Let us March in Action, Glory and a Rich Treasured Tribute

It was on this day four years ago on 12 November 2011 that 4 ladies - Maggie Silveira, Swati Tari, Anuradha Volvoikar and Deepika Tari - protesting against the bamani aggression of Vanxim Island in Tiswadi were arrested and released on bail past mid-night on the wee hours of 13^th November 2011 at 2.00 am after stiff combat between the police and the protestors. Late Fr. Bismarque Dias was with the protestor at that moment in solidarity till 2.00 am early dawn. Arrests were of ladies defending vanxim against combined might of Mahendra Gaunekar, Ozone corporate, Goa Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao, MLA Pandurang Madkaikar and then Old Goa Police Inspector Francis Corte (who was suspended on the spot by then Goa DGP Yadav and demoted: after being caught red-handed in Vasco while distributing cash during 2012 Goa State Assembly Election campaign). Dear Fr. Bismarque your loving kindness, goodness and deep concern for Vanxim and vanshekars means everything to us.

Now in 2015 four years later Fr.Bismarque Dias mysteriously found dead with injuries emanating from blows on his body face, groin, and blood oozing out of private parts on November 06, 2015 early morning at St.Estavam Island Mandovi river as per available public information in press.

While investigations are on by police we take stock of few issue perpetuated by Bamon Raj in Vanxim currently. This police case has turned into Criminal Court Case at magistrate court in Panjim as Maggie Silveira and others V/s State of Goa. Three women involved Swati Tari, Anuradha Volvoikar and Deepika Tari has been acquitted and case against Maggie Silveira is on. At the last hearing on November 03, 2015 complainant Bruno Ferrao, Manager – administration, Ozone corporate was summed in the witness box. He deposed that he wrote a letter to Old Goa Police Station asking for the withdrawal of these cases against Maggie Silveira, Swati Tari, Anuradha Volvoikar and Deepika Tari after being forced to do so by Police. Judge did not accept his explanation. He then told the Judge that in case she tells him to withdraw the case then he will withdraw. Judge told Bruno Ferrao that she cannot tell him to withdraw the case since the case and he has to consult his company who ordered him in the first place to file the case.

The mundkarial houses and the land they occupy for many years had the legal relationship of lease between the residents of Vanxim and the Santa Monica. Now this relationship is sort to be changed into legal sale agreements. This involves as per latest information payments to the Bishop’s house a very hefty amount. Rs.350/ per square meter for he land occupied by mundkarial house and Rs.1350/- for the surrounding claimed land. These rates are disputed by most of the people even though few have agreed and paid the amount at this rate.

Majority of Vanxim parishioners and residents are opposed to these rates and have protested. Since people do not have financial capacity to pay this much amount they may be pushed into loan and if not repaid into debt which is the likely situation. This is resorted purposefully in collusion with wider conspirators.

One may resort to the principles of loans outlined in the popular free masonic document aiming at global domination. “Every kind of loan proves infirmity in the State and a want of understanding of the rights of the State. Loans hang like a sword of Damocles over the heads of rulers, who, instead of taking from their subjects by a temporary tax, come begging with outstretched palm to our bankers. Foreign loans are leeches which there is no possibility of removing from the body of the State until they fall off of themselves or the State flings them off. But the GOY States do not tear them off; they go on in persisting in putting more on to themselves so that they must inevitably perish, drained by voluntary blood-letting.”

Though this is with regard to the wider institutions like states the pattern of enslavement is similar at individual and community level. 

David Graeber in his book ‘Debt: The first 5000 years’ has provided interesting insights in this regard. He has taken reference to the French anthropologist Jean-Claude Galey who encountered this type of situation in a region of eastern Himalaya in 1970s. “There low ranking castes – they were referred to as “the vanquished ones,” since they were thought to be descended from a population once conquered by the current landlord caste many centuries before – lived in a situation of permanent debt dependency. Landless and penniless, they were obliged to solicit loans from the landlords simply to find a way to eat – not for money, since sums were paltry, but because poor debtors were expected to pay back the interest in the form of work, which meant they were at least provided with food and shelter while they cleaned out their creditor’s outhouses and reroofed their sheds. For the “vanquished” – as for most people in the world, actually – the most significant life expenses were weddings and funerals. These required a good deal of money, which always had to be borrowed. In such cases it was common practice, Galey explains, for high-caste moneylenders to demand one of the borrower’s daughters as security. Often, when a poor man had to borrow money for his daughter’s marriage, the security would be the bride herself. She would be expected to report to the lender’s household after her wedding night, spend a few months there his concubine, and then, once he grew bored, be sent off to some nearby timber camp, where she would have to spend the next year or two as a prostitute working off her father’s debt. Once it was paid off, she’d return to her and begin her married life.

This seems shocking, outrageous even, but Galey does not report any widespread feeling of injustice. Everyone seemed to feel that this was just the way things worked. Neither was there much concern voiced among the local Brahmins, who were the ultimate arbiters in the matters of morality – though this is hardly surprising, since the most prominent moneylenders were often Brahmins themselves.”

In Vanxim the change in relationship from lease to Sale of land at high price is pushed through for twin purpose of pushing people into debt and opening possibilities for Ozone corporate to pressurize individuals to sell off their houses to Ozone and pack off from Vanxim. Bharat Mukti Morcha objects to this strategy of enslavement and will continue to create public awareness on these aspects.

After four years of Vanxim arrests Maggie Silveira is all set to take on Ozone corporate, Mahendra Gaunekar and Bruno Ferrao and all others who were involved on paper. The real count down will begin now. Wait and watch. Yes, the count down…..is going to begin where Maggie will lead it. And this will give late Fr.Bismarque Dias a fitting tribute in action as lasting happiness doesn’t come from what you get, but from what you give.