Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 284

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Today's Topics:

   1. Read: "Fact Check: Mr Rijiju, Persecution of Religious
      Minorities in India is Not 'Propaganda' But the Reality" (Vivek Pinto)
   2. Forever Young (Mumbai Mirror, 7/6/2026) (V M)
   3. Survival Instinct (O Heraldo, 07/06/2026) (V M)


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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2026 10:14:53 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "Fact Check: Mr Rijiju, Persecution of
	Religious Minorities in India is Not 'Propaganda' But the Reality"
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9z773=LWyRbUzEef2FBfka1h3Q4ymEdUzsyJG-OPiV6=g@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Sukanya Shantha
Published in:* The Wire*
Date: June 7, 2026
Source:
https://thewire.in/communalism/persecution-of-religious-minorities-india-union-minister-kiren-rijiju-fact-check
*Note:* Please access the source to read the entire article.

"Here?s a list of the many violations of minority rights that Rijiju [Kiren,
 Union Minister for Minority Affairs] chose to ignore in his desperate act
to whitewash his government."


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

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2026 12:35:14 +0530
From: V M <[email protected]>
To: V M <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Forever Young (Mumbai Mirror, 7/6/2026)
Message-ID:
	<CAN1wPW5SDxhYV5W53t-VjfRQ7w4SrZP=9AVbgt=1ctQ8KAu=BA-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/forever-young/articleshow/131557728.html

It was long past midnight at the wonderfully convivial The Evening
Club in Shillong on the weekend before last, when the 79-year-old
rocker Lou Majaw segued from his rousing reggae-inflected cover of Bob
Dylan?s early 1970s gospel-inflected classic ?I Shall Be Released?
into his own anthemic original ?Set Your Soul on Fire?.

Until then, the packed-in crowd had been enjoying rapid-fire
rollicking versions of Bob Dylan songs, from across the 85-year-old
American?s singer-songwriter?s extraordinary career over more than six
decades, whose May 24th birthday Majaw has famously publicly
celebrated in his hometown in Meghalaya for an astonishing 55 years in
a row. But now the veteran turned to his own songbook, and got the
audience to get up and dance to what could very easily serve as his
personal mantra: ?If you cannot be what you want to be, why not try
and be just what you are.? Everyone chorused along, ?set your soul on
fire.?

Way beyond the hype ? and of late there has been quite a lot of it -
Shillong really does have an extraordinary relationship to great music
across genres, and especially ?western? folk and rock music, along
with gospel and the blues. There is truth to all those clich?s:
aficionados abound, big acts will gig there while skipping the rest of
the country, and it can sometimes feel like everyone who crosses paths
with you is a guitar virtuoso.

This is a deep-rooted scene, substantially anchored in Majaw?s
countercultural tenacity, so that his steady rock-and-roll swagger and
reverence for Bob Dylan have both been absorbed into the city?s image
of itself. Thus, over the course of three birthday concerts in three
different venues last month, I heard memorable covers from what seemed
like an unending series of acts: Reuben Zionel Lyngdoh?s acutely
apropos ?Masters of War? at The Evening Club, and Chistopher Dylan
Majaw?s tender ?Make You Feel My Love?. Later, a sweet-voiced
first-standard student grooved hard on ?Knocking on Heaven?s Door?
outdoors at Police Bazaar, with hundreds of us swaying to back up the
refrains. You can?t imagine anything like this happening elsewhere in.
India.

In the same way, of course, in hugely significant ways that have never
been properly acknowledged, there is only one Lou Majaw.

Quite apart from his sincere and intense connection to Dylan, this
Khasi legend is the real deal, an unforgettable modern artist. Born
into hardscrabble family life in 1947 in Shillong, he recalls becoming
galvanized after hearing Elvis Presley and Bill Haley playing from a
neighboring house (his own family couldn?t afford a radio).
Immediately seeking out the guitar in his school music room, he kept
practicing until he could head across to Calcutta to try and make it
as a professional musician. In those years he started up many would-be
bands, while trying out different dead-end jobs, before heading back
to Shillong, where he began celebrating Dylan?s birthday in 1972.
Then, in 1977, he founded Great Society, probably still India?s
greatest-ever original rock band, and his own legend began to grow.

?I've known hunger, since I was ten,? testifies Majaw in his moving
autobiographical song ?Sea of Sorrow?. He says that ?loneliness was my
good friend. I learnt to smile, when I feel sad, and the good times
turnin' bad. But I'm on the other side now, across the sea of sorrow.
Yes, I can see the light now, I know which way the wind blows.?

This is the hard-won wisdom of an artist who has finally made peace
with the world, and found fulfilment by staying true to himself. It is
an infectious, inspirational example lived out in public, and an
entire ecosystem of younger artists and musicians is continuing to
build on those foundations in new and beautiful ways in Shillong. When
this whole Dylan tradition first started, it was an unknown paying
tribute to a global star, but 55 years later they?re both icons. And
there can only be universal joy they?re both still rocking as hard as
ever. Last month the American turned 85, and next year the Khasi will
be 80.  You can bet that will be another birthday party to remember.


