This will be the seventh session of the current Eighth Legislative Assembly. The session has been called for 18 days, the same duration as the last monsoon session in 2023.
In school, when children are introduced to the concept of democracy, they are taught that there are three pillars of democracy in India – the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The Legislature is the Parliament and State Assemblies that make laws; the Executive is the ministers, government departments and bureaucrats that implement laws; and the Judiciary comprises the Supreme Court and other lower courts that have the responsibility to uphold laws and Constitutional principles.
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Despite the 4/5 majority in the Goa Assembly, the present BJP-led government has consistently remained focussed on being the Executive, and the primary responsibility of Legislation for which they have been elected as Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) has been overlooked.
It is interesting to note that between August last year and July this year, the Assembly has been in session only for six days. During the financial year 2023-24, the Goa Legislative Assembly met only for 24 days. Quite literally only for the budget session. In March last year during the short session, the annual budget was presented and in the monsoon session the same budget was discussed and passed. Since the time the current Assembly was elected in March 2022, there have been a total of six sessions – the introductory session in 2022, then three sessions during the financial year 2022-23 with the total number of days being a mere 18 days.
In March 2021, Legislative Researcher Chakshu Roy wrote in a column for a national daily how the Parliament sessions had turned non-functional, “The first casualty of a non-functioning Parliament is accountability of the government. Question Hour, where Members of Parliament (MPs) quiz ministers about the functioning of their ministries, is the most visible mechanism for this… The second casualty is Parliament’s ability to debate the budget and scrutinise pending bills.”
Subsequent governments in Goa have ensured that the Assembly sessions are short and therefore the MLAs due to want of time are forced to play to the gallery and raise only issues to which their voter base would attach itself, and vital issues which concern the State’s long term prospects are side-lined. A glance at the workings of the Assemblies reveals that none of the governments, atleast in the past two decades, have met more than 30 days in a calendar year. The last longest session of the Assembly was the monsoon session of 2019 for 20 days, between July 15 and August 9.
In Goa’s case, the present ruling dispensation has 33 MLAs on its side and only seven in the Opposition, therefore it is natural that the government attempts to escape scrutiny and accountability in the ‘temple of democracy’. However, the recent slide of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the rebound of the opposition INDIA Bloc has re-energised the Opposition in Goa which successfully defended the South Goa Lok Sabha seat. The Opposition will look forward to charge at the government for the shortcomings and failures. Goans too will expect a better Opposition in the Assembly given that the State reels under various problems.
While on the one hand, Goa’s debt has spiked multiple-folds nearing one-third of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), on the other hand are numerous problems plaguing the State. The Opposition is expected to raise people’s concerns, especially the alleged ‘Smart City scam’, the Kala Academy renovation fiasco, and the three linear projects that hang like a sword on Goans, of which double-tracking has gained pace and looks like will bulldoze people’s concerns. The Tamnar power project is once again in the limelight as North Goa MP Shripad Naik who has been appointed as the Minister of State for Power has indicated that the project will go through despite opposition from the people. And there are many more that need to be discussed in the best interest of the State’s future.
Democracy is not just about winning elections but being accountable to the people of the State in the temple of Democracy, which is the Legislative Assembly.
