CLEOFATO ALMEIDA COUTINHO
Where there is power, there is resistance. Resistance is a tool for change, but in the current economic regime, resistance move ments are weakening as consumerism catches up and citizens’ dependence on state schemes has sedated the citizen ry. Weak resistance finds it difficult to disturb the status quo and bring about change. Goa is no different, though the civil society is on a war path to save this tiny state from the real estate ma rauders. AGP & AAP were born out of movements. James C. Scott is spot on when he said social movements have been reduced to everyday resistance. For decades there have been popular movements to save Goa’s ecology, land, hilltops, and paddy fields, from the regional Plan move ment in 2006 until today. The civil soci ety has fought against the government policies destroying the state in the name of development. The scrapping of RP-2011 and SEZ were early successes. The recent achievements—scrapping the Unity Mall at Chimbel, preventing the rapacious 39A of the TCP Act from being kept in abeyance in St. Andre constituency, reversing proposed 39A changes in Pernem or scrapping the Mirabag Bandhara Project—show that these popular social-media-driven re sistance movements succeeded despite the government’s non-conciliatory ap proach. The government succumbed to avoid an electoral backlash. Certain primary goals of these movements were achieved. Alternative politics can come only when movement lead ers capture power or bring about a ‘political change’ Will these movements impact state polity in 2027 to bring environmental protection to Goa? Even when protest movements do not achieve their pri mary goals, they can significantly shift the political landscape and subsequent voting behaviour. Intense resistance movements can make the incumbent vulnerable. If a strong challenger en ters the electoral fray or builds a larger social base through alliances, electoral success will not be far away. Normally, there is a surge of political efficacy enabling changes in voter pref erences and pushing the incumbent in power to lower acceptance levels. It is generally expected that popular move ments push for alternatives by generat ing political changes. Resistance move ments have not always succeeded in bringing about political changes. Many times, the activists lose their momen tum and are accommodated, assimi lated and adjusted by the ruling forces against whom they initially acted. Goa’s resistance movements are issue-based, and translating them into a political al ternative remains a big challenge. Though protests and popular move ments directed toward disturbing the status quo as expressions of people’s grievances have the potential to re shape political thinking and electoral preferences. Such a phenomenon is a slow process as electoral campaigns require ground mobilization and build ing the grassroots networks needed to win elections. Recently, when the first major Gen Z protest success in Asia— in Bangladesh—spread to Nepal and Indonesia, it was thought that Gen Z would make an impact worldwide as the waves reached Madagascar, Africa and the Caribbean. The Gen Z protest in Bangladesh suc ceeded in its primary goal of unseating the ruling Awami League but failed to turn the movement into a political suc cess at the ballot box. Bangladesh got another established party, the Bangla desh National Party, which was previ ously linked to corruption and human rights violations. Even the Islamist Ja maat -e-Islami with a past of misogy nist and violence did better than Gen Z. The AAP could be considered an ex ception in India, as it emerged from a protest movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare and tasted success almost immediately. That the movement was backed by the RSS foot soldiers is a dif ferent matter altogether. Kanshi Ram asserted an alternative political culture through the Bahujan movement in UP and achieved success in alliance with other established parties. But both AAP & BSP failed to deliver the promised al ternative policies as their idealism fad ed into mainstream politics. Established political parties have long time public networks, disciplined party organization and well-developed grassroots mobilization channels. The BJP’s dominance is due not only to ide ology but also to logistical backing from every state apparatus. The opposition is found lacking both in organisation and resources to harvest the benefits created by heightened political activity through resistance movements. With very little organisation and strong net works for change, the Congress party posed a major challenge to the Ravi Naik legacy in Ponda. That was because the challenger Ket an Bhatikar-an ‘import’—had already developed a grass root mobilisation channel. It is a failure to build an or ganisation that leads the opposition and sometimes the ruling party co-opts persons with potential. Of course, most of the time, potential is measured by re sourcefulness! The protests movements normally do not have organisational structure and the leadership is also generally decentralised hindering strong unified cohesive political platform. Resistance movements are organised around with particular issues like 39A destruction in Goa and not a long terms strategy of building a political party to manage campaigns and engage with electoral rolls. There may be media glare over issues but they have limited impact in effecting political opinion altering voting behaviour without organisa tional structures. There is normally no single ideology driving the protests movements. The farmers’ movement at national level showed great poten tial but faced challenges when it came to changing electoral choices of voters. Even in US ‘Occupy Wall Street’ the left wing popular progressive movement against the economic inequality, could not establish a political platform or leadership structure to win elections. There are exceptions. NT Rama Rao caught the imagination of the Andhrait es over Telugu pride and stormed to power with hardly any existing par ty apparatus. Vijay of TVK ousted the DMK in Tamil Nadu in 2026 without much of an organisation. The ‘save Goa’ narrative has the highest potential to capture the imag ination, but the civil society warpath, without 24 X 7 grind for booth level management can only remain a pres sure group without translating into a political alternative but certainly it can weaken the dominance of the ruling party as happened in the Lok Sabha election in South Goa. (The writer is a designated Sr. Advocate and a political thinker)
