The contours of the taxi strike and its impact on Goa’s tourism has been dealt with extensively in the lead column on this page. As the taxi strike gets in the indefinite zone, it is extremely critical that political parties cutting across all lines think of Goa, and not of their individual vote banks when dealing with the vexed issue.
It leaves no one in doubt whatsoever that non-ruling parties and some ruling politicians are banking on the strike to derive maximum mileage.
The optics of two former Congress chief ministers and the GPCC president sitting cross legged on the grass, showing solidarity with striking taxi drivers may be an excellent photo-op but do semantics and optics solve complex bottlenecks such as this? The Congress and the Aam Admi Party must seriously take into account that the larger reality of having checks and balances on taxis.
Moreover the onus is upon the Congress to dig deep into the speed governor notification and observations made by the Supreme Court and High Courts as detailed in the lead column on this edit page, it is a sheer irony that the GPCC is supporting a move to demand the withdrawal of the notification on speed governors when in reality the notification is of an amendment to the Central Motor Vehicle Rules. Importantly the Congress government in Karnataka has whole heartedly endorsed this notification and ensured that the central directives on speed governors, is implemented without any hitch. Therefore on what basis does the Goa Congress back the demand of the taxi drivers?
The scourge of vote bank politics, whether its religion or caste, should not spread to business or professional groups. If this happens there will no end to this breed of politics when issues will not be deliberated on merit but according to vote bank needs. This is alarming because if political parties do this, then groups like taxi owners will challenge the courts and the centre with impunity and justify it on the basis of support from political parties.
On this issue, all parties should come together and take decisions for Goa and not in favour of a particular group it is trying to woo. On issues of state interest, opposition parties have a responsibility not only to see that the ruling party works in the interests of the state, but also see that its own acts of opposition do not damage Goa’s core interests.
Therefore even on the issue of the sharing of Mhadei’s waters, the Congress may have genuine differences with the BJP over the manner in which the issue is being handled. But it needs to articulate this internally on merit and ensure that the message that leaves the State is common and united. In Karnataka for instance, inspite of its bitter differences, all parties seem to be united in their approach to the issue, which is obviously disliked by Goa.
Most importantly, specific stakeholders like tourist taxi owners have over the years, learnt the art of playing politics and politicians. Realising the need of politicians to keep such groups on their side, group leaders are adept at following the use and throw policy towards politicians and parties. Therefore State interest should always be the yard stick for decisions.
