Indeed it was heartening to see that the Wise men of Congress in Goa at last found the courage to get together on a common platform after a prolonged period of hibernation. (Herald, 15 November 2015) The credit goes to the people of Bihari who seem to have shown the way for this awakening. The only voices of hope in Goa since the last Assembly election were those of Vijai Sardesai and Reginald.
Now that we can hope to see some action in the coming months, it would be necessary for the seasoned Congressmen to exercise some caution before they jump into the election mode for 2017. First they must get their act together to show the electorate that they are going to bring about a change. The whole world and even more so, the youth of our country and that of Goa want “Change”.
To begin with- we need a change of candidates. The old guard has done well in their time and it would be befitting for them to pave the way and act as the guides to a band of new faces. This will not only give credibility to the Congress but also pump new blood and a fresh bout of Oxygen to the withering Congress.
Second: Do not talk against personalities but talk about issues. Dwell on the good that Congress has done to the Nation during the last 70 years or so. The successes in Self sufficiency in Food, the construction of roads and highways, the development of ports and airports, the surge of development of better communications and Information Technology, the build up of power supply to the nation, the availability of technologically advanced vehicles, all these are no small achievements in a country which has been saddled with so many variables of terrain, climates, castes, creeds, religions, languages, customs, etc. One must highlight that most of these achievements have happened during the Congress Regime despite the alleged factors and practices of corruption. It would do well for the Congressmen to remember “Small minds talk of people, Average minds talk of events and great minds talk if Ideas” So let new ideas be their guiding force.
Third: The Congress leadership should gear up for a Information Technology savvy election campaign. The use of the internet, Whatsapp, Twitter TV and other forms of media are the need of the day. During the last Parliamentary election, I had sent an email to the High Command at the centre by the email ID provided on their web-site. This email kept pending for days together and finally bounced as their system was apparently not working. This will not do. In fact this smacks of inaccessibility and inefficiency. If the congressmen cannot do it on their own it would be prudent to hire good management people who are well versed with the electronic media.
The people of Goa gave their franchise for a change during the last election. But all one hears today is about promises not kept and “U” turns. Intolerance, increased crime, subverting the freedom of expression, chaos on the roads, attempts to impose ones thoughts on others are some of the factors that seem to be the only changes that came about since then. Will the Congress or any other fronts that may come up for the next polls, be able to provide our citizens the change that they yearn for?
