As the monsoon session of the Goa assembly enters its last week, it’s time to assess if a significant progress was made in addressing issues of critical concern and most importantly drawing a time bound road map for solutions.
As the 21 day session draws to a close the feeling of dejavu engulfs us. We have seen and felt and heard and experienced and consumed all this before. The Chief Minister said a week before the session that the governments plan on the financial restructuring of loans of mining affected would be discussed in the house in the first week. That final plan is still in the air. The discussion on the mining policy, now an extremely complex exercise after the High Court judgment directing the execution of lease renewals of 28 mining leases, will be rushed through with MLA’s getting a copy of the policy in the morning and asked to hold the discussion in the evening.
Moving on, the fate of key policies still hangs and there is no clarity on whether they will be discussed and framed at the executive level with no stakeholder participation or will there be scope of those who matter to speak their mind. The tourism policy is the single most awaited document in the state of Goa, because with the future of mining still precarious, the industry that still feeds many mouths needs clarity on bread and butter issues- taxis, garbage, road and other infrastructure, shack allotment and taxes. The larger decisions on which foreign junket the minster undertakes, isn’t a concern for tomorrow but it’s important to understand that the policy should be all encompassing and definitive so that tourism becomes an inspired process and not an ad hoc toy in the hands of the powerful.
All through the session, issues got raised and debated without a closure. The Regional Plan continues to be one of the most sensitive concerns of a majority of Goans. The Chief Minister first sought to duck by procrastinating on the issue and hoping to push it back by another session on the pretext of handling the mining crisis first. Then, under severe pressure, he decided to appoint a House committee to deliberate on it and come up with a road map with an interesting rider than that the committee would be formed and would meet only in September. This will effectively push back any movement on the Regional Plan till the end of the year, while construction under the neither here nor there plan continues. This clearly has been the single biggest betrayal of the people of Goa, not just during this session but during Mr Parrikar’s term as Chief Minister.
We still hope that there is some inspired batting in the slog owners of this session when the police bill is introduced and time frames given for a final mining policy, a tourism policy and a new Regional Plan. If Mr Parrikar is in need of inspiration, he should take a quick look at the premise the High Court used to direct his government to execute pending leases. The Court relied on the doctrine of promissory estoppel, a legal term which can be used for political conduct too. It simply means that if a party has made certain promises or contracts by virtue of which the other party invests and makes commitments, the first party –which can be the government- is bound to honour its promise, policy or commitment. This doctrine of promissory estoppel holds good outside the court of law and is especially relevant to a government. Mr Parrikar should be held accountable under the same doctrine because the people of Goa have invested in him on the basis of his promises. He is therefore bound by that same doctrine to make good his promises.
Unfortunately for the people of Goa, the people’s court-called elections- is held only after five years, when a Chief Minister is asked if he has followed the doctrine or not. For the moment, he is asked to honour it, because this doctrine, in a democracy is law.
