By Nisser Dias
15thAugust 2013
Last week Nuvem MLA Mickky Pacheco was back in the eye of the storm because of the arrest of a famous tiarists Francis de Tuem upon the former’s complaint of defamation and extortion. The episode that has played out in the public domain has lot of aspects to it. Be it the influence of the politicians or the popular support to tiarists or the powers of the police to act arbitrarily. But somehow politicians and tiarists are so intertwined that they need each other for their own gains. And hence the thin line between entertainment and public life tend to get blurred sometimes thereby causing frictions between the political class and the tiarists.
And when the going gets tough for the politicians they start using their influence to get back at the tiarists and in the recent case similar is the instance. The only difference to my mind is that Mickky acted at the behest of someone higher in the political set-up because being a mere MLA, police would not have acted so swiftly to register a complaint and affect an arrest and that too from Mickky as firstly he is always at war with the police, secondly he himself has alleged criminal cases registered against him and in one case has even been convicted pending appeal for assaulting a electricity department engineer. So for the police to act with great speed on a mere complaint and arrest Francis de Tuem seems more like an orchestrated plan.
For some years now poking fun at politicians or showing them in poor light in tiatrs has gone down well with the public. Infact political tiatrs have become runaway successes making tiarists and singers popular overnight but also vulnerable. Vulnerable not only to threats but also to enticements and inducements thus set in the trend of using tiarists for political campaigns to tarnish the image of political opponents through plays, songs and humour. As the general public accepted it wholeheartedly it was introduced on stage and the public just walloped it. But the difference between political campaign and tiartr is that during political campaign the tiarists who dabble in it are under political protection while the candidates however powerful and popular are vulnerable of losing the elections if they resort to violence. But in a mainstream tiatr where politicians are made laughing stock the tiarists have to fend for themselves and in some instances even their own colleagues do not come to their rescue. That is because they either owe allegiance to some politician or another or simply afraid of getting involved.
But those tiarists who have been gaining popularity at the cost of politicians have been biting more than they can chew and swallow since they failed to realise that some politicians cannot take criticism in the same spirit and had to hit back to send a message to exercise restrain or face the music. To some extent tiarists have faltered by overstepping their brief in being personal and the result is the arrest of Francis de Tuem.
Maybe tiarists needed the shock treatment so as to make them realise that their imagination was running wild. In more recent times or rather in a currently running tiartr of a reputed director and actor they allegedly started targeting the common man also. To be specific against those handful of individuals who conduct litany (Ladain) in Latin. These handful of individuals are wrongly criticized for demanding Rs. 500 to conduct it. To my knowledge those individuals who sing in Latin do not demand but hesitantly accept if some remuneration is given to them. Before tarnishing these individuals could the tiarists tell us why they jump on the politicians ill gotten wealth when the candidates open the purse strings during elections. Then why do tiarists have chief guest particularly politicians for their shows, is it not for money they receive from the chief guests equivalent to the price of tickets given to the latter? Some could say it is a marketing strategy but others could also argue differently.
If tiarists have objection to people giving a financial token of appreaciation to this generation of Latin singing individuals who are keeping this tradition alive then the tiarists should sing in tiartrs without financial consideration. At the same time learn Latin liturgy and attend litany in villages. Have we not heard of an award winning tiarists who used to attend mass and disturb the laity by singing so loudly so as to mute the choir, just for the sake of publicity? If tiarists are said to have promoted or propagated Konkani, Latin litany singers are also credited for keeping traditions alive.
That is not all can the tiarists publicly state that members of their fraternity are paragons of virtue, can they tell us that all tiarists do not have vices. There are so many instances of tiarists being alcoholics, womanizers, divorces and living in relationships. It is time for the tiarists to turn the mirror towards themselves or look inwards.
Now coming to the third player in the entire episode of arresting Francis de Tuem based on the complaint. Police sub inspector Hiru Kavelekar is a controversial figure. That is the reason that he is still a PSI while his batch mates have been promoted to police inspectors. Kavelekar is an officer who would crawl when merely asked to bend by anyone in power. Arresting the tiarists merely based on a complaint without conducting any investigation to indicate that Francis de Tuem did make a demand for ransom over the phone was unjustified and thus exposed that the police officer was acting at the behest of someone with absolute power. Secondly if common man with no influence had to make a similar complaint would the police acted so promptly? We all know the answer.
The common man, tiarists in their own way had contributed to the defeat of the Congress led government thinking the new regime would improve law and order, curb corruption among other issues but today it seems that there is no improvement in law and order at all, police have become hooligans of the politicians and general administration is in doldrums. When will Goans see better days is a million dollar question.