At the time of the construction of Taj Hotel at Sinquerim falling under Candolim Panchayat, it was agreed by the Taj Management to provide maximum number of jobs in the Hotel to the locals and to the Goans as well. However, when Hotel started functioning, it was brought to our notice that locals as well as Goans were ignored in employment there though a few of them were appointed in the secondary and tertiary jobs while outsiders and non Goans were employed in greater number and also on important positions. This was somewhere in 1974. That means I was then 40 years younger with full of energy, knowledge, daringness and youth eager to fight for justice for locals and Goans. Since I was very active in local affairs, locals expected me to fight for justice for them against Taj Management.
Alex Pinto from Candolim Ximer was my friend having vast potentials to fight for justice, joined me to wage a war against Taj Management for ignoring the locals in the employment. Candolim Panchayat and the prominent bigwigs remained silent because they got their quota from Taj and hence they decided to accept the injustice meted out to the locals and to the Goans by the Taj management. However, myself, Alex Pinto and very many like minded locals refused to accept this injustice to the locals. Alex Pinto had vast influence in Goa and elsewhere and thru his contacts he got the news that the big boss of Taj, JRD Tata is scheduled to pay his first visit to Goa to see his Hotel at Sinquerim built on Candolim Communidade land; this was the first 5 Star Hotel of Goa. As an intelligent planner, Alex Pinto nicely put his trap to catch Tata at the entrance of Sinquerim while on his way to Taj Hotel and submit a Memorandum of our demands to him. Our main demand was employment in greater number to locals and to Goans.
As planned, we both stopped Tata’s Mercedes Car, greeted him with welcome to Goa and handed over to him our Memorandum explaining to him our disappointment over injustice to the locals. Knowing this, Tata felt very bad and showed his disappointment to his Taj management asking to satisfy the locals first. Immediately then the Taj Management changed its policy in favour of the locals including an offer for me to go to UK for further studies in Hotel Management which I politely turned down. When this news started spreading far and wide, many politicians and political parties started approaching me to join them some even with an offer of election tickets but this too I declined politely.
If Taj Management had not to change its policy in favour of locals, we devised one more strategy which means to stop all the vehicles taking guests to the Taj and informing them not to patronize Taj because Taj is anti – local. Then we would print pamphlets to ask everyone not to patronize Taj Hotel and distribute the same to all over Goa starting from the Airport, thru our contacts. Then we would ask everyone to give total non-cooperation to Taj and its non-Goan staff. Somebody suggested even to stone their vehicles but we declined such methods.
Our other plan was to organize Rallies right up to the Taj and for this we thought of creating an army of like minded locals. In this fight we were firm to keep the local Panchayat out of our circle because members of Panchayat were cunning and as such we could not trust them. If you want to organize any strong movement then you must try to keep the politicians away because they have their own political and money making agenda for which sake they will at your movement cost pursue their own agenda.
Panchayat is the nursery of corruption where most of the members of ruling faction make money thru illicit means and because of this almost everywhere Panchayat members headed by the Sarpanch amass wealth beyond one’s imagination. If one sees below and around his nose, till yesterday a person coming from poverty stricken family background suddenly today by joining Panchayat becomes crorepoti. This can be proved from the lifestyle they live with Bunglows, posh cars, sophisticated wives and huge Bank Balance. How is this possible? Only thru looting and on top of it they move in society with their heads high of course shamelessly and act like Saints in the Church even by receiving holy communion. And unfortunately, all the rascal Pe. Vigars in their respective villages support them of course against Christian doctrine. The greatest Devils are some of the Pe. Vigars.
In our locality we are suffering from corrupt political leadership. Our so called leaders are not static in their fight for justice, they are only interested in their own personal goals and secondly because they are selfish the locals in general don’t trust them. They are not sincere to the cause of justice. In every village there should be a group of movement makers for the good of the villagers without involvement of the politicians. If such groups exist with dedicated members, in every village there would not be injustice to the villagers. Such groups are imperative in the coastal belt where the leadership of some of our villages is gone into the corrupt hands. Can in my village first somebody come forward to Bell the Cat because upright villagers have lost their faith in the current leaders and also in Panchayat to do justice and real good? All those local politicians coming from Ladru-Pedru type of background will amass looted wealth not only for them but also for their children and grand children.
In view of what I wrote above, it is very easy to handle the injustice done to the locals by the non-Goan Hoteliers (as described in my previous article) who got no right to dictate terms to us and to act with us as our landlords. The non-Goan Hotliers and their non-Goan employees are looting Goa.
Candolim.