In just over 15 days from today, we will be voting for our two new MPs, and electors in three Assembly constituencies will be selecting new MLAs. The election comes just two days after Easter, the feast that radiates light after the darkness of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. It is sad, but Goa is also going through a dark political period where defections are playing a major role in the formation of governments and in keeping them afloat. Can the Easter light that will soon shine, two days before the polls, bring about a change in the political system? Can it bring a change in the manner in which the people view their politicians and vote? Can the Goan voter show that democracy and its tenets cannot be played around with by politicians who have no qualms about tinkering with these principles?
Since 2017, five MLAs have changed sides in the State. Did any of the MLAs who have changed parties ask their constituents whether they should cross the floor before doing so? The MLAs have been voted to the Legislative Assembly to represent the voters of their constituency. Is it the voters’ choice that they break ties with their party on whose symbol they were elected and cross the floor to the other side?
When a candidate seeks votes on a party symbol, he or she is propagating the ideology of that party and seeking votes for the particular programme that has been provided to the voter in the form of a manifesto. By severing ties with the party on which he or she has been elected, the MLA is turning his back to the ideology of that party and also to the voters who reposed their trust in him or her. It’s a volte-face and one that disrespects the voter and also the democratic principles.
Let’s look at what the MLAs had been elected to do. They were not voted to power to change sides. They were given a list of tasks to be done, and in that list was the task of creating jobs for the people. Had they been able to create jobs for the people, other than for themselves which they get by changing sides when they are rewarded with cabinet berths or chairmanships of government corporations, there would be less people migrating outside the State. Today, a large number of Goans are migrating to lands overseas in search of employment for the simple reason that they do not get jobs for their skills in the State. We need industry that provides jobs to the people’s skill sets. We don’t need factories that will bring in people from other States because there are no Goenkars who are qualified for those particular jobs.
But that is not happening, because we have been saddled with politicians who keep personal and business interests above that of the people. A case in point is the permissions granted to coal handling at the Mormugao Port Trust that overrides all the objections of the people of the town of Vasco. Was the voice of the people heard here?
Can MLAs who do not listen to the voice of the common man be called true representatives of the people? In a democratic setup the voter is always king, but, in our State, the person elected assumes the qualities of a king and treats the people like subjects of a kingdom, rather than partners in government as envisaged in a democracy. That has to change, where the voice of the people is what matters, and not that of the politician.
The by-elections on April 23 are an opportunity to tell the defectors that their services are not wanted. They are an opportunity to tell them that enough is enough, that Goa cannot be governed in this manner by politicians who change sides. But will the electorate rise to the occasion and dispel the darkness of defections? Goa has to say no to the frequent somersaults of the politicians. Goa cannot be fooled by the political class at every bend of the road. There has to come a time when the people’s voice is heard, and the voice is crying for a political class that stays loyal to the symbol they have been elected on.
