It is almost a year that they ‘stole the people’s mandate’ and in a way defeated the people of Goa. Due to the failing health of our CM, there may not be any anniversary celebrations of the unholy alliance that gave us the current government; not that they have anything much to show case. No major legislation has been brought before the House. Cosmetic issues like ‘coconut tree’ status and opinion poll remembrance has been the hallmarks of the present government.
An all party delegation met the Union transport Ministers Nitin Gadkari & Piyush Goel to prevail upon them to convince the PM to bring in an ordinance to overturn the SC judgment on Goa mines leases renewal case. The BJP campaign for the 2014 elections was built around the promise of auctioning the natural resources as the grant of 2G spectrum scam had stuck on to the Congress Party. The Goa BJP governments renewed the mining leases, on the eve of ordinance mandating leases by auctions, defeating the solemn promise contained in the manifesto and making a joke of the ordinance.
The SC decision of cancelling the mining leases was in tune with the 2014 election assurance. Instead of upholding the SC view, all the parties ganged up to get the SC judgment overturned. They have strange arguments that the auction mode would lead to ‘outsiders’ to take over the mining trade and run it under a mafia system. How much of ‘Vedanta’ is Goan? Tender brought Dilip Buildcon to Goa to build the second Zuari bridge. We are told that the state economy would come crumbling down and the mining dependants would be in jeopardy, ignoring the fact that the state survived the crises from March 2012 to August 2015.
Forget the Government. What is the state of the opposition party in the State of Goa? They have three ex-CMs and number of ex-senior ministers amongst them. But like the earlier five-year period (2012-2017), despite a strong group of 16 MLAs, the opposition performance has been dismal. They have failed to hold the government accountable on any count. In the mining case instead of holding the government responsible for creating the mess, despite the first SC judgment of 2015 and a solemn promise contained in the 2014 manifesto, the opposition has connived with the ruling party in the endeavour to help the miners.
The opposition always represents a shadow government and is supposed to take on the government in challenging the policies and bringing in different policies. Here, the opposition party has abdicated its responsibility and has actually collaborated with this unholy alliance government in every possible way. Whether it is the passing of an amendment (without any discussion or debate) to the Town and Country Planning Act to have three CTPs for this tiny state or by its silence in shelving the regional plan by a system called ‘case to case basis’, the opposition failed the state.
The 2017 general elections were fought on issues like mining, casino gambling, land issues, river nationalisation and MOI. No attempt to spotlight these matters or attempt to arrive at some discussion of these emotive issues. The government dazzles the electorate with developmental works and pushes real serious issues under the carpet. The Government is on the verge of making Goa a Coal hub. It is our tragedy that even the opposition does not bring these matters on the table.
It is true that the opposition parties do not have access to the same resources as the government. That has to be overcome by sheer hard work, tact if not intellect and consistency. Unless the opposition shows that hunger for power, the electorate does not take seriously. The ex-CMs and ex-ministers could always use their experience in holding the government on leash. For strange and unknown reasons none of them even wanted the leader of opposition status. What would be our fate without Facebook and WhatsApp is anybody’s guess? Social media group appear to be the real opposition.
There is no doubt that some senior opposition leaders have been continuously hounded by the Government and made to live on mercy of judicial orders. Some of them, who are yet to face the police, are believed to live in perennial fear that their files would be opened. They have no gumption to fight back in the atmosphere of fear. There is a section which believes that the development of their constituencies shall suffer in case they go on the wrong side of the government. The Goa opposition is actually in collaboration with the ruling party and in a way is adopted by them to have a free run without any discussion, debate or criticism over their arbitrary functioning.
The role of the opposition is not only inside the parliament but also outside the parliament. Even outside the House there is hardly any resistance to the government. Currently the government has become completely non functional due to the failing health of the chief minister while it is a humane sign that all the MLAs got together in praying for his speedy recovery but the collapse of governance an attempt to run the state from hospital bed deserved criticism. They did not even make a grievance over the reduction of the budget session to a four-day formality!
Let us give credit where it is due. Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco appears to do his bit as the solo sane voice and outside the House, it is Girish Chodankar who is in opposition mode. Hope their tribe grows. As the unholy alliance completes a year, let us keep our fingers crossed.
(The writer is practising advocate, senior faculty in law and political analyst)
