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Goa
priest makes debut on election altar
If Father Bismarque Dias sticks to his guns till March 3, he may well become
the first man of the cloth to contest elections in Goa.
The thin, wiry French beard-sporting Roman Catholic priest who
hails from St Estevam island, in the Cumbharjua constituency
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Panaji: The vibrations
of Barack Obama's signature 'Yes, We Can!' campaign are now
reverberating in Goa.In the small assembly segment of Cumbharjua,
a riverine constituency near Panaji, a maverick priest is trying
to recreate the positive vibe of the Obama chant.
Fr Jose Bismarque Dias' aping of the Obama call is albeit slightly
tweaked in Goa's political climate, which often is, at best, sooty
and unsavoury.
The unconventional Roman Catholic priest, whose Facebook profile
photo shows him bare-chested harvesting ripe, rice stalks, coined
his election pitch with a one-liner: We can make a difference!
"Of course we can make a difference. Each one of us has to make a
difference in order to rise out of the mess Goa is in. No point
waiting for someone else to do it for you," the jeans-clad
Bismarque tells an elderly lady at her home in Cumbharjua in
Konkani language.
"I am fighting elections to protect the land for the children of
Goa who are yet to be born. What has happened over the last few
years is absolute rape and plunder of Goa's natural resources.
"My contesting elections is to give people an alternative to the
present corrupt lot who have sold us off," said Bismarque, who
belongs to a lesser known order of House of Blessed Sacrament
fathers.
On Wednesday, Bismarque released his unique, one of a kind
Manifesto of Kindness, aimed at collecting 10,000 pledges before
March 3, when Goa will vote to pick a new 40-member assembly.
The pledges include seemingly routine deeds like saying 'no' to
fast food on polling day, to planting trees, to driving a cycle
rather than a motor vehicle and also saying 'no' to plastic.
"Be kindness, live kindness. Be kind to yourself and you will be
kind to others. Be kind to yourself and you will be kind to a
tree. Together we can make a difference. This is my pledge to you
- my Kindness Manifesto," Bismarque's rather poetic manifesto
says.
"I confess and apologize on behalf of all the adults of the world
for our wrong doings to all the precious children and our
beautiful home, earth," it goes on.
"When you were hungry, instead of organic gaunti food, we gave you
junk food. When you were thirsty, instead of water, we gave you
Coke... When you needed a hug, instead of love, we showered you
with material gifts. When you yearned for our presence, instead of
our time, we gave you television and computer games," the
manifesto reads.
Bismarque has also planned "kindness picnics" over the weekend in
his constituency.
"The Kindness Picnics will honour the earth by promoting an
organic and sustainable life style with informal stalls by local
vendors selling everything from fish to sweets to home-grown
fruit, vegetables, flowers or hand-made and organic products like
pottery, quilts and products made from recycled goods or fabrics,"
he said.
Bismarque has also called for an end to Goa's mining malaise as
well as a proper land use plan to restore the green balance of the
region.
(Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at mayabhushan.n@ians.in)
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