The cusp between the fading of a year and the beginning of a new year is a good time to look inwards. It’s a good thing because looking inward isn’t all that common.
There are a lot of targets to point fingers at for Goa’s degradation and in some aspects near demise. But this time let us look at the social, political, economic and above all ethical choices people have made and continue to make, each a pebble that adds to the mountain of the mess Goa is in. It is time to point fingers at ourselves.
The conscience must be asked:
Have we kept our vote sacred or sold?
Have we chosen our representatives well or have we bothered to choose at all? Our votes are priceless. Have we put a price to it and sold it without ever thinking that the sale of one vote is a sale of Goa at every level- municipality, panchayat, zilla parishad or state?
Can anyone look at their conscience and deny that the narrative of any elections in the state is to “keep a budget” to secure blocks of votes? Why do truckloads of scooters, TV sets and other white goods get unloaded in front of slums and other areas and reach homes of people in one or two-room tenements?
Are our choices dictated by others including holy men, for their vested interests?
Does democracy get stronger or weaker when influential of society, including holy men, to show their importance and use the influence of their positions of faith as trump cards- decide on candidates and dictate who people should vote for?
This is often done through video messages, killing the essence of choice. Suppose there are even a few priests and pundits using their sacred holy places to influence or trigger the political advancement of their choices, these are clear cases of misusing sacred platforms for self and /or political interests to the detriment of Goa.
Do we question those who asked us to support defectors and betrayers?
Does Goa have an honest opposition? There are enough straws in the wind to indicate that even those who are “officially” in opposition, are bedfellows of those in power, criticising them in press conferences and seeking and getting personal favours at the back, like politically influenced government jobs for their kith and kin.
But there is a bigger symptom of a larger disease of democratic decay. When politicians take oath and swear in churches, temples, mosques and gurudwaras, and then do exactly what they swore not to do, do we ask our conscience why we trusted those who asked us to back them?
Do voters look within and have the moral conscience to hold those who betray accountable?
Are questions asked, when those you voted for because you believed that he or she is the best candidate against the one you did not want to be in power, join the party of the one he defeated? But when a politician defects, does everyone who voted him to power defect mess with him? That’s never the case. Then why don’t voters whose vote is insulted in this manner ask questions? Not just to the politician but the “faithful influencer” they blindly followed not realising that such advice was given due to vested interests and not for Goa.
If betrayer MLAs weaken democracy, the weakened edifice is sure to fall. But if betrayer MLAs are not questioned, and worse still, supported for selfish benefits, both by their voters and the men of faith and influence who dictated those choices, the weakened edifice of democracy and representative politics is sure to collapse.
By the way, do you remember that Congress MLAs had all signed affidavits which mentioned that if they betrayed and defected, this affidavit should be seen as their resignation letter as MLAs? Where are those affidavits? Why haven’t they been displayed and questioned by the office bearers of the party from which the MLAs defected?
There is something surely rotten in the state of (the politics of Goa)
The “he is good to me” philosophy could be a curse and not a blessing in disguise
There are so many decisions of politics, governance, law and order that revolve around the sole principle of ‘he is good to me”. Let us be slaves of our conscience and ask if this is right for a just, equitable, honest and ethical Goa. Our choices from the ward to the block to the district & the assembly are based on this principle. The law and the rules work or not work based on this principle.
The curse here is that the principle is a trap. Once “he” is good to you, no questions are asked. The biggest power in a democracy- the power to hold those in power to account, is surrendered at the altar of ‘he” who is good to you. It is “he; who gives you a job, secures admission for your children, overlooks your missing documents to arrange for government benefit, and makes you a beneficiary of a scheme you are not quite entitled to and so on. The whole of Goa runs on this principle. And the power to question is taken away without you realising it.
Ask your conscience if this principle works for Goa because in the end if the spirit of this land goes, then there will be no one left to be “good” to you.
As we conclude this year and the last INSIGHT of 2023, we hope this column left you more thoughtful and insightful. We thank readers for their regular feedback, support, and importantly suggestions and critiques.
After all, introspection is the cornerstone of an INSIGHT-ful democracy. And Introspection is the call of our conscience
Finally, democracy thrives only if we are slaves of our conscience.
