Even a cursory glance at the manifestoes of the political parties in the fray for the February 4 Goa Assembly elections is sufficient to confirm that many of the issues of the 2012 elections find mention in the long list of promises made in 2017. Five years ago, around the same time, when the campaign for the Assembly elections was just beginning to gather steam, Special Status for the State, recovery of the Rs 35,000 crore mining loot as calculated by the Shah Commission, a rationalised Regional Plan 2021, shifting of casinos, medium of instruction, new Mopa airport and how this would affect the existing Dabolim airport were burning topics discussed at party meetings, in boardrooms, at the tinto and everywhere in between. Five years later all these issues are still the subject of debate at all these places and now, also increasingly on the social media.
So what exactly has changed in the last five years in Goa?
The promised parivartan, if there has been any, appears unnoticeable especially when one scans the party manifestoes for the 2017 elections. In the last five years what Goa got was a few bridges built and construction of others undertaken, roads hot-mixed and widened, hotel projects given clearances, a few expansion projects of existing industrial units, even as the citizen’s fight to protect the environment and the identity continued. The party in power has these development projects to boast of and to this list, it can add the host of schemes that it introduced during the past term. But the issues that should have been taken up and resolved still remain unattended and find their way in various party manifestoes all over again.
In 2012 nobody had been talking of monthly doles to housewives, of a one-time grant of Rs 1 lakh to girls or free talk time and data to youth, yet this is what the government gave the State, despite a cash crunch that resulted from the closure of mining operations just six months after the government came to power. Ironically, while mining operations were stopped completely, casinos saw an uninterrupted run on the River Mandovi, and on land, despite demands for the relocation of the floating casinos.
The BJP-led government had a full term and a majority given by the people of Goa to complete its programmes and fulfill all of its manifesto promises. It could have settled all pending issues, with the numbers it had in the Assembly. It chose to keep most of them pending. Now, there is little it can do except change tracks to cover up for what it did not do. And that is exactly what it did on Tuesday when the party said that the State does not need Special Status, because it has already got special treatment from the Centre in the form of projects. The misconception is that Goa is seeking Special Status to protect its land and identity, not special treatment in the form of development projects.
All political parties must remember that progress cannot and should not be measured merely by projects or by populist schemes. Taking credit for bridges and roads that are sorely needed, and long delayed, is hardly the sign of success. Giving doles is a sign of failure to empower the people economically by gainful employment. It is true that populism pays to a certain extent, in that it can get votes to the party or the government of the day, but it also has its pitfalls, for populism cannot score over all round development.
The balance sheet of this government may show development projects on the credit side, but on the debit side is a long, long list of failed promises and U-turns.
