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Its been a while since I made my last post here. The end of the year has rather been a bit hectic and the resolutions of the New year took most of my time trying to grapple with the fact that I actually resolved to do a few things.
Arguably it wasn't one of the most eventful years for in recent times but it did have a share of the good and the bad times. The bad overshadowing most of the good.
Political tamasha was the main ingredient like always and was full of plots and counter plots and revolts that the current government of Digambar Kamat survived virtually by the skin of its teeth. Only to live another day.
The year began with a plotted coup which went horribly wrong. The opportunistic party that it is, the BJP was thick in the toppling game and cobbled up all old enemies and never-to-look-at foes in early January 2008 to come up with many permutations and combinations but failed to cook the final tally.They had to therefore bite their own lips and stay put in the opposition benches while hopelessly watching some of their old foes turned friends turning foes again and joining the ruling combination to reap the shameless fruits of their failure turned success.
Indeed after three days of political brinkmanship the coup fizzled out. The new friends of the BJP went back to work with old foes and backstabbing reports and mudslinging habits came to the fore. It was like as if they were all treading a honest truthful and sincere path of politics and one rotten apple among them played spoilsport,when actually the truth is all were completely rotten and have been beating the drum too loudly at the end of the shamelessness pit.
There was another short lived coup staged backdoors and stayed there when there was uncertainty over the regional party SAVE GOA front which merged into the congress while some of its remnants claimed that the merger was illegal and demanded disqualification of the MLAs concerned.
January 2008 also saw the celebrated Konkani literateur Ravindra kelekar being awarded the Padma Bhushan award by the government of India for his contribution to the Konkani language.
The month of February 2008 rocked Goa with the strongman of Taleigao being manhandled by the Panaji police and subsequently arrested after allegedly pelting stones at the Panaji town police station while leading a morcha in support of some of his party people being kidnapped.
In the same month the police found the body of British national Scarlette keeling on the Anjuna beach who apparently dies under mysterious circumstances. The case had all the sleazy elements of a dangerous plot including sex, alcohol, drugs and late night revelries. The case was almost ignored by the Goa police untill the national as well as the international media resurrected it to a level where the Goa authorities were forced to enforce damage control and take action. While a barman and several others were apprehended and interrogated no breakthrough in the case seems to be in sight till date. The CBI is however in charge of the investigations and the mother of Scarlette has still been fighting a battle to get justice for her daughter.
The transport Minister Mr Pandurang Madkaikar cried foul when he lost his cabinet berth in the Goa assembly to make way for Mr Ramakrisha Dhavlikar inviting the wrath of the ST community to which Mr Madkaikar belongs.
On the 4th of June 2008 a young legislator representing Pale constituency, Mr Gurudas gawas passed away leaving behind many expectations from him.
In the same month a parking fee racket was brought to light in Panaji in which a councillor of the Corporation of the city of Panaji was arrested by the Police.
In July Mr S.S sidhu was appointed the governor of Goa in place of the outgoing governor Mr SC Jamir who had a troubled relationship with the BJP in goa. Mr Jamir was posted as the Governor of the state of Maharashtra
Mr Dayanand Narvekar was forced to quit his ministerial berth to make way for Mr Atanasio Monserratte in the Digamber Kamat Cabinet leaving a fuming Narvekar to nurse his wounds.
EMRI the emergency service was launched in Goa with 18 state of the art ambulances to cater to emergency services in the state where the citizen has to dial 108 to avail the free service
Rohit Monserratte the son of Mr Atanasio Monserratte the MLA from Taleigao found himself in deep trouble when he was booked for allegedly raping a minor girl of German origin in Goa. Mr Aires Rodrigues the lawyer of the German girl vociferously campaigned against the accused and then after succeeding in arresting him, suddenly dropped the case citing his clients' disgust with the system failure of the Goan establishment to seek justice. Mr Aires Rodrigues was therefore in the eye of a storm for his alleged backtracking on the issue amidst suspicions of questioning his credibility which the lawyer vehemently denied.
Mr Pratap Gawas beat the BJP to claim the Pale constituency on the congress ticket, thus succeeding his brother to the seat in the Goa assembly.
Law and order saw a strange uncharacteristic Goan turn in Margao when there was an unusual communal clash between two groups over a small brawl in the city market leading to a complete halt and a bandh in Margao.
The global meltdown reached Goa and had its effect on various economics of the state. IFFI was held in Goa for the fifth successive year in 2008 amidst the usual fanfare but had the curtains came down unceremoniously without any closing ceremonies due to the Mumbai terror and the death of the former prime Minister Mr V.P. Singh.
Mr Swapnil Asnodkar brought laurels for the state with his heroics at the Indian Premier League.
The year however has to go down as the one which had the people's movement to the fore. The Goan people in general maintained their surging mood for agitations against haphazard development and opposed mega projects in almost every nook and corner of Goa. From Benaulim in the south to Pilerne in North Goa, gram sabhas began vociferously vocal and citizens were demanding answers to illegal projects being granted licences by flouting rules and in complete disregard to available infrastructure to sustain such huge projects.