There is a difference between talk and action. Until now all we have heard from the Congress is talk and have seen little or no action. First it was All India Congress Committee secretary A Chellakumar who said that action would be taken against party men in Goa who worked against the Congress candidate in the Panjim by-election campaign. Then it was the Congress State unit president Luizinho Faleiro who repeated the same last week. This in itself is admitting that there have been party leaders who worked against the party candidate. The action to be taken, both have said, could include expulsion from the party.
That’s the talk. Now, when is the action going to come?
It is unlikely that the statements made the party brass will deter Congress party workers and leaders from carrying on their ‘anti-party’ activities as they want and as they have planned. The Congress has placed itself in such a situation in the State that it cannot afford to take action against any MLA and still hope to survive in the constituency from which the legislator has been elected. In the nine constituencies which the party MLAs were voted from, it is the personal equation of the candidate with the electorate that ensures his victory and not the party support or symbol. If a leader has become bigger than the party and can ensure his re-election without the party support, expulsion or action by the party won’t lead to any panic and force him to listen to and follow the party diktats. For Congress, therefore, expelling a MLA is akin to losing in the 2017 elections the seat the MLA now holds. It is a big risk and the party is unlikely to take it.
The party in Goa has today been reduced to a grouping of individuals who find common cause only at the time of elections and come together every five years. Such unconcern have the leaders shown towards the party that even in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls many stayed away from campaigning for the party candidates for their own selfish reasons or presumed snubs from the party. The Congress in Goa has for long been a party where everybody is welcome and where everybody is his own master. If the party wants to portray itself as a cohesive unit, one that is a political party and not just an election-time party, it has to take some tough decisions.
Congress, to survive, has to understand that politics is an exercise that has to be conducted 365 days a year and not just at election time. The Congress failing is that it displays unity and a semblance of political activity only at the time of elections and sometime not even then, as was seen during the campaign for the Panjim by-election and also for the Lok Sabha last year. The Congress in Goa needs to regroup, introspect and come up with some ideas to reinvent itself. It attempted to find a path forward at the Chintan Shibir in December 2014, but if the party learnt anything at that shibir, it was not in evidence in the recently concluded campaign to the Panjim by-election.
The party has a great opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the people of Goa in the coming Zilla Panchayat elections. For the first time the ZP polls in Goa will be held on party lines and Congress can show that it means business when it talks of young leaders by fielding new faces in every ZP constituency in the State. Faleiro has spoken of identifying young leaders in Goa, the ZP polls will be his first test since taking over as the party’s State unit president and this is one promise that he can fulfill.
No doubt the party has objected to the local elections being held on party lines, but this could well be an opportunity for the party to check its popularity in the State and also force the party MLAs to back the candidates it fields. Even if the party sticks to its objections and refuses to field candidates on its symbol, the Congress can still ensure that its MLAs work for the ‘unofficial’ candidates it props up. That, at least will ensure that the MLAs toe the party line.
