At election time there is a shower of manifestos and promises, they promise everything under the sun, cunningly they target a particular gullible section of the society, youth, ladies, senior citizens, etc. Some promise doles Rs 2000, 3000, 5000, every month, it is like an open auction of your vote, so should we vote for the ones who assures the highest? Some new entrant parties have promised religious pilgrimages, another has promised housing to five lakh people, under the garb of being rescuers of the homeless; from where is the land coming from? Is comunidade land being targeted? Will this be another ‘Bhumiputra bill’ in a different form?
Banners and posters are put up everywhere defacing public property even coconut trees are not spared. Each candidate can officially spend Rs 28 lakh for election propaganda, unofficially it is much more, by some estimates the banners, hoardings, full page advertisements on newspapers can easily run into several crores. It is worth investigating what is the source of this extravagant funding. Is such wasteful expenditure required at all and how is the candidate going to recover these expenses? The Election Commissioner should investigate and make an impartial inquiry. Goa State has a public debt of Rs 17,962.24 crore.
In the previous elections the BJP government had promised Rs 15 lakh to every Indian citizen after unearthing all the black money. This was an empty promise which never happened even after demonetisation, later it was hinted that the government would withdraw Income Tax after introducing GST, however, we ended up paying both.
A big chunk of the State’s financial budget is allocated for these vote-oriented freebies leaving little scope to spend on essential projects. At present what is being projected and forced down our throats is the Gujarat model, Delhi model and Bengal model of governance. What happened to the Goa model of governance? Where are our Goan intellectuals, educated people gone? Can they not form a single regional party like Dr Jack Sequeira’s United Goans party to oppose the other parties?
Coming back to the main theme of this article, I am listing a few important points that might have missed the party manifestos.
Globalwarming/Climate Change: The primary objective of the manifesto should be to protect our environment, the forests, hills, fields, oceans, rivers, lakes, springs, ponds, wells, do not leave untreated raw sewage in the oceans, rivers and lakes. Please be aware that that this raging pandemic of Covid is the cause of environmental degradation, if we do not mend our ways worse pandemics are sure to follow. We have to shift from fossil fuel to green renewable energies. Solar power, wind, electric bikes, cars buses, the key to this is the li-ion batteries. China controls about 70 to 80 per cent of the world market, we need to reinvent ourselves with new technologies to stay abreast. We don’t even have a single green dedicated lane for cycles.
Eradicate Corruption: The root cause of every evil is corruption; right from the peon in the panchayat to the cabinet minister is usually involved, we have to get rid of this cancer, every manifesto should have zero tolerance to corruption.
Garbage: Garbage has reached monumental heights, we specially need to solve the problem of single use plastic and the diapers which are thrown by the road side.
Digital Divide: The Internet connectivity is very bad sometimes one has to wait endless hours even days at banks and government offices, children are suffering at online classes.
Roads: Improve road geometry, put cameras and traffic signals at road crossings construct rumblers (speed breakers) at intersections.
Comunidades: I have kept deliberately the most important topic for the last. Comunidades also known as Gaukaris are heritage institutions unique to Goa which have existed for thousands of years long before the Portuguese arrived. The Portuguese only codified it realising its importance, I have to stress that the comunidades are purely Goan institutions that have survived the rule of the Bhojas, Kadambas, Adil Shah and ultimately the Portuguese. People mistakenly believe that it is a Portuguese institution, most of the land in the villages is owned by the comunidade, every three years the land is auctioned out in parcels to the highest bidders for cultivation, fishing, etc. The profits are then shared among the shareholder (acionistas) or Gaunkars/Joneiros as the case may be. This was socialism at its best, as a consequence all the fields were cultivated and no land was kept barren, prior to liberation, Goa was self-sufficient in food grains and vegetables, this will make Goa not to depend on the neighbouring states.
The comunidades are self-governing autonomous bodies which used to function without the interference of the government, it has its own code called the ‘Codigo das comunidades’ with a set of well-defined laws and regulation, elections are held every three years, that elect its governing body, which comprises the president , attorney and the treasurer, the election process follows all democratic principles, a returning officer is appointed by the government to ensure free and fair election process, committees cannot take part in two consecutive terms, close relations (up to 3rd degree) cannot be part of the same committee.
Persons with criminal record cannot stand for elections, this could be a model code to follow. It is my humble request to incorporate to preserve the comunidades in the party manifesto and bring them back to its original glory, so all barren land is cultivated and we can call our beloved Goa green, green grass of home.
(The author is a lawyer and social activist)