SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Sujay Gupta
Every once in a while realpolitik follows politics. As the BJP goes into battle mode in the upcoming civic elections, through managing and outsourcing its efforts to local satraps, there are two clear indications of which way the politics of Goa is flowing.
The first is that the BJP will approach the next elections not riding on its government’s performance, which by its own admission has very little to ride on electorally but use the individual political bases of electoral leaders -- like Vishwajit Rane and Babush Monserrate to name the two most prominent. By no means has the party cadre and many in the organisations accepted this line of political management and it is this resentment which has led to many BJP workers and leaders including former assembly candidates straying away from the elections, especially in Panjim. In the CCP elections, there are remarks from the BJP itself that it is the Babush Janta Party which is the BJP.
The second important takeaway is that the opposition needs to understand that these cold calculating tactics of the BJP are followed by the brutal single-minded objective of winning the elections which the BJP contests like a scientific project. The only way that roadblocks can be placed in this path is if there are pockets of unified resistance both in the civic body elections, and follow this template for the Assembly elections.
But the roadblock for a more consolidated opposition to the BJP is the inordinate delay on the part of the principal opposition party the Congress to have a basic minimum understanding among themselves how it wanted to approach this felt need. The confusion was palpable and pathetic this week in the context of the Margao Municipal Council polls when senior leaders were talking in absolute cross purposes over the collaboration strategy to be deployed. For a former Chief Minister and veteran MP Francisco Sardinha to dismiss all talk of any alliance in the MCC “because elections are not fought along party lines”, is either politically naïve or immature or both.
And then former Chief Minister and Margao strongman Digambar Kamat almost looked embarrassed when he had to discount his own senior leader and MP by saying that there would an understanding between him (read Congress as far as Margao is concerned) and the Goa Forward Party with whom the Congress had fought and governed the MMC together. And yet, this is not the party’s position. This is the uncertainty, hesitation, lack of clarity and purpose with no leadership to take decisive actions that have been the bane of the Congress.
The GPCC has fumbled on the template that it wishes to follow leading up to the big 2022 elections. It is important to underline that Congress was under no compulsion to align with anyone. But to arrive at that brave conclusion there were certain constructs that had to apply. Firstly, like in 2017, the GPCC needed to have a strong organisational base with each of its district units functioning like a well-oiled machine with the presence of frontal organisations in each taluka, block and constituency. That is far from the case. The groundwork done during the presidentship of Luizinho Faleiro has withered away.
Secondly, and one is saying this at the cost of being repetitive - there is no fresh and exciting leadership emerging at any level in the Congress, leave alone in the Assembly. Even as a relative fledgeling party like the GFP has seen new joinings at various levels, is there no one who wants to join the Congress? If the answer is no, does Congress have a plan to correct this? The answer to this is also “NO”.
The big ask therefore is does the Congress have the luxury of even saying that it will fight the elections at different levels alone. If this is to feed arrogance or even hubris, it is understandable but certainly not desirable because apart from its own inevitable ruin, the Congress is also, knowingly or unknowingly, being sucked into BJP’s game plan of having vote divisions across its opposition.
Piquantly, the Congress and the rest of the opposition find themselves in the same side of the fence when it comes to people’s agitations. At so many public meetings of the Goencho Ekvott, Goencho Awaz and anti-coal agitation groups, or during solidarity marches or gatherings like in Chandor on November 2, the Congress, GFP and AAP have aligned with people’s groups. The narrative against the BJP played by all parties has the same basis though GFP has upped its decibel levels to a shrill sharpness. While AAP is certainly not in the mix of any purported opposition unity move, the other parties especially the Congress will have to do a comprehensive audit on its strategy of indecisiveness.
It is clear that politics does not happen in a vacuum. Spaces are filled up. Look at Panjim. A Citizen’s panel has been formed to unitedly fight against the Babush Monserrate cloaked BJP led by a veteran former Congress Mayor Surendra Furtado. The panel has people, not necessarily from the Congress but across political affiliations and society. The lesson from Panjim is clear. If people want to take control of their destinies and feel that political parties are not delivering or being indecisive to a point when a non-desirable party (according to the people) wrests the elections, there will be pushback. And the Citizen’s panel in Panjim is a push back.
Most importantly, one should respect the sagacity of the people of Goa and not feed them the childish narrative that these civic elections are not on party lines. They are, irrespective of whether there will be symbols or not, going tom be one of the most fiercely fought political battles fought. And the BJP, of all parties, is clear about this. From Amit Shah right down to the booth worker, every election is a party election which they fight to win, in any which way.
On the other hand, the hapless Congress continues to live in an Alice in Wonderland world, pretending that this is just a tea party.
The very least that the grand old party can to is to align itself with grass root people’s sentiments and work on a strategy to respond to those sentiments from Goans. There is no sign of that yet.
