07 Jul 2021  |   06:18am IST

Goans looking out for credible opposition

Goans looking out for credible opposition

Joe D’Souza

During the last 5 years, the performances and the role of the opposition parties have been lackadaisical and lacklustre. Although the Congress under Luizinho Faleiro, as the State Party President, won impressively and emerged as the single largest political forca in Goa with 17 seats and supporting NCP and independents backed by Congress winning 4 additional seats in the house of 40 members. The BJP scored just 13. 

Strangely, within hours of the declaration of the Assembly election results in 2017, the late Manohar Parrikar, along with 3 MLAs from the MGP and 3 MLAs from the Goa Forward Party of Vijai Sardesai, gobbled up the support of the independents and crosses the magic figure of 20+ assembly seats in Goa and formed the government. 

What is unforgivable and disastrous for the opposition forces, was the giving up the MLA seat by the Congress MLAs starting with Vishwajeet Rane by Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar. The final nail to the coffin of woes of the Congress was the mass exodus of MLAs specifically from Salcete into the BJP making the Congress of today as a party of jokers and non entities with four ex CMs biting dust and appearing irrelevant in the political scenario of today. It is just few months away for the election announcement of the 2022 assembly elections to the Goa assembly. 

The opposition parties and the junked independents in the Goa Assembly now are running helter-skelter to make themselves to be relevant to the present Goa political scenario.

As it stands today, the BJP in the State is winning each and every election to the civic bodies, panchayats, zilla panchayats and the Congress as it stands today is considered as a spent force. Today entire Goa sees a big opposition vacuum and BJP is omnipotent and omniscient in the nook and corner of Goa. Interestingly, disgruntled BJP members in ones and twos do add up to the Congress kitty, but this does not add up or translates itself into votes and public trust. 

Vote for Congress but the MLA jumps to the BJP. Thus the people at large fear not only voting for the Congress but also detest becoming members of the Congress. The ex-CMs of the Congress governments of the past have done precious nothing to instill confidence and garnering the forces of anti-incumbency and malgovernance of the BJP. Good enough the Aam Aadmi party of late is seeing and also well aware of the vacuum of the opposition forces in Goa. The morning of April 12, I casually and accidentally met Manish Sisodia, the deputy Chief Minister of the New Delhi Assembly at a small city restaurant in Panjim.

After having my breakfast I ‘helloed’ the smiling Sisodia, who was few metres away in the tea house. I plainly and frankly told him that AAP has done well in the Salcete region but it has a long way to go to appeal to the hearts of the people of Panjim in particular and Goa, at large. It was Sisodia and Kejriwal’s dharnas, agitations and taking up issues of the common man that appealed to the common man of Delhi. The Delhi leaders of AAP were in the forefronts supplying water and electricity connections to those wanting the basics of water and power that won hearts of the capital city. While in opposition in New Delhi, the AAP was able to deliver but in Goa, the AAP volunteers are yet to show that they are capable of governance and potent enough to deliver.

There is casino menace and the disastrous terminal building coming up and polluting River Mandovi. The Goa unit of AAP is not going hammer and tong to help stall the destruction of the capital city by the mal administration of the BJP.

In the last 6 months, AAP has to address the issues of Mandovi destruction and the disasters to the capital city by the casino lobby and the traders. There are issues of garbage stench, traffic woes, coal pollution, and destruction of heritage status that have been ignored. 

It is no secret that the series of U-turns and the anti-people projects blessed by the BJP leaders that has been responsible for the decay and destruction of Goa and Panjim particularly. 

The AAP in Goa must keep away equidistant from the Congress as well as the BJP discards and rebels. 

Goa has a large number of committed social activists and responsible men amongst the common man of Goa. The Congress has failed to address the grave issue of defection of their MLAs in the last two years. Symbolic petition to the Speaker of the Goa Assembly or to the Courts in the dying moments of the Assembly term is a cruel joke. 

By and large, the opposition forces in Goa did precious nothing to seriously address the teething problems of the common man. Regular press briefings and tweets on social media would not get the opposition any votes. Surely, there is an acute ‘Anti Incumbency Factor’ working against the BJP especially due to its maladministration and bad governance of economy, biodiversity and holistic development. Our tourism, mining, industrial and environmental policies of Goa government are a total flop. But to the fortune of the BJP, the opposition forces are at sixes and seven with the non entities governing the roast and holding the mantle of ‘suspicious alternate’ to the BJP.

The battle cry for 2022 is soon to be announced and we the people must pull up our socks and address the challenge. 

(The writer is a retired university professor and an environmental activist.)

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar