Since BJP came to power in Goa, and now very recently, we are hearing of Panchayat and Zilla Panchayat elections to be conducted on party lines. Will it be a really democratic exercise at the grassroot level?
First of all Panchayats and Zilla Panchayat have no place in the administrative setup of Goa. Our Goan villages since centuries even before the conquest of Goa by the Portuguese were having an administrative system – they were authentic village republics – called the ganvkari system or the Comunidades. Unfortunately by malice or by ignorance some people considered the Comunidades to be Portuguese institutions and everything Portuguese was hated in Goa after 1961. The Comunidades are the oldest heritage institutions linked to the very identity of Goa.
After 1961 the overzealous Goa administration tried to apply the Panchayat setup to Goa and since Goans did not resist, it came to be quietly accepted as the village administrative system in Goa. The original sacred aim behind the Panchayati Raj system of administration is that of people’s participation in the affairs of their village at the grass root level. As the grass cannot grow without roots so also people cannot grow with their active participation in the village affairs namely welfare and development of the people of the village. So the system is supposed to be people centric (and not party centric) – friendly relation and corporation among the people of the village towards their welfare and development and therefore this essential and qualitative democratic set up should be maintained at the village level at all cost.
Now the proposal to conduct elections on the party lines is striking at the very grass root of democracy at the village level and divides the people on party lines right in the village administration making them enemies of each other and therefore it will have its deleterious effects on people’s friendly participation on village affairs. This should be resisted at all costs by all village panchayats by passing resolutions at the gram sabhas.
