An open letter to Portugal

Dear Portugal, greetings from Goa!
We are sure you remember us, even after departing (with some stern persuasion) 55 years ago. After all, your prime minister visited last week with many high-powered delegates, and a scrambling knot of television journalists. Thanks for allowing him time to spare! His trip was really worth it from our point of view. We got to see a totally unexpected aspect of your country: dynamic, visionary, humane and pragmatic.But, in addition, there was also the man himself. Antonio Costa forced us to deeply rethink and reconsider our own politicians and polity, our own priorities.
Thus it is with real confusion that we learned your Prime Minister returned home to find his popularity poll ratings have fallen for the first time since he took office (and perhaps the first time in his long political career). It makes no sense to us. Is it because he did not cut short his historic post-colonial overture to India in order to return to Portugal for the funeral of Mario Soares? Or is it – as some experienced older observers here believe – a perceptible uptick in racist backlash because Costa openly and joyfully embraced his ethnic roots as a Goan, and person of Indian origin?
Surely it can’t be because of his performance. Even from this distance - and the shelter of the world’s fastest growing big economy - it’s entirely obvious your Prime Minister is doing an extraordinarily good job, far beyond anything anyone could have expected under the extreme circumstances that prevailed when he took office. He has capably steered Portugal through two exemplary budgets, very comfortably navigated European Union mandates regarding fiscal deficits, and – rather incredibly – your country now has the fastest growing economy in the European Union, with unemployment at a five-year low. It’s clear you have experienced a feat of expert governance, perhaps unparalleled in the more than 40 years of your democracy.
See, Portugal, you don’t seem to realize how rare it is today to find a genuinely competent statesman. Let alone one willing to make bold people-friendly choices outside conventional wisdom. The geo-political landscape today is characterized by demagoguery, fear-mongering, xenophobia and the unimaginably crass. Just like so much of Europe has been put through wrenching so-called “austerity”, here most Indians are reeling from the “patriotic sacrifice” occasioned by overnight “demonetization.” Only the bankers have benefited. But you’re better off! In Costa you have someone who has prominently demonstrated an alternative. A better way. Even the normally hapless opposition leader of the UK, Labour’s Jeremy Corybn gets it. He says Costa will lead “an anti-austerity coalition across Europe.”
Wake up, Portugal! Look around. You’re one bright spot in a world where the lights are being shot out, one after another. Putin holds all the Trump cards (get the joke?). The noxious, barely-veiled racist Teresa May lives in Downing Street. Hard right is the trend across the West. Even we have not proved immune here in India, though with many caveats due to the gargantuan complexity of our national political landscape. But your Prime Minister bucks the trend, even as the screws are being turned worldwide. He has welcomed more refugees than the EU mandates (laudably backed by all of your major parties). Plus, he’s always championing your country’s tolerance and openness. Here in India, he repeatedly downplayed his own evident individual genius in his rise to success, instead lauding your acceptance of diversity.
In this regard, Portugal, it’s disgraceful if your opinion of Prime Minister Costa diminished because he acknowledges his roots. In fact, he sets a terrific example in the globalized 21st century, with its troubling backlash of crude binary thinking. The aforementioned, utterly odious Teresa May sniffs “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.” But we all know identity and belonging are not directly connected to legal status or travel papers. No one exemplifies this understanding better than your Prime Minister, who embraces his Goanity and Indian origins without any fuss.
Speaking of his conspicuous lack of drama, Portugal, you really don’t know how lucky you are. Here in Goa, we are brimful with popinjays and strutting pipsqueaks. In this regard, perhaps especially, Costa astounded. A young journalist posted on Facebook: “Humble, down to earth and respectful of all around him from young, old no matter who you were, Your Excellency our politicians have much to learn from you.” So true, but it’s not only politicians. At the farewell reception for the Prime Minister, it was an object lesson to watch self-important local “elites” strut in with noses in the air, then crash down to earth when confounded by Antonio Costa’s unpretentious mien. It was such fun! Portugal, you better take care of your precious Prime Minister. He’s one of a kind.
The writer is a photographer and a widely-published columnist