In Cortalim, Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar walked into the Goy Rakhonn Yatra and delivered the kind of speech that sounds noble if you don’t know the speaker’s history. He spoke of his “special love for Goa and its people.” He talked about protecting Goa’s land, rights, property and environment. He urged Goans to support the Congress so that their democratic rights and identity stay safe. He even promised that the kind of defections that once hollowed out the party in Goa “will not happen again.”
On paper it is the perfect script for a yatra built around “saving Goa.” The problem is the messenger.
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This is the same D.K. Shivakumar who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in September 2019 in a money-laundering case that grew out of Income Tax raids. Unaccounted cash, hawala allegations, disproportionate assets probes, the charges were serious enough to put him behind bars before the Delhi High Court granted bail. Then his party came to power in Karnataka. Suddenly cases against his supporters , people booked for stone-pelting and other offences during the protests that followed his arrest ,began getting withdrawn. The cabinet cleared dozens of such cases. When power shifts, inconvenient FIRs have a habit of disappearing. Ordinary citizens do not enjoy that luxury.
Goans are being told to trust this man with the future of their land. The same man whose own record on unexplained wealth and legal troubles is a matter of public record. If someone cannot fully clear the air around his own financial affairs, what moral authority does he have to lecture another state about protecting its soil, its environment and its identity?
There is another layer of irony. In 2023, Karnataka’s voters backed the Congress largely under the leadership of Siddaramaiah. The party rode to power on that mandate. Yet the internal power struggle never stopped. Eventually Siddaramaiah stepped aside and Shivakumar took the top post. The voters chose one arrangement; the party machinery delivered another. Now the same leader is in Goa telling people to “use your precious vote wisely and choose the right party.” The subtext is clear: trust us this time. History suggests that trust has been elastic when it suits those at the top.
The Goy Rakhonn Yatra is supposed to be about Goans defending their land from conversion, from exploitation, from the quiet erasure of their identity. That is a real concern for many in the state. Importing a Karnataka strongman with a long list of past legal headaches does not strengthen that message. It dilutes it. Speaking about protecting Goan identity while addressing a crowd largely in Kannada only added to the awkwardness for some observers.
Politicians travel across state borders all the time. Alliances are part of the game. But when a leader whose name has been linked for years to money-laundering probes and case withdrawals stands on Goan soil and talks about safeguarding land and democratic rights, the contrast is too sharp to ignore. Saving Goa’s future is a serious task. It deserves voices whose own past does not raise more questions than it answers.
Goans have every right to protect their land, their environment and their way of life. They should do so with eyes open , not by handing the microphone to someone whose own record on accountability remains contested. The land of Goa belongs to its people. It does not need sermons from leaders who have spent years navigating the courts and the convenience of power.
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