From: Use-Author-Address-Header@[127.1]   
      
   UNDER HANGARS: THE SORDID STORY MASQUERADING AS MOPA   
      
   By Valmiki Faleiro   
   valmikif@gmail.com   
      
   "An extra-curricular activity," that is how a senior minister   
   in the Rane Cabinet describes the current Mopa imbroglio.   
      
   Addressing a press conference on the feast day of Goencho   
   Saib, the honourable Luizinho Faleiro, Minister for   
   Industries and Education, who swears his heart bleeds for   
   Goa, blithely dismissed Mopa: he was so busy with his   
   portfolios, he said, that he had no time for such   
   "extra-curricular activity." Extra-curricular like Mopa,   
   indeed, the sword of Damocles that imperils thousands of   
   Goenkars across Goa, economically dependent on tourism.   
      
             One could excuse Luizinho's flippancy because when   
             cornered, like a kid caught stealing sugar, he is   
             wont to open his mouth to put his best foot in.  It   
             is one thing to claim credit where none is due,   
             quite another to wash one's his hands off an act   
             committed while in the seat of the Chief Minister.    
             Luizinho claimed he had "nothing to do" with the   
             Mopa decision, while his peers -- rather,   
             adversaries -- allege that Mopa materialized when   
             Luizinho was CM.   
      
   Interestingly, Luizinho's interface with the press came a day   
   after Jitendra Deshprabhu, the Pernem MLA, disclosed that the   
   decision to locate Goa's civilian airport at Mopa was taken   
   during Luizinho's tenure. More curiously, Luizinho met the   
   press with Deshprabhu in tow, and claimed the diametric   
   opposite. It should be granted that Deshprabhu speaks the   
   truth, even if not the whole truth. So how did Deshprabhu   
   wriggle out of obvious embarrassment?   
      
   The previous day, Deshprabhu told the press that Luizinho had   
   brought the airport to Mopa. Now, in his presence, Luizinho   
   was denying having done that. Deshprabhu must have kept a   
   straight face when he let off his repartee, "I compliment Mr.   
   Faleiro for saving the airport from going to Maharashtra!"   
      
             And thereby hangs a tale. Of sordid politics and   
             rank opportunism. Which led to that hare-brained   
             and entirely ridiculous decision of bringing a   
             totally unwarranted second airport to tiny Goa, and   
             that too, at Goa’s grave peril, on the doorstep of   
             Maharashtra.  Let's briefly peek into its   
             genesis...   
      
   In the early '90s, Manmohan Singh, the brilliant Union   
   Finance Minister, embarked on an ambitious "Economic   
   Liberalization Policy" aimed at catapulting a sluggish India   
   into an Asian Tiger economy. To shore up infrastructure   
   necessary for spurring growth, an "Open Skies" policy was   
   unveiled. The prime export air gateway, Mumbai airport, was   
   congested and a committee was appointed to study remedial   
   steps. The committee recommended that an international   
   airport be set up midway between Mumbai and Goa, as a measure   
   to decongest Mumbai.   
      
   One national level politico, rated, at the time he occupied   
   the chair, as India's wealthiest Chief Minister, had invested   
   heavily in beach lands of Maharashtra's South Konkan coast,   
   just north of Goa. Industrialists and India's five-star hotel   
   chains (it is rumoured, even some multi-national ones), had   
   similarly cornered large tracts of land in the region.  The   
   place waited to the opened, an international airport nearby   
   was just the need of the hour.  But *midway between Mumbai   
   and Goa* meant the airport would be located in south Raigarh   
   -- or at best north Ratnagiri -- districts, a good five hours   
   away by road from the beaches of Sindhudurg.   
      
   One local level politico saw opportunity.  His godfather at   
   that point of time sat in the Chief Minister's chair. Give a   
   politician an opportunity to spend big money -- from the   
   public exchequer, not his own! -- and he will sell his soul.    
   I do not need to tell the reader why. That is why gigantic   
   projects are always welcome -- higher the budget, more the   
   salivation. Mopa, with it's huge budget, was a heaven send.    
   Goan politicos went for it, hammer and thongs.   
      
             Wheels moved and out flew a proposal -- from Goa to   
             Delhi -- that the airport meant to decongest   
             Mumbai, be located, of all places, at Mopa, Goa!    
             Such a preposterous proposal may not have found   
             favour in Delhi.  Sindhudurga lobbies were   
             activated.  Even more deviously, strings were   
             pulled in the Ministry of Defence, to get the Navy   
             back the proposal.   
      
   The proposal was "convenient" to all the stakeholders: the   
   politicos in Delhi and Goa, the industrialists and the hotel   
   lobby that had invested in land in south coastal Maharashtra   
   and even the Navy -- which would have a prime chunk of Goa’s   
   real estate all to itself at Dabolim, once Mopa came up.   
      
   Under the rules, there was no way that the civilian enclave   
   on the periphery of the Indian Naval Air Station could   
   continue at Dabolim: if one goes by the rulebook, it was   
   bound to be shifted once the new location was up.   
      
             Yes, Mopa was "convenient" to all the stakeholders,   
             except the largest of them all: the people of Goa,   
             and more particularly that segment of it that was   
             largely dependent on tourism for its economic   
             well-being.   
      
   In all fairness, the Government of India neither mooted the   
   proposal nor shoved it down Goa's throat. It originated from   
   the power corridors of Panjim. The BJP interlude may have put   
   the proposal on fast track. But if anyone is to blame for   
   that foolhardy idea called Mopa, it is none other than the   
   goodly Goan politician under the Congress label!   
      
   Like Pontius Pilate, who after pronouncing the fate of the   
   under-trial -- crucify him! -- symbolically washed his hands,   
   these self same Goan politicians who signed her Mopa   
   sentence, now try to wash their hands off it, after things   
   begin getting hot under the collar.   
      
   Unfortunately, our politicians won't learn. Learn to   
   recognize their error, whether willful or inadvertent, muster   
   the courage to own it (instead of cowering for cover), and   
   make amends.     
      
   It's never too late...   
      
   ABOUT THE WRITER: Valmiki Faleiro, based in Margao, is a prominent   
   writer, who after a long hiatus, is back to his first-love -- writing.   
   He can be contacted at valmikif@gmail.com   
      
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