Many friends and well-wishers who care for my wellbeing are advising me to take all extra precautions on 29th July while going for the hearing before the Excise Commissioner in connection with the illegalities pertaining to Silly Souls Café and Bar at Assagao being run by Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani’s family.
And many feel that the BJP will now send their handy tools ED, CBI & IT to my door. I would in fact be elated to welcome and thank them for having come to such a small man. All they would get is a humble warm cup of coffee for having spared their time with this very little fry.
Over the years I have never hesitated to take on the powerful and mighty over a wide range of issues. Nothing has intimidated me but has only made me stronger and emboldened my determination to stand up to the powers to be.
As the Sufi mystic Kabir said “Jako rakhe Sai, maar sake na koi” (None can harm him who is looked after by higher Powers). The dedicated prayers and the love showered by the common man is what keeps me going.
We need to maintain vigilance and keep on fighting. Life is a very short voyage, the end of which we know not. So let’s keep up the fight. We owe it to our Goa or else posterity may never forgive us for having silently allowed what remains of our once beautiful State to just pass away. We should remain unperturbed and be ready to die with hope, rather than have hope die inside us. Let destiny take its course. Each of us has to go someday, but our Goa has to live forever.
In death, one may be physically gone, but the spirit is always around. And in the words of Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated President of Philippines, who went on to be President herself, “I would rather die a meaningful death than live a meaningless life”.
Truth and justice must always prevail if we are to live in a fair and equitable Goa where the rights of everyone are protected without fear or favour.
