Some suggestions

ACHIN Vanaik, a visiting faculty at the Jamia Islami University, is a combination of an academician, journalist and activist besides being a warm person, known for his forthright views. Prof Vanaik was in Goa last month at the invitation of the Goa University to deliver a series of lectures as a part of a refresher course for the teachers of  Political Science. The Department of Political Science, Goa University, in collaboration with Institute Menezes Braganza, also comanised a public lecture "The World Order After September 11" at the Menezes Braganza Hall, on October 24 at 5.30 pm. A tireless peace campaigner, he was involved in the Anti Racist League in the UK in the 1970s and also authored a book "Communalism Contested". 

When the attacks were taking place on the World Trade Centre, the plane in which we was traveling to the States was diverted to Montreal in Canada. Cartoonist Alexyz and Joel D'Souza had the first occasion to meet the widely travelled political analyst, committed Communist and staunch supporter of nuclear disarmament, at the residence of Christopher and Shanti Fonseca in Assagao. Vanaik grabbed every opportunity to find out why Goans differ from others in several ways. He came out with candid posers to the young State's various afflictions. 

The great anti-capitalist, anti-racist and feminist movements of the Sixties and the Seventies, which were highly critical of the type of injustices, perpetrated by the United States in the name of protecting world freedom and democracy, helped shape his humane outlook. His group was equally hostile to the injustices being perpetrated by the Soviet Union and the Chinese in the name of socialism and communism. Vanaik is a result of an independent Left tradition, which is critical of both the C's-Communism and Capitalism. While adhering to the ideal Leftist traditions of Socialism, he doesn't absolve the Communist regimes in Soviet Union and the Chinese, for their injustices, inequalities, authoritarianism and lack of democracy. He also felt that injustice is being done to Goans in one way or another. Some excerpts from our conversation with Prof Achin Vanaik: 

Q: What would be type of action you would suggest to set matters right?
Achin Vanaik: Setting up international structures of adjudication and enforcement with the regards to the issue of international terrorism. It has to point the finger at all of those who are responsible for international terrorism, which means not just individuals or groups but also States. So it means pointing the finger when terrorism is being done by the Palestinian national authority, the Israeli State, the Mujahedeen working with Pakistan's support for the terrorists, the LTTE and others. We need international structures of adjudication and enforcement, to establish the international criminal court, giving more power to strengthen the court of international justice, and, of course, democratising the UN, so that it cannot be so easily manipulated by the existing powers-that-be. 

Q: Is such a situation likely to come about?
AV: This is a very difficult achievement, but this is the direction in which we have to move. The direction, in which we are actually moving, is being shown by the international coalition of states, in which some of the worst offenders and committers of terrorism have now become the policemen, who are supposed to be fighting against terrorism.

Q: Will  the American action be fruitless?
AV: In the global situation, the United States seek to use the September 11 attacks, which, of course, are entirely condemnable, for a larger, overall global game plan to politically, militarily intervene whenever it wants against whomever it considers to be a terrorist state or terrorist group, supported by some state. This partiality and selectivity is going to be more and more dangerous, and lead to more hostility and obvious injustice against the United States, which is going to be some sort of a meeting ground for other terrorists to emulate what happened on September 11. 

Q: So, you feel that  the US reaction to September 11 is unfortunate?
AV: Let us have no illusion that such kind of reaction by the United States, with the international coalition of states behind it, is going to be the guarantee for eliminating the problem of terrorism. It is actually going to make things worse. Several countries, which cannot be considered as terrorist regimes, are none the less guilty of terrible acts and campaigns. In fact, one of the strongest democracies in the world-the United States of America-has a record of terrorist acts and campaigns which are the worst in the world for the last 50 years. Which is the country that has killed more civilians outside its borders in the last 50 years than any other country in the world? If the killing of civilians outside one's borders through deliberated, calculated terrorist actions constitute terrorism, than which is the country which is responsible for it? Which country has the worst record of supporting the most brutal dictatorships all over the world, causing misery to its own citizens? That country, in fact, is the United States of America, and the number of people that it has killed directly through its own apparatuses runs into millions. 

Q: You seem to be strongly connected to Goa...
AV: My first connection with Goa directly was when I was 11 years old, returning from the United States by ship in 1958, via London to Bombay. On that ship there was a chess competition going on. I was quite good at chess and somehow managed to reach the finals beating a number of adults along the way. In the finals, I clashed with a gentleman by the name Divakar Kakodkar, who said that he had learnt chess in prison. He was a freedom fighter against the Portuguese and had been in the prison some where, I think, on one of the islands in the Atlantic. On being released, he was on his way back to Goa. He smashed me, deflating my 11-year-old ego. Later, I found out that Divakar Kakodkar was also a communist. And this again, was my first exposure, indirectly again, to communist thinking and activism. 