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

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2026 12:27:47 +0530
From: V M <[email protected]>
To: V M <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Survival Instinct (O Heraldo, 07/06/2026)
Message-ID:
	<CAN1wPW5PF5RhHsRG8z39eH89k8MDEzDeL0bFhYb_3Z0FLVAMNQ-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

https://www.heraldgoa.in/edit/editorial/survival-instinct/477531/

Even toddlers squash cockroaches, but these ancient relatives of termites
are the ultimate survivors. Entomologists say they?re the most loathed
insects (the clinical fear is called ?katsaridaphobia?) and history backs
it up: ancient Egyptians petitioned their gods against them, while Pliny
the Elder called them ?disgusting? over 2000 years ago. Nonetheless,
nothing has managed to prevent their survival through hundreds of millions
of years, outlasting the dinosaurs, multiple Ice Ages, and innumerable mass
extinctions of other species. That teeming invulnerability makes the
cockroach an apt, inspired symbol to represent desperate young Indians who
are seeking to reform the political system against all odds.

?India is a republic of the uncles, by the uncles, for the uncles,?
commented *The Economist* earlier this week, ?the defining feature of the
Indian uncle is his bottomless disdain for the youth of today: feckless
phone-addled softies, the lot of them. They need discipline.?

*The Economist* said ?India is a republic of the uncles, by the uncles, for
the uncles. Thus does the country produce such infantilising policies as
Gujarat?s plan to require parental sign-off before adult couples can
legally marry. Or Goa?s mandatory uniforms for adult students at its public
colleges. Or Delhi, where adults can vote at 18 and marry at 21 but cannot
enjoy a beer until they are 25. Thus too are Indians subject to the
pronouncements of learned higher-court judges, over 85% of whom are
middle-aged men. The Calcutta High Court in 2023 advised young women to
?control sexual urges? rather than ?enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two
minutes.? A judge in Karnataka observed that it would be ?better for the
nation? if social-media access was restricted until the age of 18?or even
21. And on May 15th the chief justice of the Supreme Court lamented that
?There are youngsters like cockroaches, they don?t get any employment, they
don?t have any place in profession.??

That chappal awoke the cockroaches. The next day, Boston University student
(of public relations) Abhijeet Dipke set up Cockroach Janta Party on
Twitter and Instagram, as the ?new platform for all the cockroaches.
Eligibility criteria ? unemployed, lazy, chronically online, and ability to
rant professionally.? CJP racked up more than double the followers of the
BJP, stirring an inevitable over-reaction.

*The Economist *summarized amusingly that the ?Indian uncle?s toolkit for
dealing with criticism is limited. At home it starts and ends with ?Don?t
talk back okay!? The response of the Republic of Uncles followed the same
instinct, backed by the might of the state. Domestic intelligence raised
?national-security concerns?. The government restricted the roaches? X
account as a threat to the sovereignty of India. One BJP leader called the
meme a ?cross-border influence operation?. It is inconceivable to the
Indian uncle that young people might possess agency. It is inconceivable,
too, that the uncles might not know all. Half the population is under 30.
India produces 5m graduates every year, but just a third find regular
salaried jobs. Yet the uncles do not ask why job creation is so lacklustre.
[It is] a minor miracle that the youth, faced with parental pressure,
overbearing states, systemic incompetence and poor job prospects, respond
only with a silly meme. Their peers in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have
been rather more heavy-handed with their own ageing leaders.?

What is going to happen now the Cockroach Janta Party has taken physical
form in New Delhi, and the silly meme comes with serious political demands?
Dipke flew back from the USA yesterday, and his first words off the plane
were ?Education Minister must resign. Five students have committed suicide.?

Then, straightaway at Jantar Mantar, ?my friends, this is a long struggle.
It has been a month since we started demanding Pradhan?s resignation on
social media, but these individuals are so shameless that instead of taking
action, they have been focused on other distractions, like hacking our
accounts and getting our posts deleted. You may be able to delete our
posts, but you cannot erase us from this space.?

These are cockroach fighting words, and the Republic of Uncles should heed
their spirit of survival. It is not too much to expect countries to provide
accountability to their citizens, in fact India was founded on that
principle.

It would be foolhardy to hang the possibility of change in this vast
country on a few young shoulders, but I would not bet against this
frustrated swarm of idealistic insectoids. It was much the same phenomenon
behind Cyclone TVK in Tamil Nadu, an astonishing democratic upheaval of the
status quo (never mind it was the best in the country) for not delivering
enough to meet the electorate?s 21st century aspirations. Those voters want
better than what was previously thinkable in India, and they are not alone.
Everyone has become aware how some states ? including Goa ? have delivered
better outcomes in terms of both human and economic development, while
others are amongst the worst in the world. There are obvious questions here
that can?t be answered with chappals.


End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 284
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