Edit - Herald
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has triggered a hornet’s nest with his statement on the floor of the House that Matanhy Saldanha was convinced that Mopa airport was needed for the State. The chief minister, if he expects universal public acceptance for this statement, may be in for a disappointment.
Ironically, though, Parrikar's statement may well be happily welcomed by the Opposition as the Mopa airport plan was initiated by local Congressmen and there are vested interests who will always fall silent because an airport at Mopa would mean a huge increase in valuation of landholdings in the vicinity, even for those with mokaso land!
The truth is that Matanhy was dead against Mopa. He foresaw that Goa’s over-development would sound the death knell of Goan identity. He even termed the airport plan as a "land scam" wherein builders were eyeing the project to build structures for migrants.
A year has gone by without Matanhy. Among those for whom power is an end in itself, Matanhy well may have been condemned as a failed politician. Many wrote him off as a disgruntled element, with some even concluding that he feared success. But giving credence to such assessments and conjectures would be to ignore a very fundamental aspect of his life ~ he lived his political-activist life as an underdog fighting for the rights of others. Perhaps Matanhy was a so-called failed politician but a resounding success as a man of the masses, who was ahead of his times at that. Agree with him or disagree, it cannot be denied that his lifelong opposition to government policies he perceived as anti-people and his passion for Goa were his calling cards. He dreamed of a better, more equitable Goa and was extremely vocal about what he strongly felt ~ Goa, Goa and more Goa.
As early as 2008, he lamented the indiscriminate hill cutting and vociferously opposed the manner in which hillocks were being flattened in Mandrem, Chopdem and Korgao that adversely affected the forest cover. Matanhy is on record as stating that "Goa is already saturated". The following extract from his 2008 Press note is a telling blow to those who presume that the people will believe what is being said about him today:
“With further profit-ridden development, by builders, real estate agents, and some unscrupulous elected representatives, Goa soon will make Goans not only a minority, but strangers in their own land. Do we want this? Goans and all who love Goa, irrespective of religion, caste, region or political affiliations, UNITE to stop Goa from being eliminated.”
More tellingly, on Mopa, he said in an interview published in November 2002: "I am totally against another airport in Goa. Goa is too small for another airport. They (politicians) don’t know the implications...
The whole idea of the airport arose because Disneyland wanted to come to Goa. So they wanted to do it on a Build Operate Transfer basis… Why didn’t they exchange Dabolim airport for Anjidiva when the island was handed over to the Indian Navy? There was nothing anti-national about it. In Hyderabad, the chief minister compelled the Indian Air Force to leave. He said, he wants to make Hyderabad an international airport. So, what national security are we talking about?”
Apparently, the ruling dispensation has gone back on the solemn commitment made at the funeral of Matanhy, promising to keep his legacy alive. Would he, if he had been among us today, accepted and/or signed up to the Chief Minister's statement? Your guess is as good as ours.