The business of securing enough funds, not just to run the elections for party MLAs but also have much more to fund others so the business of multiple contests and splitting votes helps the ruling party. This will also be a time when decisions in government will enable the party to run the 2017 elections well. From now to December 2017, it will all be about management, not Governance .
Let’s face it. This is the last year of this term. The report card has already been prepared. At best the government can consolidate on the basis of some of its welfare schemes, but then have to figure out ways of dealing with its phenomenal undoing of Goa. But the bottom line is that the time for course correction is over. This is when elections management comes in. Over the next few months, equations will be mapped in each constituency, the fixed vote banks will be tapped, the mathematics of how vote splits will help the ruling party will kick in. Non-Congress political opponents, are not necessarily the BJP’s enemies. (The group of independents who may launch a regional outfit are being kept out of this assessment, since their strategy is yet to unfold).
However, as all this is happening, the peoples agenda cannot be forgotten. And the responsibility of keeping it alive rests with the people. On the anniversary of Goa’s opinion poll, it’s 50th year, the most burning question people need to ask and vote on is ‘Can Goans save Goa?’ The question is of immense importance. If Goans and those who love this land cannot save it, then who can? The road to Goa’s salvation has to be paved by the people of Goa. And thankfully those who want to save their land outnumber those who want to destroy it. But the majority are not powerful and the majority is divided. Their dream of the all inclusive, peaceful, democratic, clean Goa with a rule for, by and of the people is shared but there is no common roadmap to achieve it.
It is crucial that established citizens groups initiate an awareness program from every waddo and village upwards on the multiple crisis points Goa is facing. Each of the legislations introduced in the just concluded Assembly session, which will allow land and trees in the most eco- sensitive zones to be simple taken over by massive projects which will alter the way Goa is.
It is important to also fight the perception that Goans are anti- development. They are masters at saying “no, that they block any project that comes to their village. This narrative has to change and replaced by a narrative which explains that every Goan wants sustainable development which does not destroy their land. They want jobs and employment in sectors which blend with Goa’s eco system. Goans will welcome big factories and manufacturing units if they are located in fixed zones with all infrastructure in place. They do not want their villages to turn into cities but want their villages more developed keeping the village identies intact. Yes there is way to do it and this way has to be shown by the people.
Refreshingly people are responding. The Human Rights Law Networks, Goa chapter is working with its team of lawyers to throw a serious legal challenges to the draconian Tree Protection and the Town and Country planning amendments (See page 2 for details). At the same time volunteers as well as Village Groups of Goa and the Goa Bachao Abhiyan are drawing up a road map on how to pin the government to delivering a just Regional Plan.
What is most important is that a bottom up people’s movement based on awareness, trust and the need to protect Goa, is building up. That is our only hope.
