SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Eddie Viegas
During the last few decades it has become a norm for many of our legislators and councillors to continue to stay in power despite the regular elections that take place once in Five or six years or so. In many cases the power and positions are regularly passed on from one generation to the other. Though many blame the Congress for this malaise, we do not see any difference in the other “holier than thou” parties. While on one side people want change and new blood into the governance of our country and our other local bodies, it appears that the voters don’t have any choice and are literally compelled to bear the yoke of the same candidates or their stooges who continue with the organized plunder and legal loot of the state. This is certainly not a healthy state of affairs. The Motivational speaker Sukant Ratnakar, sums up our attitude very well when he says, “If we elect the same corrupt politicians every time, that's an obvious message that we don't want a change.” But do we really not want a change?
Despite so much exposure of some of the misdeeds of the legislators and the disgust that the electorate express about them, how is it that they continue to get elected? The modus operandi seems to be well drawn up and absolutely fool proof. As a case study, I would like to concentrate on the situation in many of the constituencies in Goa. There are numerous areas in Goa – besides the slum concentrations, which have been illegally occupied by dwellers from all over. These areas are densely populated with a huge number of voters.
The politicians representing these areas have not only encouraged these settlements but also to a great extent legalised these dwellings despite their being in contravention of all norms of hygiene and decency, while the approving authorities have turned a blind eye to whatever happens in there. At times it is not only amazing but quite frustrating to see that when a person legally approaches the authorities for the approval to build a house in his own property how much time, effort and money has to be put in before getting the approved plan and subsequently the occupancy certificate, the power and water supply, etc.
On the other hand you have not just huts but multi-floored houses coming up overnight in places where they should have never been- apparently all with the connivance of the local politician.
Thus when a voter has done something illegal with the connivance of the people’s representative of the area, the former is forever subjugated by the candidate to dance to his tune when it comes to elections – with the threat that if the same politician is not elected, his (the voter’s) dwelling is likely to be demolished as it is illegal. This is nothing but blackmail. First you help and guide a person to break the law and then you pressurize him into getting you elected. This is how the so called vote banks are created and legislators and others who have made politics their profession continue to languish in power while the honest, tax-paying, hard working, original sons of the soil bear the brunt of poor facilities, high taxes, lack of development, poor environment, and in many cases even the loss of their ancestral lands. And the worst is that you cannot get rid of such corrupt and inefficient politicians.
Our politicians as has been exemplified by some of our topmost leaders, are not only busy with just elections but they want to be in power forever. Truly, in the words of the American theologian, James Freeman Clarke, “A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation”. Do we have any statesmen like politicians today?
So how do we break the jinx of the vote banks? What is the solution to this problem? It is something quite simple but knowing the aftermath, many politicians would not like to go for it. It is time that we restrict the term for any legislator, councilor or a Zilla or Village Panch to not more than two terms in succession. The present dispensation at the Centre with a vast majority would do well to bring about this change which will ensure a better future for our country instead of dwelling on sentimental issues which would prove the Turkish writer, Mehmet Murat Ildan right when he said, “Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the countries; at least they will steal only bananas”.