Q: Have you ever considered Goa into your specific area of analysis?
AV: After several visits to Goa, I too really began to think about Goa as more than just a very attractive tourist spot. I am connected to many people here, in the Goa University, and through discussing with them and talking to many Goans and so on, I did began to develop some understanding of the type of problems that Goa faced, and particularly the way Goa is being exploited not only by foreign tourism but by Indians from other parts of the country. They have a very patronizing attitude that Goa is a place, where to go, for just sun, sea and sand, and enjoyment. The problems have taken place precisely because of this overall exploitative attitude, and the policies followed it. 

Q: Would you be giving a special thought for Goa in the movement you are involved in, and which is directed toward various injustices?
AV: I hope I become more sensitive to some of the very serious problems that are facing the Goan people. The communists, who are here, have to see the best and the worst of their own traditions. They have to come to terms to the fact that the morals and ideals of Stalinism and Maoism are defunct, and that people in the Soviet Union, and today in China itself, have moved away from the earlier ideas, which they still continue to uphold precisely because of their experiences of the distortion of those ideas and the kind of repression and the lack of democracy, which has taken place. 

Q: What's the Goa situation like?
AV: There is not only a polarisation between the rich and the poor but an increasing attitude of contempt and disregard by those, who are rich and better off for those who are less fortunate and worse off. A lot of care has to be taken to try and built upon what is best in Goa. I am greatly disturbed by the rumours about the so-called privatisation of beaches. One appreciates the fact that all beaches are public and they should not be privatised. I am concerned about the drug problem, about the rampant, uncontrolled collusion of the various powers-that-be with the negative side of tourism-prostitution, paedophilia and things of that sort. There is a very significant problem of unemployment,  and pollution. I am disturbed by the rising communalisation that I have seen in Goa over the last 10 years. Then there are other problems from economic exploitation to the damage to the ecology of Goa, which have to be addressed seriously in someway or other. However, Goa is different from other States in that you have high literacy rate but at the tertiary level there all kinds of problems in education. 

Q: In your circle, how is Goa being talked about?
AV: We have the fact that the BJP has made inroads into Goa for the first time, in a way that it never did before. But Goa, in the larger scheme of things in India, is unfortunately too small and is not a powerful enough State with two MPS, 40 MLAs, and a population of 14 lakh, to register in most people's consciousness outside Goa. So, those of us, who have come to Goa have an abiding interest, and we do talk about it. Interestingly enough, the Press in Goa seems to play a much more powerful role in State politics than it does in other states. Here the English language newspapers as well as the non-English ones seem to play a significant role. This can to be put down to the fact that you have a small population and have a very wide readership, much more than what the circulation figures show. In other states most readers will read the sports page first, look at the cartoons and have a look at the front headlines. Here the reading pattern shows that a substantial section of the readership actually reads the editorials in the newspapers. It is a good trend if the press can act as a guardian of the public against the corruption and manoeverings of politicians but that too presupposes that the newspapers themselves are not too corrupt. 

Q: After having lectured the University students and had panel discussions with their lecturers, what are your impressions about the direction of our University students?
AV: There is a growing trend in education whereby liberal arts are being completely disregarded. The trend, of course, is parochial. It's not very clear to me what aptitude college youngsters here generally have. Because of the problem of unemployment and given the fact that you have a lot of Goans outside Goa, a general kind of response of these students would be to try and find some way of making.a lot of money by having a good job.if necessary, inclined to go out of Goa. 

Q: Which subject would you prefer Goans for studying?
AV: I would be delighted if more people would go in for the study of Portuguese. It is an interesting dimension of Goa compared to other States in India. Someone said, when you study Goa you get to study the world because of its rich history, which has been at the crossroads of a whole range of different influences. As far as the continuation of Portuguese language is concerned, we should be self-confident that the Portuguese have been overthrown, their ruthless administration is over. Let us recognise that there is a real value in continuing to know the Portuguese and about their history. 

Q: Do you notice any particular pattern in the preferences of Goan students?
AV: Few people study history. Few are studying political science, sociology, international relations. But everything is getting more and more directed either towards natural sciences, commerce, economics and computer sciences. There is one great thing about the knowledge of the social sciences which the natural sciences can never hope to give. And that is the broad vision of society, inculcating some of the most fundamental and important values on which society is going to be built. They encourage to think about things, about the ways of the world. There is also the need to understand that there is your particular place in the kind of wider world, and what kind of contribution of you can make, which is more strongly connected to understanding the larger world around you and its complexities and injustices. And you are much more likely to get that sort of understanding from social sciences and humanities. 

GN