The Goan Opposition ACTors have so far offered nothing substantial to overthrow the incumbent government, as their focus seems to be only on giving alms or bribes to voters to make sure slaves remain slaves. The mock fights or sporadic attacks on the government is to make sure the fight looks real and the votes are split and in case someone accidentally wins than a deal with the forming government can always be worked out. That said, AAP seems to be making the right moves, but they still have a long way to go and more Goans might start trusting AAP if Kejriwal just opens up and explains how his party manages such huge expenses.
Meantime nobody in the opposition wants to take on the government on taxation, be it abolishing personal income tax or eliminating high taxes on petrol as suggested by this writer in the last two columns. Goans seem resigned to their fate of high petrol price because the government took it above the psychological three digit mark and have now stabilised it under the three digit mark, so they have smartly managed expectations of the people and taken advantage of the short memory we have. Also no opposition party is willing to make a promise to eliminate high personal taxation, if they are waiting to take advice from their friends in the bureaucracy to work the math then forget about it, collecting tax is bread and butter for bureaucrats, they are never going to cut the hand the feeds them. This decision has to be made top-down and then forced through but no credible opposition seems to want to make it an election issue. Why should they, as they know their voters are slaves and can be bought by, with the same old tricks they have succeeded so far.
Meantime, Goa is witnessing a lot of monkey business these days, with many politicians jumping to different parties. Why do they do it and what gives them the confidence that even if they jump the voters are going to follow them. Well sorry to break it to you, but they are absolutely sure of Goan slavery. When moneybags arrive from Delhi, the money politician receives for jumping is directly proportional to the slave following the politician has. Exactly the way celebrities negotiate their social media advertising rates with the number of followers they acquire.
Okay don’t legitimise voter slavery just because it is compared with social media followers. Social media followers are not necessarily slaves; they follow because they are in awe of the celebrity, and might or might not buy the product the celebrity is trying to endorse. In fact they are so unpredictable and generally keep the celebrities on their toes, that one mistake a celebrity commits and the followers will reduce overnight pressurising the celebrity to backtrack. However, Goans allow the politician to commit mistakes day and night and yet get a chance to rule them for another five years, thanks to our voter slavery built in our DNA.
Please don’t take the DNA part seriously, but really what makes Goan voters stay so loyal to a politician, that they elect the same guy for decades together. Well, money power is the easy answer, but there are some smartly built-in mechanisms that have made sure a politician in Goa remains part of the loop in everything that a Goan attempts to do with his personal as well as public life. For example government forms and schemes distributed through the MLA office allow the MLA to blackmail the illiterate to trade off the form or service for votes in return. Panch members allowing minor illegalities built on personal housing or small business ventures so that the voter is then obliged to vote for fear the illegal activity might be brought to light, little knowing that in other parts of the world it is absolutely legal to do whatever you wish in your own plot as long as you stick to the broad guidelines. Goa unfortunately rules are kept vague so as to confuse the citizen, so that he is forced to take protection from his saviour, in this case the local politician.
Then there are some individuals, mostly educated, residing at different vantage neighborhood points that are hired by the politician to make sure all government business with the citizen is routed through the local MLA office fully knowing that work can be done in the government office without the MLA’s intervention. These individuals mostly manage to pull a fast one on the illiterate and the naive, thereby bolstering the image of the MLA as the go-to person for all your needs.
Of course not to mention the bad cop good cop routine, intentional problem creators so that the politician gets a chance to present a solution are some of the many tricks the politician uses to stay relevant. These actions have made sure the politician image inflates and the citizen image deflates, so much so that the citizen eventually loses confidence that government business can be conducted without the MLA’s involvement, hence the term slave becomes more suited to Goans. Politicians catch them young and so recruitment of slaves usually happens with football, festivals with free food or feni used as bait.
Want to shed the slave tag? At this election Goans have a chance; by not electing the same politicians that have been given a chance, even if their performance is good. Running the State should not be in the hands of some chosen few who have learnt the art of reinventing themselves at election time. Vote for a new dispensation, of course keep in mind the need to weed out those small fires who are paid to split votes and ignore all their save Goa rituals. So while electing elect for a party that fields 40 new candidates, does not deal with the corrupt and shows a proper road map. AAP ticks many boxes and should be given a chance, but they also have a lot of work to do, for starters, explain to the people that once elected the people of Goa will be the masters that will control the agenda. Kejriwal has said it but it needs to be repeated again and again because slavery cannot be abolished overnight, the promise sounds unreal and unbelievable so difficult to sink in.
(The author is a business consultant)
