A fortnight ago, Herald commenced the first of its conversations with the people of Goa, immediately after the stunning victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi elections, opening up a simple, obvious but yet a game changing thought, a people’s rule for Goa- Our rule for our
Goa. Inspired by Lokmanya Tilak we called it swaraj (self rule). But it also has to be su-raaj (good governance). We present here a suggested blue print, which has been thought out through several internal brain storming sessions in Herald. Let the people of Goa let us know if this is indeed the way forward
CREATING OUR OWN SYSTEM In the reality of murky real politic it’s a tall order since Governance for the people has been a regular slogan and even more consistent sham. The call for a people’s rule was a giant leap forward in changing the status quo of governance
and governments and most importantly the manner in which they are elected. Herald’s call was to change the benchmarks
on which people are elected, change the benchmarks on
which people are chosen, and more importantly have new
benchmarks that determine the agenda of governance. What we
are simply saying is that party manifestos, plans and pitches do
not work for us. We will — professionally, scientifically and in an
organised manner — construct an agenda for governance which
will undoubtedly need political change. But the change will only
be from a political one towards a people led, people driven and
people executed change.
And it will have an underlying philosophy.
When the existing political forces, the Congress and the
BJP have not met our expectations, we shall not wait for them
to recover, regroup and re-govern. We will create our own
system and have a new set of people to do so. We owe it to
ourselves, our dignity, our self belief, our respect and above all
to our responsibility to our children and future generations to
create a system that can take Goa to the next century across
the parameters of health, education, power, industrialisation,
environment, employment, identity, tourism and quality of life.
Herald has taken the first step in envisaging what this system
can be and how it can work. We request readers to look at the
operations chart as a part of this package to get an idea of what
our thought process is. You can use this as a basis for further
expansion or suggest an alternative plan. The idea is to start
thinking about how we should govern ourselves.
WHY DOESN’T THE GOVERNMENT WORK FOR US
NOW?
The present system of governance cannot deliver this due to
three simple reasons. a) Governance hasn’t been thought out
through a wide macro plan for Goa, but more as check boxes on
party manifestos and promise sheets that need to be ticked b)
Governance is not handled by professionals or domain experts.
The current political class — with sincere apologies to them
— is ignorant of Goa’s long term needs in each of the broad
parameters and c) The two national parties — the BJP and the
Congress — have a high command culture where some of the
most important decisions are taken by high command observers
who have no link with Goa.
For instance the image of elected BJP MLA’s lining up one by
one to give their views on who their own chief minister should
be, after Manohar Parrikar, to a central observer BS Yedurappa,
tells its own story. The Congress is no different.
The people of Goa have to create a command which is
driven by them alone. And this is where even the Aam Admi
party which is the closest to the template of people’s rule that
we are espousing, falls short. The Aam Admi party in Goa will be
a subset of its Delhi avatar
and it really remains to
be seen how it can break free and be a Goa party, in letter and
spirit.
THE SOCIAL STRATEGY
So how do we take this forward as Herald had promised to.
And we quote from our February 11 Open Edit entitled “Let
us change Goa for a People’ rule. For our rule”, where we said
“Brothers and sisters of Goa, the choice is yours. If this is the
kind of government you want, crave and need, then create
it, then work for it, then make it happen. And as we have said,
should you wish for Herald to drive this change through its
journalism, we will be your proud and dedicated partners, who
will not sit on the fence but be on the ground”.
It is time now to present our first concrete plan of action.
Herald is already working with a cross section of civil society,
men and women with a proven track record in their respective
fields to identify our broad goals and most importantly identity
professionals who will be able to flesh these out and draw out
a plan of action and make roadmaps across all sectors. This is
a vital first stage. Once this core engagement team, working
with Herald identifies that broad vision, the process of selecting
a large team to work on short, medium and long term plans
across sectors will start.
At a parallel level, we shall move to talukas and villages
where a broad process of consultations will happen at the
gram sabha, block, taluka and district levels with people on
how matters of health, education, power, employment, land
planning and use etc can be planned and executed from the
lowest level to the highest. This feed-back will not just be vital
but mandatory for the professional group which is drawing up
the state-wide vision document.
The ELECTORAL STRATeGY
This begs the obvious question. These plans will only be
utopia if the people do not have a strength in the assembly
to have a government. That is where you come in. Apart from
playing a key role in village level consultation where gram
sabhas, village groups, local NGO’s and most importantly
colleges and professional institutions, where our future lies,
will espouse and submit local road maps, a process must
commence where we begin to shortlist clean committed and
spirited people. Anyone who is fit to represent the people,
young at heart and with the vision to plan Goa for our grand
children and yet has no greed for power, money or position
should lead this electoral revolution
THE TIMELINE
As we have seen AAP became relevant when it decided to
take the next step forward and participate in the political
process. In the next phase we will jointly outline how the
future candidate identification, short listing and training
needs to be done. That is another universe that needs to
be reached.
We are already in March. This gives us about 20 months,
on the outer side to put everything together. At the same
time, let us not push ourselves to beat a deadline where
the task is not executed perfectly. This is not about one
election. This is about permanent peoples’ rule. We will
achieve it by 2017, but will lay more emphasis on getting it
right completely.
Lastly, fellow Goans, and this includes all non Goans,
who live here and love this land, as you read this, many
questions will crop up in your mind. There will be doubts
and disbelief. There may be points we have raised that
you want to shoot down and reject and yet you may find
some meaning, some empathy, some hope in what all of
us are together trying to do. Through March, let us plainly
document all your thoughts. When you write in to us we
shall filter and publish a cross section of responses from
which fresh inputs will emerge. We, with all humility request
you to write in and participate as we work behind the scenes
to get this process going.
Herald, will act as a catalyst in building the
atmosphere of change and then jointly create the
template for this change
There will be absolutely no doubt on one count. And
that is WE WILL PARTICIPATE IN GOA’S FUTURE and this
process will win above all else. This system will win. It is this
system which will run the government we help create. A
government of the people, for the people, by the people. If
we pull it off, we will be India’s first state to deliver “swaraj”
or self rule.
This is our Goa. It is up to us to make it the best.
