TMC leader Leander Paes must learn Goan geography, attend school in Goa, says social activist Darshana Saxena

PANAJI: Coming down strongly on the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) for importing “outsiders” into Goa and forcing them on Goans, three months before elections, masquerading as Goan leaders, social activist Darshana Saxena asked Tennis star Leander Paes to first attend school in Goa and learn Goan geography.

Saxena is active in the tribal areas of Goa and her social set-up has been working with the Makadmare or Wanarmare tribes (also spelt as Vanarmare) as well as the Dhangars, both in the forest regions of Maharashtra and Nirankal near Ponda, for the last two years, providing basic necessities like sewing machines and teaching the tribal women to stitch clothes for themselves.

Saxena was referring to Paes’s faux pas, where in a video widely circulated in the coastal state, Paes is heard terming Goa as an island. Paes’s team also spelt Novena – a set of repetitive prayers recited for nine days among Christians – as Novina. According to Saxena if Paes does not know the basic geography of Goa, he has no right to campaign here, unless he is in Goa as a “guest” or “star campaigner” only for a few days.

Social media was full of criticism for Paes who always said he belonged to Kolkata. In all these years, Paes never publicly praised Goa or claimed it to be his hometown and suddenly, three months before elections, he remembers that his roots are in Goa.

Years earlier, when a local youth group from the village where Paes’s ancestors belonged to, sought to felicitate him, the Tennis star had demanded a huge appearance fee and refused to attend the function without payment.

Saxena hit out at Paes, calling him double-faced and an opportunistic gold-digger, who only remembers Goa when it suits him.