While the political discourse in Salcete and South Goa seemed to have been steered by the Aam Admi Party over the weekend, touching emotional constructs, and failed promises, the real narrative that emerges here, is that issues of Margao and Salcete, hyper local issues that unsolved by civic bodies, has now taken centre stage with a “Delhi party”, like AAP.
And if the Shadow Council of the Margao Municipal Council or housewives and common women folk or the tribals of Quepem, are parking their woes with a topi clad man, they had probably never heard of till a year ago, then the take away is not of AAP’s inroads. The real story is of how the mainstream parties have left this road, the road that connects power to people, the path that leads from the government to the gram sabhas and the street that is supposed to deliver service to Salcete and beyond. It is the erosion of governance at all levels, which is bringing people to a new political platform which appears to be an outlet.
The challenge before AAP, is to make themselves an oasis and not a mirage in this desert. What they make of this is another story, whose time has not yet come to be told. But the story that needs repetition over and over again is what is making the tribals come to an interaction at Quepem, or the women of Margao to participate in the Margao dialogues. While the Shadow Council of MMC, consisting of defeated candidates in the MMC elections, has political interests in inviting Arvind Kejriwal to address people at the Grace Church in Margao, and that by itself is no crime, the participation of Madgavkars at the Margao Dialogues indicates that they simply need new faces to talk to, faces that are not politically jaded, faces that are not ridden with guilt of non-delivery of promises and yet without the courage to admit it.
The people who came to Quepem or the Margao Dialogues did not come looking for AAP. They came looking for new beginnings. What AAP has simply done is positioned itself into the first mover position, with the inherent advantage of a rookie who has no baggage, offering solution that appear nice. From Special Status to the setting up of a Tribal Advisory Council to reservations for Scheduled Tribes, are all issues that need resolution by the Centre. The AAP is merely giving a patient hearing, because that’s all it needs to do, in front of an audience which will not toothcomb the canvas of issues and sift them between centre and state. For AAP, this is easy because non- implementation can always be attributed to the BJP-led centre.
But then, there were also long pending very local demands on which the people of Margao have taken to the streets, protested, held press conferences, given memorandums and addressed rallies. All they have got in return are unfulfilled promises.
The Muslims of Margao have been demanding a kabrasthan for their departed, a genuine people’s demand that could well have been fulfilled. It lies pending for 17 years. It was not resolved for 12 years till 2011 when two petitioners Rose Maria Figueirado and Sheikh Basir went to Court. Five years have passed since then and it still isn’t resolved. In 2011, then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had told the Assembly that the issue would be solved, while in March 2014, Chief Minister Parsekar had told the Haj Committee, on their eve of their pilgrimage that their demands would be fulfilled. And the Congress cannot be absolved either, since this is a demand which was raised during their time in power and they have had a full term in the middle of this period with the local Congress MLA of Margao Digambar Kamat as Chief Minister. AND now when work has finally begun, on the kabrasthan, residents of Raia have complained of dispute in the ownership of the land in which the kabrasthan is being built in Sonsoddo. We have dealt with this in detail to simply show how a very local issue, unresolved for 17 years, has reached the door of the Aam Admi Party.
For years this and many other vacuums have not been filled. And to top it all, roadblocks exist which has forced many locals to gravitate to a new force which offers hope even if there are no so solutions.
While AAP is using this vacuum to its political advantage, as they should, the growing numbers in Arvind Kejriwal’s meetings, really reflects the failure of Goa’s mainstream parties and the tragedy of political complacency.
