On Sardessai Clan
TENSING Rodrigues in his erudite articles on the Sardessais, published in the ‘Panorama’ of ‘The Navhind Times’, has made use of the manuscript left by the late Prof. Dr. Damodar Ramaji Nayak Pratap Rao Sardessai, an illustrious representative of the noble family Nayak Pratap Rao Sardessai from Bandora, Ponda. It would be good if Rodrigues gives information about the size and bulk of the manuscript and where it is found. Publication of the manuscript would be a welcome idea. One branch of the said family, led by Jivaji Nayak Pratap Rao Sardessai, became Catholic in the year 1592, with Jivaji assuming the name of Agostinho Diniz. He received baptism at Rachol Church, where his and his wife Isabel de Sousa’s remains lie buried, just in front of the altar ‘versus populo’ – a bit to the right of the one facing the altar. They donated the plot, where the seminary stands. Due to the plague which devastated Rachol, the Diniz family moved to and is now settled at Sonarvaddo, Raia. Antonio Diniz (if I am not mistaken) is the senior-most member of the family and lives at Fatorda.
FR. MOUSINHO DE ATAIDE, SALIGAO
Plight Of A Crusader
TRIBAL rights activist Fr Stan Swamy is being punished by an inhuman regime because he had the courage to empower the Adivasis and the marginalised people of our country. He has selflessly championed their causes especially their fight for justice and dignity. The incarceration of Fr Stan Swamy is a violation of human rights. This is the kind of inhuman treatment social activists get in India after the BJP came to power.
JUBEL D’CRUZ, MUMBAI
Height Of Political Arrogance
THE peaceful agitation of Indian farmers has thrown light on farmers themselves and their government masters who have the majority in Parliament. The agitation has been hailed as one of the biggest democratic protests in the world during the pandemic times. What was the need to push through these drastic new farm laws without discussion in the Parliament or a parliamentary committee deliberating on them? The farmers strongly feel that the three laws are more detrimental to them than the coronavirus pandemic. They gave notice to government for strike, but the government ignored them. So they marched peacefully to Delhi, thousands of them. At state borders, government officials tried to prevent them from marching farther, using barbed wires and barricades. When that did not work law enforcement officials used water cannon and tear-gas shells on mostly elderly farmers, including women, in the bitter winter cold. I do not know what type of electoral democracy this is, where all the watchdogs seem to have turned into lapdogs! Opposition parties have become irrelevant. Coming to Goa, the High Court has mercifully quashed the construction licence issued for the Tamnar power transmission project. One illegality after another has played out in the Mollem wilderness: TCP Quepem technically clears the project, and the sarpanch has no power to issue licences. But the sarpanch does it without adopting a resolution at the gram sabha for such a big environmentally destructive project. The Mollem panchyat members were not consulted. It amazes me as to how the government can ride roughshod over all checks and balances and take the courts for granted these days.
JOHN ERIC GOMES, PORVORIM