15 Nov 2020  |   04:47am IST

IS THERE A LESSON FOR GOA IN THE BIHAR RESULTS?

The youth have different aspirations and the 2022 political aspirants better be aware of this
IS THERE A LESSON FOR GOA IN THE BIHAR RESULTS?

Alexandre Moniz Barbosa

The cliffhanger Bihar Assembly election results had more twists and turns than a three-hour Bollywood film that keeps people rooted to their seats, but as the counting went long into the night it brought home many lessons for those who may be interested in looking at it from a different angle. Yes, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will be forming the government in the State, entirely because its pre-poll alliance gave it that all too required edge over the Mahagathbandhan, but you just can’t ignore the fact that two things happened in Bihar – the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single largest party with the largest vote share, and the Janata Dal United of Nitish Kumar fared its worst since first coming to power in that State. Bihar voted for a change, but effectively gets the same government that it had. In a State that is so deeply divided that predicting the outcome of the elections turned most difficult for even seasoned psephologists even with the aid of exit polls, this is most ironical. 

Given the vote share of the RJD and its re-emergence as the single largest party in the State, one has to ask how did a party that is led by a 30-year-old, who did not show any exemplary success as Deputy Chief Minister or even as MLA, connect with the people? Has the magic of the father – Lalu Prasad Yadav – rubbed off on the son? To his credit, Tejaswi Yadav did not use pictures of his father in campaign posters. Or was it a more down to earth reason that has nothing to do with family, caste and community that Bihar is known to decide to vote on every election?

In the final analysis, Bihar in 2020 perhaps voted for economic empowerment. The people, youth especially, voted for jobs. That could be the biggest takeaway from the results of the Bihar elections. All the other rhetoric from the political parties did not strike a chord with the voters of the State. When it comes to the future, it is economic progress that always matters. You can obscure the facts for a certain period, but it will always come down to jobs – for that is what keeps society and people going. Tejaswi Yadav of the RJD promised 10 lakh jobs. That’s about two thirds of the Goan population, and to be fair, it may not be a promise that will be possible to deliver on. Yet, that doesn’t matter in an election campaign. In a State where unemployment rates are high, the promise of 10 lakh jobs made the difference in the vote, for immediately after that the NDA rushed in with the promise of 19 lakh jobs to the people of Bihar. It is now in power, but can it deliver on this?

Look now at Goa, where unemployment is also very high. About one lakh persons are registered with the employment exchange, and according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) the unemployment rate for October stood at 11.5 per cent, which is very high. Even Bihar for that month had a lower unemployment rate which stood at 9.8 per cent. In absolute numbers, Bihar is much higher. Goa’s unemployment has been steadily rising and falling but it is still high. By the Goa CM’s own admission, even God can’t provide government jobs to all Goans. Not that all Goans aspire only for government jobs, there are many who work in the private sector and a large number is now turning to entrepreneurship. The number of startups in the State are evidence of the entrepreneurial spirit that has settled upon the people, even if a large segment of these are work from home culinary preparation and delivery services.

So, following Bihar, will unemployment be the issue that people will base their decision on how to vote when Goa goes to the polls some 15 months from now in 2022? People want development, they want economic empowerment, they want to believe that the government they vote for can give them both. There are promises made during the campaign but how many are met during the term of office? Especially in the creation of jobs?

Much as Goa is currently being plagued by various environment-related issues – mega infrastructure projects that threaten forest land – you can be certain that it will be economic reasons that will decide in a major way how the people in Goa will vote. For that matter, has Goa ever voted to protect its environment? In 1967 it may have voted in the Opinion Poll to retain its identity, but a couple of months after that those same electors voted for the very party that had championed merger, purely because Goa believed that political party had a better policy for economic development. Besides, which of today’s existing parties can be trusted to work on saving the environment? Past experience of the major parties does not inspire confidence in this regard. Of course, there have always been promises of saving the environment, but besides looking good on the manifesto and sounding good at campaign rallies, these assurances mean little when it comes down to actually accomplishing something.

The youth have different aspirations and the 2022 political aspirants had better be aware of this. Goa has to look at forms of sustainable development that will allow the creation of jobs in the State. Goa’s best bet for jobs is the service industry and in the creation of an education hub in the State. This has been the plan for sometime, but the efforts to realise the plan have never been seen. If Goa aims for an educational hub, then is has to settle the IIT land issue at the earliest. The Private Universities Act is already in place, but it will take time for the institutes to materialise – a couple of years possibly – as permissions are yet to be given. There is much work to be done before Goa’s to the polls in 2022, primarily mapping out the plan that will be inclusive and not exclusive of sections of society. Goa’s politicians need to learn from the Bihar experience.


Alexandre Moniz Barbosa is Editor, Herald. He tweets at @monizbarbosa

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