People are really busy on the eve of elections. A lot of give and take is indeed taking place. Foot soldiers of parties are roaming the streets with packets in their hands which they are quietly palming off to voters. Some candidates, including senior ones, have even gone to the homes of people to distribute cash.
These are not reports. This is reality. From the slums in Tiswadi to quaint Portuguese homes in Salcete, the cash man has come calling The vision of a cashless India has been defied, with a cash filled Goa election. The supreme irony though is that there was a belief that demonetisation and the severe lack of cash reserves would put a lid of money distribution.
But cash isn’t the only thing raining. Smart phones have joined the list of poll bribes. More than Rs 50 lakh worth of mobile phones, LED TVs and air coolers have been seized by the commercial taxes department, suspected of being poll related purchases without proper invoices.
Liquor worth Rs 40 lakh along with drugs including LSD, cannabis and MDMA worth over Rs 15 lakh have also been seized during the poll period
The use of cash for direct bribery started in the mid-2000’s and has gone onto become more and more sophisticated. One of the reasons why poll bribery has thrived is due to the changing demographics of Goa. The quantum leap in the number of migrants and the burgeoning slums has given birth to a new kind of voter who would not just thrive but live off monetary enticements. In Mapusa, Panjim, Vasco and Ponda, the migrant voters will play a decisive role. This was amply evident when candidates are bringing over VIP’s, ministers and ordinary folk from across the border to attend election meetings in Goa.
It is this very same segment which is being targeted for funds distribution and they are more than happy to receive in cash or kind. Many senior politicians in Goa would not ever have won the Assembly, without the slum vote and it is during the elections that it is payback time.
But Goa cannot allow this at two levels. Firstly, we need to be better than this. Cash rich politicians flinging their ill-gotten wealth at us, looking for our votes is plain despicable. While this message may be too late, but in each constituency, there should be a citizen’s vigilante squad which will report the hoarding and distribution of black money. Secondly, at another level, the person who is caught is a poor carrier and hardly ever the candidate on whose behalf the funds are distributed. The new set of poll reforms must ensure that the money trail is established and traced back to the last mile, and severely punish the candidate and not the person distributing money.
We are witnessing an uglier and seamier side of electoral politics. The tragedy is not that this is being increasingly seen in Goa. The tragedy is that this is become like a runaway trend, which has no place for clean politics.
The next phase of electoral reforms, needs to factor in the tracking and punishing of candidates whose people are caught distributing money or goodies. That will be a bigger deterrent than what has bene envisaged so far.
