Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 255

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Today's Topics:

   1. Read: "Mumbai choir revives forgotten Damanese music
      tradition in Matharpacady/ Shriram Iyengar (Vivek Pinto)
   2. Read: "Rubio?s Visit to Missionaries of Charity Brings Modi
      Govt?s FCRA Into Spotlight" (Vivek Pinto)
   3. Watch: "?I started a joke?now I get death threats?: Abhijeet
      Dipke on India?s Cockroach Party." (Vivek Pinto)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 23 May 2026 21:40:12 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "Mumbai choir revives forgotten Damanese music
	tradition in Matharpacady/ Shriram Iyengar
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9w1GSjQbQWNud9aJqaCi9QOEUU3xxxY7508LMTr6uDV_g-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Shriram Iyengar
Published in *mid.day *
Date: May 23, 2026
Source:
https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/mumbai-choir-revives-forgotten-damanese-music-tradition-in-matharpacady-23631785
*Note: *Please access the source to read the entire article

"A Mazgaon-based choir revived a fading thread of Portuguese influence with
a performance of Damanese songs earlier this month. We find out about this
unexplored, and surprisingly familiar, musical strain

Not to be a contrarian, but Maria Pitache is not entirely Goan. For
generations of Hindi cinema fans, it might be a mythbuster too far. 'It is
Damanese Creole,' shares Daniel Dias. The 25-year-old violinist and harpist
from Mazgaon is amused. On May 1, Dias and sister Lisann, joined the Mazgaon
<https://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/culture/article/houses-of-mazgaon-chawls-of-girgaon-matungawalla-how-these-mumbaikars-are-archiving-lesser-known-aspects-of-mumbai-23308794>
 Serenaders as they performed a compilation of Goan Mando, Dekhni, and
Damanese songs at the Feast of the Holy Cross in the heritage precinct of
Matharpacady village. 'It was our first time performing Damanese songs
though. People were surprised, but liked it,' reveals Dias."


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 23 May 2026 22:08:12 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "Rubio?s Visit to Missionaries of Charity
	Brings Modi Govt?s FCRA Into Spotlight"
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9zcT2J4ZoWvuyU85U2g0xOjeZRH_3wfcefXe34Cx8rcFw-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: The Wire Staff
Published in: *The Wire*
Date: May 23, 2026
Source:
https://thewire.in/rights/rubios-visit-to-missionaries-of-charity-brings-modi-govts-fcra-into-spotlight
*Note:* Please access the source to read the entire article
In 2021, on Christmas, the Ministry of Home Affairs refused to renew Mother
Teresa?s organisation's FCRA licence, citing unspecified "adverse inputs."
The decision temporarily froze the charity's foreign funding accounts,
cutting off vital resources for hundreds of shelter homes and clinics
across the country.

*New Delhi:* The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio?s diplomatic itinerary
to India includes a highly publicised visit to the Missionaries of Charity
headquarters in Kolkata, which has thrust the stringent Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) back into the spotlight, drawing fresh
international scrutiny toward the Modi government?s administrative
framework governing foreign-funded religious and humanitarian organisations.

Just days before Secretary Rubio?s arrival in India, US Representative
Chris Smith, Chair of the House Global Human Rights Subcommittee, has
published an op-ed in *The Washington Examiner*
<https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415651>
urging
the State Department to raise specific concerns regarding proposed
amendments to the FCRA. Smith warned that impending changes to the law
could grant the Modi government sweeping powers to retroactively seize
properties, schools and hospitals belonging to foreign-funded NGOs if their
administrative licenses


------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sun, 24 May 2026 01:48:00 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Watch: "?I started a joke?now I get death threats?:
	Abhijeet Dipke on India?s Cockroach Party."
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9zFdkN=Eh31__-w6SE7ARGtJNF0Qr_5KQyfdazkh84bgQ-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Manisha Pande
Published in:* newslaundry*
Date: May 23, 2026
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpBRg7WlKWE
*Note: *The interview is in English and the transcript is embedded in the
source

"What began as a tweet has snowballed into one of India?s most unexpected
political phenomena. Abhijeet Dipke, who spoke to Newslaundry from Boston,
is the unlikely founder of the Cockroach Janata Party. Within a week, this
satirical movement amassed over a million registered members and about
500,000 signatures on a petition calling for the resignation of Education
Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

In an interview with Manisha Pande, Dipke recounted how it all started.
When Chief Justice Surya Kant remarked that unemployed youngsters who turn
to media, social media, and RTI activism are ?like cockroaches? who ?start
attacking everyone,? Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old Boston University
graduate, fired back with a tongue-in-cheek tweet: what if all the
cockroaches came together?

The tweet gained immediate traction, with young people rallying around the
idea of building a common platform. Dipke used AI to create a poster,
adopted the CJI?s insults as membership criteria, and attached a Google
Form that drew 5,000 sign-ups within hours. A website and five-point
manifesto followed, and within a week, membership had crossed one million.
On Instagram, the party has amassed nearly 22 million followers.

But who exactly are the cockroaches? Dipke says his following is mostly
Indian, aged 17 to 28, based in metropolitan cities, with 25 percent women.
More telling, however, is that the bulk of this following is apolitical,
i.e. people raised to focus on their exams and stay out of politics, who
trusted that hard work would be rewarded.

But the movement?s meteoric rise has come at a steep personal cost for
Dipke. His Instagram accounts have been hacked, the party?s website taken
down, and its X handle withheld in India, and he has been receiving graphic
death threats on WhatsApp. His mother urged him to step back. Most
strikingly, the Intelligence Bureau reportedly flagged the satirical party
as a ?national security threat?, a label Dipke finds ?laughable?.

When asked whether the platform could influence voting behaviour in
upcoming elections, he asked: ?Why do you think our account is being
withheld and hacked?? His immediate priority, he insists, is ensuring the
movement is not discredited, which is also why he has publicly refused to
appear on what he calls ?Godi Media? channels."


End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 255
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