Vishnu Surya Naik Wagh (24 July 1964 – 8 February 2019) was a poet, writer, dramatist, journalist, politician, management consultant, and trainer.
He acted in many dramas as a child artist, under the guidance of his father, Surya Wagh, who was an actor in his Marathi theatre group, Hauns Sangeet Natya Mandal.
Wagh regularly attended the Kirtan programmes at the Shri Ram – Hanuman Mandir in their village.
He signed up at the Municipal Library in Vasco, made friends with other artistes and started writing and directing one act plays.
The next year he got a first class, with the highest marks in Languages, but did not do as well in Science and Math due to lack of interest.
Over the years, he indulged in poetry; drawing cartoons and caricatures; study of Vedic and sant literature, heritage, and anthropology; and had even been a part of environment campaigns.
[13] Wagh was also a part of Marathi cinema, after writing the lyrics of movies like Gadya Aapla Gaon Bara[14][15] and the screenplay of a few others, like Sarpanch Bhagirath.
[19] He held the following positions: Wagh's political career began in the 1990s with the Shiv Sena and the MGP.
[12][23] Then, after 14 years of being a former general secretary and spokesperson of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, Wagh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 30 October 2011, in the presence of senior BJP leaders — Laxmikant Parsekar, MP Shripad Naik, and Manohar Parrikar.
[24] He won the 2012 Goa Legislative Assembly election with a margin of 1219 votes from Constituency Number 14, St. Andre Constituency – consisting of the 7 villages of Goa Velha (St Andre), Azossim-Mandur, Neura, Batim, Agacaim (St Lawrence), Pale-Siridao and Curca-Bambolim-Telaulim.
Ramrao is a professor working at Goa University, who holds a BSc degree in Physics and a masters in computer applications.
[4] His death was reported by his wife Aruna five days after, which caused his siblings to raise questions about the circumstances surrounding the incident.
His body arrived early that morning at Dabolim Airport and was escorted by State Minister of Art and Culture, Govind Gaude, to his residence in Dhavali, Ponda.
The funeral consisted of inter-religious prayers and a musical and literary tribute to him, and had many prominent attendees from the fields of politics, art and literature.
Some time later, then Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo issued a statement that Wagh must be awarded the Padma Shri for his work.
Hymns of a Shudra), was declared to be the awardee of the Goa Konkani Akademi (GKA) Award in the poetry category.
In October 2017, the Goa government cancelled all the thirty-two literature and culture awards – the results of which were hitherto undeclared – including the one for Wagh.
[38] Upon a complaint filed by Goan women's rights activist, Auda Viegas, an FIR was later registered against Wagh and the publishing house, Apurbai Prakashan (run by Hema Naik), under Sections 292, 293 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.