Goa Diary

Brahmins take on a CM
The controversy over the siting of a copper recycling plant in Goa by the Meta Strips Company has seen the State’s Brahmins come together on one platform. The Brahmins among the powerful Catholic clergy and the very, very pucca Bharatiya Janata Party have joined hands to paint Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro in a corner, or so his men want us to believe. While the upper caste clergymen berate the CM in the pulpit, the BJP ran away with the ballot. Of course, both parties are seeing too many virtues in each other these days. And the grapevine has it that political realignments are on the cards. Former chief minister Wilfred D’Souza, a Brahmin Catholic himself, is reportedly keen on returning home to the Congress. Or will he break the Congress yet again with support from the church and form a BJP-backed government? The possibilities seem endless…

Salsa nights
In Goa where everyone who is someone has a finger on the booze business, a party organized by liquor baronsis an occasion to catch up on the neighbourhood gossip. Last week, every two-table bar owner and his uncle showed up at the performance of the Congress Bacardi De La Salsa. The Latino group sizzled as the invitees swigged premium run and shamelessly ogled at the well-toned bodies contorting on the state. So who invented the salsa – the Cubans or the Puerto Ricans? Who knows…. dahling, the air-kissing babe said to the sequined thing beside her.

Right to know
Maharashtra’s social reformer Anna Hazare who is fighting for the Right to Information has a word of praise for journalists from Goa. He told a Goan delegate to a conference on the subject about how much he admired the backs from the sunshine state for opening up channels of information. Thanks to a sustained efforts battling reluctant politicians, journalists here successfully made it possible for the public to access government files and documents. Hazare therefore wants Maharashtra to follow on Goa’s footsteps. Will Vilasrao Deshmukh andChagan Bhujbal oblige?

Tailpiece
Fish and feni every day will keep heart disease at bay, says Dr G R Kane head of Sion Hospital Department of Cardiology. His approval is conditional: Alcohol in moderation and no frying of the fish. Still, cheers all the same!