We are in November 2021 and we Goans would have to decide, which party would be best suited to govern Goa for the next five years. We are lucky that Goa has both, the print media and our religious gurus guiding us spot on for the last several decades to make our choices.
Let me reflect and take you back a decade ago. It was the massive mineral ore mining scams which had dominated the election scenario. Manohar Parrikar from 2007 onwards was going hammer and tongs against the scams, that were going on in the extraction and sale of the iron ore. As a Minister of Mines as well as the Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat granted leases to several mining barons. As China needed iron and steel to prepare for 2008 Olympic Games, Goan ore fetched high price and as a result even 54 million tonnes of ore was exported at a rate of over 120 US dollar per tonne.
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This has had a huge impact on the ecosystems and environment of Goa. Water bodies were depleted, agricultural field felled with toxic mining rejects, our forests were plundered and there was an overall disaster for Goans at large.
Herald with its Managing Editor Raul Fernandes tried hard to usher sanity in the mining sector but it was left to Goa Foundation to step in much later and help stem the loot and rot. Indeed Parrikar took advantage of the people’s disgust and got himself elected in 2012 and comfortably placed BJP in the driver’s seat of Goa governance, which still persists for the last 10 years. In the last 10 years, with Congress out of power and BJP on the saddle, things started to worsen. Parrikar did a series of U-Turns and compromises with the mining barons and instead of promoting an agrarian economy for Goa, Parrikar too took mining scams to new heights and it was the tiring efforts of lawyers like Prashant Bhusan and others, including Norma Alvares, to have the Supreme Court to ensure sustainable mining takes place and inter generation fund is put in place.
The ministers in the government of today are experts in the field of real estate development. Orchards, forests, no development, coastal regions, hill slopes, converting parking lots into shops, converting residential areas into commercial zone is the modus operandi of the BJP government of the day.
It is no secret that people voted for Congress in 2017 and BJP got the Congress MLAs to defect and robbed Goans of their mandate in 2017.
Sadly, for the last 5 years, the Congress leaders at the National level are absolutely weak and unable to handle Narendra Modi’s government. The BJP is selling all the public assets of over 70 years to the AAA Corporates and hopes to use the funds in the election to the various States including Goa and Uttar Pradesh.
For us, as Goans, we have at hand the chance to get a change in government, but voters do not want the 2017 scenario to be repeated with Congress playing and preying on the voters as a toothless tiger. Congress today in Goa as well as at the Centre does not appear competent to take upon the BJP.
It is therefore not a surprise that hordes of Congressmen have been joining Mamata Bannerjee in her endeavour to place the Trinamool Congress flag on the Goan soil. My friends in the media too see the writing clear on the wall that BJP’s defeat required a Mamata to take on Narendra Modi. The role of Pramod Sawant is counterproductive to the BJP and Luizinho Faleiro is training all guns to win the confidence of the Goan voters.
The Trinamool Congress has managed to gulp the entire Congress block in the Valpoi sector. In 2017 and before Trinamool was unable to cut much ice but with three months to go Mamata, Prashant Kishore and Luizinho would be expected to bring out a rabbit from the ‘hat’. We as Goans must learn from history so that we can score victories in the future.
History tells us that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had to eat humble pie in the last Assembly elections in West Bengal. Besides, Trinamool does not have any of the baggage of mining loot, real estate scam and the dark shadows of the casino industry promoted by both, the Congress and the BJP. We know BJP brought into Goa one sitting duck offshore casino discarded from the USA and Congress added six more of these white elephants on the Goan society.
We, the residents of Panjim, are suffering because Captain of Ports is doing precious nothing to stall crimes, drugs, ills of gambling on the Indian society. Goans should shun dirty money in the form of casino fees and charges. Why should we Goans parasite on revenue acquired by cheating fellow Indians? The house always wins a term used in gambling parlance. A gambler always loses in the hope he would hit the jackpot the next day around.
So Goans do not gamble with your vote. Enough is enough. The BJP in Goa has destroyed Goan heritage, culture and economy. In democracy, we get a chance to correct and improve.
Let us all make the best choice for a better future for ourselves and our children. Vote wisely today for a better tomorrow.
We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors, but have just borrowed it from the future generations.
(The writer is a retired University Professor and an Environmental Activist.)
