SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2024
There will always be bright lights. And glitter. In Casinos, nightclubs, on drama stages, and in political rallies. It’s the glitter of Satan.
And it is to these lights that moths and other insects are drawn and sucked into the brightness leading to instant death.
The most precious democratic asset, of common, innocent and distressed people - their vote- has been turned into a commodity. Like moths they get pulled to the bright lights and the glitter of false promises and their hopes and dreams get charred to death.
This is the story of today’s politics and the ebb and flow of democracy.
Goa is getting systematically destroyed through greed
Greed has consumed Goa. The greed of power and money is leading Goa on an extremely destructive path. Don’t Goans need to live decently, happily and live well? Any government anywhere is supposed to be a guardian and a parent. Can future generations depend on reliable parents who will be protectors and keepers? This is a question and a message. Will this message spread?
The people don’t have a say. There is no one to hear their cries. People ask when we knock on doors, will they open and when will they open? The common man feels like an orphan when they don’t have a mother to hear their cry and run to them. They live with false promises, get betrayed and are back to square one. They vote, they pay taxes but wait hopelessly for services to be delivered.
As Goans prepare to participate in the biggest festival of democracy in India, they will have to ask and decide if they want to be moths drawn to the glittering lights, through a Satanic pull. Satan too was a fallen angel of God. Politics has similar players who kill dreams, hopes and futures. It is important to identify and isolate them.
The transformation of Satan from an angel of God to the epitome of evil is well known. A similar transformation has been experienced on our landscape that was earlier filled with hope and is now covered with despair.
Would people want to back political heavyweights who give the confidence to real-estate and loud music lobbies, that even High Court orders can be “handled”?
Would they want to elect political bosses on whose verbal orders land use plans are altered to suit specific plots and areas? Will they back those who have enough influence across constituencies to order massive felling of age-old trees to expand a narrow village road, quite clearly for crony construction projects?
When these forces get elected again and again, there is a strong feeling that this greed-based system is systematically destroying the land.
Democracy is all about delivery and extracting the price of non-delivery by rejecting those who do not deliver. Will people extract their price and punish those who do not deliver with rejection?
Some betrayers are also those who wear saintly robes, while some don’t treat all equally
When promises made to God are betrayed, including those who take their name in vain, will these people be taken to task? Remember betrayers are not only those who ride on political tickets but those who do politics wearing other saintly robes, including their leaders.
And there are those with Godly connections who promise before all Gods and then dump them in the bin.
And then there are those forces who don’t treat people equally. If you have two sons, will you ever love one and hate the other? That leads to divisions and polarisation.
It’s all about choosing between the bright lights of promises and the solidity of delivery of governance.
It’s all about who people want to choose. Would they want to choose a party-hopping matka king, who wants to contest elections again? Would they want to choose those who pride themselves on empowering women but do not pay dues of almost a crore for over two-and-half years to centres which look after women in distress across all spectrums, with food, shelter, treatment and rehabilitation?
Grassroots sufferers don’t matter to the emperors of greed
This is the gap between promises and delivery. Powerful systems care very little or none at all about grassroots sufferers. These sufferers don’t matter to the emperors of greed.
It’s like the super-rich and extremely powerful megalomaniac like the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un posing with little children and hugging them, as he rules him empire with fear as his weapon.
So it's upto the people to decide on their parameters on choosing their future leaders
Will people back those who support big financial lobbies to destroy habitats, fields and livelihoods and those who make plans for real estate sharks by pretending to do good to the common man?
This disease of greed has no cure. Political greed takes away empathy. It is up to the people to decide if they are fine with this. Are they fine when funds earmarked for centres set up to help women in distress and need, victims of violence and abuse are not disbursed? Are they fine when those who do God’s work by running these centres have to use all their savings to run these centres that are supposed to be funded by the government?
Elderly people have been lining up to fill their buckets with water at 3 am, because water comes just once a day and in a trickle, while their shiny new taps and water are symbols of a falsehood that there is water in every home because there is a tap in every home. People in villages across Goa now know that there is no correlation between the two.
Age-old trees are hacked mercilessly in Siolim for road widening with the sole purpose of giving wide road access to future construction projects cleared based on a rejected and closed Regional Plan. People are not fine with this, as they have demonstrated.
In life, there is one God who protects and inspires. There is no discrimination here, between children and siblings. There is no honour to one and dishonour to another, they are all children to be treated with equal respect and honour. Democracy should also be with no falsehood, no duplicity and no lies. Just promises delivered, for the betterment of people, honestly.
Does this sound alien and strange? It does because the false glitter has become a way of life and governance. It is up to the people to either choose this glitter or the grace and simplicity of honesty and the delivery of promises.
