The season is here. And we are not talking Christmas or New Year. The poll season is one of goodies and promises. Everyone of getting visitors to posh homes in Panjim to remote hamlets in tribal areas.
This is the season when politicians will eat with you, dance with you, they will ask “how is your granny’s arthritis pain”, also try and find out about the health of your mother, even if she has not seen a doctor for six years. Your wealth and wellbeing may both look positive in the next sixty to eighty days.
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And then the polling day will come and go. “Their” job will be done, and the same kind of a system will restart, at best with the same faces wearing different political uniforms. Your issues will remain your issues. You will be back to fighting for jobs, your farms, your rights as fishermen, coal on your tracks for the next five years.
When will you make it count? When will people’s strength override political strength?
Elections must be less about the strength of the candidate and all about the strength of the people. Right now, the festival of leaving and joining parties is continuing in almost every constituency. MLAs and senior leaders of parties are openly attacking each other especially when it comes to both being claimants for the same ticket. In some constituencies, three to four members of the same party have put up posters and banners asking for votes and declaring to contest on any ticket.
So, is this all about winning at any cost, or is it about bringing change for the benefit of our future and our children?
The answer is clear. It’s all about winning at any cost. Some lip service to issues will be done by parties, a continuing pattern of promise and non-delivery. What is seen here is that the strength for no political forces to fight and win a people is not on display. Non-political people’s groups who set out to occupy the people’s space in today’s politics are also joining the political bandwagon and jumping aboard formal political ships, for their political careers to sail.
At the crossroads, there are two paths. Till Feb 2022. And after Feb 2022
The limited road will lead to February 2022. When it is all about getting the game of numbers right and winning the election to each seat at any cost. The road after February 2022 will be about the fight to make Goa remain Goa. About economy and employment, about sustainable mining and tourism, about giving farmers their fields and the fishermen their fish at sea and the rivers, about letting our wildlife sanctuaries live and our people breathe air instead of coal, about affordable housing to our Goans, not mega projects in their villages destroying their fields and hills and taking away their groundwater.
Who is raising these issues? Do we still have a narrative that goes beyond, a people’s narrative? And that is not happening because we have still not managed a movement of the people which is strong enough to dictate that narrative.
If people’s real issues aren’t addressed within the electoral process, it’s time for all of us to pack our bags and leave
It is possible that a beginning has been made or will be made. But the search for good people is always on. Priyanka Gandhi on a visit to Goa did say “vote for good people”. But do people vote for good people. Or do parties put up all good people?
And that is the issue. If people’s real issues are not addressed, during the process of elections, it is time for all of us to pack our bags and leave.
