AAP, Version Goa – 2014, can be a quick download on the streets of Goa where there is a vast political space after the near demise of the Congress. A trial version floated in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections got the party 27,057 votes across 40 constituencies, a clear indication that a new people-centric fresh movement is needed to revive hope. In less than three years time when the next assembly elections take place, Goa needs a new alternative if it feels that the current government hasn’t delivered. AAP is in a great position to occupy the opposition space. But will it? The answer lies with every common man in Goa
Because the Hero lies in you
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The past two elections have shown that there is an empty void – that is growing positively larger – in the political space in the state. A space that was till date filled by the Congress. And which was conceded by the latter generations of Congressmen who chose to fight among themselves in their mad scramble for power. The grand old party is a “sea”, as one leader proudly had pointed out, with people walking in and walking out. All was forgiven for a consideration and everybody was welcome to leave as he was sure he could come back in as and when he wanted to.
For this empty space to be filled up there are very few takers, but this elections has shown that one party could potentially fill up this space. Till date it has enthused the urban, educated; but has the potential to reach all corners given that Goa is 80% urbanised. If it stays together it can prove to be a strong alternative to the ruling combine. But, only, if it stays together.
The beginning for the Aam Admi Party in Goa, like it did in Delhi, was after a section of the India Against Corruption movement decided that the only way to change the politics in the state was by joining the political mainstream. And the party began very slowly, with most people reluctant to join initially.
“In 2012 when the party started, it was mostly IAC members who joined,” Rajeshree Nagarshekar a journalist who had joined the IAC and then joined AAP after being convinced at the need to take on the system from inside as she calls it. “Some of us took the plunge, others stayed back,” she adds. She and Valmiki Naik, who was also with the IAC and joined AAP a week or so after Rajeshree, are co convenors of the party unit in the state.
The genesis of AAP can be seen in the agitation against the Regional Plan. This was when large numbers of the middle, upper middle, the civic society including the page-three crowd got their dainty feet with well-manicured nails dirty and entered into public space. And the Goa Bachao Abhiyan was formed.
After that came the movement in the gram sabhas, where people questioned and wanted to know what was happening to organised planning and people-oriented land use in their villages
These are the people who joined AAP. Along with them came the opportunists and the disgruntled workers from other parties who were intoxicated by the unexpected victory in the Delhi elections. Today many have left and the party is in the process of building up an organisation.
The lack of an organisation has indeed hurt the party in these elections.
“We do not have an organisation, or structure as yet” admits Valmiki Naik, attributing this as one of the reasons why the party could not do better in the Lok Sabha polls.
The two AAP candidates polled 3.3% of the vote share translating to around 27,000 odd votes.
“The bad part is we lost; but the good part is that people have become more confident. The fear was we would lose steam. But it has worked in an opposite way. Morale is very high,” Valmiki says, a thought echoed by Rajeshree, who says, “Despite what happened nationally, people are with us; and those who are with us, are really with us.”
AAP is in the process of building an infrastructure. According to their leaders, a state ad-hoc committee has been formed which will oversee the building up of this infrastructure.
“We need to build up the party. There is a space in the state that needs to be filled up,” says noted architect Dean d’ Cruz.
The involvement of D Cruz’s and the original patron saint of Goa’s first effective people’s movement of this century, of the GBA, Dr Oscar Rebello, with AAP (the good doctor was one of its initial members), is much more than symbolic. It is the most significant expression of a very quiet but effective transition of the GBA movement, which has morphed into what is now the AAP in Goa. The biggest success of these fledglings, as they hunted for office space and a car to move around, when they decided to contest the elections, is that this unit isn’t viewed as an appendage of the Kejriwal-led party. And with Goa’s disconnect from all things national more than other mainline states, AAP Goa is viewed as a people’s movement, whose time may not have come yet. But there is a hope that it will. Underlying the uniqueness of AAP Goa, let us reiterate, that those who run it and are joining it are collectively responsible for the destiny of AAP. It has the first mover advantage of coming to the party with very little baggage. Its successes and its failures will be theirs because this AAP is the Goa version, fighting for Goa’s causes and interests.
As Dr Rebello had once remarked during a chat “The AAP movement in Goa should be a custodian of Goa’s interests. It will be relevant only then. While India Against Corruption, which in a sense is a genesis of AAP, was formed to tackle corruption, which was a huge issue during the Congress regime, the concerns now are about protecting Goa’s identity, environment, ensuring that we have a just Regional plan and so on.”
Dean D Cruz adds that the party is not here because it wants power, but because there is a need to make a change and the way to do so is through the electoral method.
Dean points out that the BJP did well because it has an organisation in place and this helped them capitalise on the decline of the Congress.
“This was an anti-Congress vote, not a pro-BJP one,” he says, expressing confidence that the party will make a difference.
AAP members say that they are aware that there is a space being vacated by the Congress that has lost the confidence of the people and feel that they are the ones who can fill the place, give the people a choice, change the political landscape.
While Kejriwal was the hero who re-energised the inertia afflicted the people’s movement in Goa, the post-Lok Sabha AAP in Goa will move forward with new heroes. These ranks will have to be filled by newer ones. And above all AAP will truly be an AAM Aadmi’s party if it draws its spirit from the 18th day of December 2006 when town and country, the young and the old, the infirm and the athletic came as one to the Azad Maidan in Panjim to reject as one the draconian Regional Plan 2001.
If liberation was ever felt, it was then. For a people’s movement to succeed, we don’t need political heroes but people ones. For, as Mariah Carey sang, “A hero lies in you.”
