As we close in on 2017, Goa’s town and country is once again getting into battle mode. And notwithstanding the fact that there is no tangible leadership or opposition to spearhead the movement for political change, ordinary people are rising. The people of Goa wish to deal with this government first, hold truth to power and yes hold a mirror to this BJP government.
Across Goa, there is a genuine, strong people’s backlash against the broken promises, the U-turns and the let downs of this government and no longer can the BJP or the Chief Minister call them “political” or motivated” or the handiwork of some “vested interest media houses” (Herald obviously included).
What happened in the gram sabhas across Salcete on Sunday is no mean achievement. Five gram sabhas and one panchayat were added to the growing list of villages, which have discussed not just the government’s handling of the Regional plan but how the existing village plans of their respective villages will not work and hence have been rejected. Save stuffing the Regional Plan down the unwilling throats of people, there is no other way the government can bring the RP 2021 in any form. But before we proceed further let us document the people’s angst.
On Sunday, gram sabhas held at Cavelossim, Betalbatim, Guirdolim, Varca and a special gram sabha at Benaulim resolved to oppose to the Regional Plan in its current form given the quantity of discrepancies present and how it stands to destroy its villages respectively if passed. Meanwhile the Curtorim panchayat came down on the Town and Country Planning department as none of the suggestions sent by the village level committee had been incorporated.
According to our own ground report, the biggest meeting in terms of the number of people was at the Benaulim special gram sabha held in the evening where there was not enough place for the people who had come to attend the gram sabha. While the panchayat resolved to convene another special gram sabha at the Dando Grounds on January 24, The gram sabha resolved to oppose the regional plan in its present form and for it to be scrapped.
Each of these meetings on Sunday, further established the growing and powerful trend in Goa’s grassroots. Ordinary folk are coming out of their homes and attending gram sabha meetings in massive numbers only to express solidarity with decisions taken against the government’s inactions. And this is happening inspite of there being no opposition party or face. If this is not a people’s movement, then what is?
Overall across the five gram sabhas, hundreds and hundreds of Salcete residents have vowed to protest if the government enforces the Regional Plan in its present form and have also questioned what the government was doing for the last four years since it had earlier given the impression that it had already incorporated the suggestions sent by village level committees.
But all agitations need a spark. And that has been provided by a decision that could be BJP’s waterloo – to amend the Goa Daman and Diu Tree Preservation Act to take the coconut out of the classification of a tree. The Chipko Satyagraha agitation on the Guirim Mapusa highway led by Professor Prajal Sakhardande, students and common folk, was a peoples idea of a protest and to protect their beloved coconut tree by hugging it. Independent MLAs Vijai Sardesai, Rohan Khaunte, Naresh Sawal and the increasingly independent minded Alexio Reginalo Lourenco, did joint in but it was clear that they were willing spectators. For a change, people were the leaders.
The narrative is changing. The people are taking control and the ruling party is increasingly getting out of sync. Those who want to occupy the ruling space the BJP currently occupies have to play by these new rules of engagement, which will be people led and people driven. Somewhere down the line practical realities will necessitate a political formation and seat selection and so on. But for the moment, the people are in charge and filling this political leadership vacuum is a responsibility people will have to take.
