SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Sujay Gupta
The Prime Minister’s double engine formula for development would essentially have been a case of just stating the obvious if it was meant to suggest that both the Centre and the States need to be strong to push the racks on the rails of development.
But the message was far from that. It was a not so subtle “messaging” that the Centre would fast-track development (read funds) only in BJP-ruled states.
However, the double engine formula is also a double-edged sword as Goa has witnessed. In fact, if the one-nation one-party formula the Prime Minister seems to suggest is applied, Goa is actually a template of how this will really be played out to Goa’s detriment.
If having the same party in the State in the centre is the mainstay of double engine development, then Goa ideally would have been extremely strong in its finances with its coffers having enough to pay for salaries of government employees and running schemes.
These figures don’t quite tell you that. Last year Goa collected Rs 15,000 crore in revenues. In the last couple of months of the last fiscal (20-21), Goa faced a 70 per cent revenue shortfall. Its debts shot up to Rs 20,000 crores and Tourism and Mining has ceased to be livelihood cards and unemployment is at an all-time high.
Meanwhile, the mining ban, as a result of Goa’s own malpractices in the sector and the rampant leeway given to unscrupulous mining contractors, has had a huge adverse impact on the economy. The mess has been further accentuated because funds accrued from mining auctions haven’t been ploughed back for the revival of the mining economy but to run the State. Between loan repayment, mounting interests and lower revenue receipts, Goa’s mess is plunging into an abysmal abyss.
What the double engine has done though is quite the opposite. The Centre has pushed through bills like the Major Ports Bill, to the absolute detriment of Goa’s autonomy and basic rights over its lands. Its constitutionally elected bodies like panchayats and municipal bodies will have no rights over passing or objecting to projects in the area now defined as within port limits with the MPT headed Ports Authority as the deciding authority.
No MP from Goa spoke up when the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Exactly 12 days before the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, Goa’s Town and Country Planning Minister Babu Kavlekar, in response to a question, admitted to the adverse impact the bill would have on Goa. He said “The likely implications include redundancy of (the) Goa Town and Country Planning Act and the Regional Plan/ODPs prepared thereunder, the Goa Municipalities Act, Goa Panchayat Raj Act, Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations 2010 and Goa Land Revenue Code in respect under the ownership of the Board, constituted by Major Ports (under the new act), and consequent revenue loss on account of the same.”
The Minister implied that this bill would mean the nullification of at least six acts, codes, regulations and plans governing the use and control of land in Goa by one Central Act. Asked what was Goa going to do the minister said, “The matter is being examined by the government for appraising the union government.”
The bill was passed on Feb 10, 2021, with Goa doing absolutely nothing. Even after this, two months have passed. Is there any sign of any examination and post facto submission to the centre for the purpose of putting on record Goa’s objections at the very least? There is no sign of this.
Virtually the same pattern has been followed with regard to the nationalisation of rivers and the virtual surrender of the Goa government to the manner in which the three linear projects – double-tracking, the Tamnar power projects and four-lane highway have been pushed. The regular justification of these projects in the face of sustained people’s movements, as well as serious legal interventions by NGOs has pitched the State against the people.
Is this what double engine development is all about?
India is essentially a union of States and it is this union that constitutes our federal structure. Regional Parties have fulfilled regional aspirations throughout India, especially in the states of the South and the East. In some States, national parties may be able to fulfil regional aspirations but the BJP in the States is known to ask for votes in the Prime Minister’s name and give precedence to the national agenda over regional ones.
At the same time, the BJP thinks nothing of cobbling majorities by reaching out to Regional Forces only to dump them when the number game works for them, without them. The dumping of the Goa Forward after engineering defections in the Congress was one of the low points in Goa’s politics. Perhaps the double engine template works best to engineer these scenarios.
Goans have, for generations been masters of their own destinies. From the opinion poll to the language agitation to the scrapping of a faulty Regional Plan, Goans have kept regional aspirations paramount. It will look at engines that can push their train of aspirations and even a single-engine will do as long as it is a people’s engine.
A State government that is captive only to the national agenda at the cost of the State’s agenda even when it admits that the State has been wronged (e.g The Major Ports bill) cannot be pushing any vehicle that carries Goan hopes and needs.
A people’s engine, therefore, is what Goa needs. An engine that is driven by Goan drivers on a track which leads to all-round development of Goans by protecting Goa’s identity, its land and its forests.
And this needs to be the response of the Goan people at all levels - panchayats, municipalities, assembly constituencies et al.
You can have as many engines - single double, triple but all that is needed is a strong people’s engine.
Sujay Gupta is the Consulting Editor Herald Publications and tweets @sujaygupta0832
