Diego Francis Rodrigues from Tiracol died on Monday,
July 30, 2018 after a brief illness of three days or so and funeral rites took
place on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at St. Anthony’s church, Tiracol with Holy
sacrifice of mass. Diego was known to me from 1992 for 25 years. I remember his
active presence at several protests in Panjim and other sites in Pernem
organized by Jagrut Goenkarachi Fauz (JGF) and Pernem Nagrik Vikas Samiti
(PNVS). The protests were against several tourism projects proposed for Pernem coast.
Although we did not cross into Tiracol during our
walking expedition and ended in Keri village Diego came to know about it after
a day and was active participant in all the subsequent planned protests mainly
in Panjim.
In 1993 Diego called me to visit Tiracol in my
capacity as Journalist covering Pernem for Herald. I visited him and he shared
threats to health faced by entire Tiracol village due to Gastroenteritis
epidemic due to pollution caused by Usha Isapat steel plant across Maharashtra
border at Redi. He wanted me to publish and this story did get published and
authorities did act on in Tiracol people got relief.
For past few decades Diego was often elected
unopposed to the Keri Panchayat and even served as a Sarpanch of Keri village
Panchayat.
A decade ago when it was proposed to set up Golf
Course in Tiracol and Vishwajit Rane moved application for the change in land
use Diego again got into active resistence. He organized and networked with
several people, petitioned several judicial courts including NGT and malatdar’s
court and even scored breakthroughs in number of times putting crucial spokes
in the way of Leading Hotels taking control of the village land to construct
Golf Course and starred hotel.
At the Funeral several people women and men,
educated and uneducated were seen weeping for the love and care of Diego was
far wider and deeper than the width and depth of his grave in sandy shore of
Tiracol cemetery. It is a rare sight that a lawyer would cry openly for the
death of a client and it was witnessed at Diego’s funeral.
It is a rarest of the rare occasion to witness
Parish Priest crying bitterly at the grave of the dead Parishioner, yet it was
witnessed in Tiracol at Diego’s funeral. It is near impossible that a death of
an active citizen be compared to the assassination of the Archbishop of the
Catholic Church. Yet Death of Diego was compared to the Assassination of
Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador in terms of the wide despair the death
has caused and yearnings for new crop of leadership to emerge.
Is Archdiocese of Goa ready to nurture this Hope and
a Promise? Is Leadership of the Goa Archdiocese ready to address the question
of leadership crisis of the Catholic of Goa? Diego Francis Rodrigues was a
great leader. He would move alone with piles of paper in his hand traveling in
buses or hired bikes or hitch lifts to fulfill his mission tasks. I met him
several times on the streets of Panjim moving from one office to another,
always resourceful in his sharing although in his sixties.
Diego’s courage was tested in the past decade. It
was tested when bouncers were stationed, trees were forcefully cut down and
road construction undertaken at the middle of the night in Tiracol. Diego moved
official administration and mobilized public support to condemn the predator
attack.
Diego was at his courageous best when he confronted
then Chief Minister Laximikant Parsekar at the bridge inauguration connecting
Keri to Kiranpani just before 2017 Assembly elections. In fact Diego was one of
the key persons that was responsible for the historic defeat of Parsekar in
Mandrem constituency and victory of Dayanand Sopte. Diego however was upset due
to BJP forming government in Goa with Defence Minister of India being sent to
Goa as Chief Minister.
Diego confronted Diocesan authorities in 2010 when
news broke about sale of Vanxim island. He visited Vanxim to support protesting
villagers.
Even though there is so much to write about Diego,
key issue of leadership needs immediate attention. Will Catholic Colleges of
Goa rise to the occasion to revive AICUF to generate leadership for Justice and
Peace among students to steer Goa’s future ahead?
Sebastiao Rodrigues
(This is an uncensored version of article published in Herald on August 03, 2018)
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