– If all the streams flowing into the Ganges are dirty and polluted, can the Ganga be clean? Think of Goa as Ganga and answer this
– Goa will change forever if the same ruling and opposition political forces continue to remain. Its society, culture traditions, way of life- in short, its identity, will all go
– Goa doesn’t need any other model of governance; it needs a people’s model
– Goa needs a new political force which will fiercely protect Goan interests here and fight for Goa in the Centre
With less than
five months to go before the Assembly elections, the opposition parties led by
the Congress are divided from within and with each other.
What makes this
situation even more alarming for those who live in Goa and love the land is
that there is a general sentiment against the ruling party but no consolidation
in favour of a strong, credible and honest force.
No one in Congress
is secure about getting tickets
The “conductor”
approach of distributing promises of tickets, telling four people in each
constituency to work “as if” they are the candidates and then support whoever
is finally chosen (that could even be a few minutes before the nomination
deadline ends), means that throughout Goa there are many hopefuls who are not
even sure if their hard work will pay off. And with new people from other
parties joining the party and adding to the long list of ticket hopefuls the Congress
has ensured a “home delivery of infighting”. In every seat, there will be
rebels.
B teams are
using Goenkarponn as a political tool
The other smaller
parties, who plan to contest some seats do not inspire confidence of being true
to the deals of Goenkarponn. The Goa Forward fought the last elections on the
plank of Goenkarponn. This, time the RG (Revolutionary Goans) has been trying
to project itself as a party that will protect Goenkarponn. It has only used
Goenkarponn as a political tool and is believed to be working on splitting
votes which will favour the ruling party. Is this Goenkarponn? No, it’s a shame
on the purity of Goenkarponn.
Goans do not
want B teams to publicly function as opposition parties but in reality, are
helping the ruling party.
What are
people’s biggest fears? That the present opposition parties will betray them
People of Goa
have seen enough, experienced enough and known enough. When a dozen Congress
MLAs who won on the basis of the Congress vote in installments join the BJP and
the Congress fails to do anything about this, it shows the basic weakness of
the party as much as it shows the greed of the defectors. When people talk
about Congress MLAs this is what is heard, ‘They gets votes in the name of one
party, then become MLAs of another party. When they come close to forming a
government, their high command tells the man who had led Congress to victory,
Luizinho Faleiro not to stake claim. As workers and leaders felt, its central
leadership literally sold the party.’
This election
is not about political change, it is about total overall regaining of our
social, cultural, economic ethos
If the same
forces who have been ruling Goa for years and years continue, Goa will change
forever. Its essence is at stake. One has to clean Goa of its baggage. It has
to regain its culture, ethos and way of life. The need is not to make Goa
change for the worse forever.
This election
looks like a bazaar, a trading house of buying and selling
How long can
elections in Goa be a bazaar where buying and selling goes on openly. There is
fixing at every level and there is fixing going on even within opposition
parties for individual seats. And who is doing this? Sons of the soil. It is
said that if one or two polluted streams flow into the Ganga, the clean Ganga
will still be clean and clean those streams too. But if only polluted streams
flow into the pure Ganges, can it remain pure and clean? It will get polluted.
Look at the state of Goa like the polluted Ganga.
Goa doesn’t
need another model. It needs a people’s model for Goa
Ultimately a
people’s party chosen by Goans will be run according to the Goa models. At the
same time, we have seen that none of the parties, the Congress’ or the BJP are
capable & not even interested in fighting for Goan interests in Parliament.
The surrender of Goan interests when bills for the nationalisation of rivers
and the Major Ports Bill was passed without any form of protest or discussion
by Goan MPs. Then even as Goans, especially in South Goa were set to lose
personal and village lands, and their homes were getting increasingly covered
by coal dust and their walls were getting cracked due to vibrations of trains
passing, did a single MP from any of the parties both the ruling and those who
claim to be the opposition, fight for Goans interests and speak out against the
three projects, set to destroy Goa i.e. The power project, the highway
expansion and the double-tracking of South Western Railways?
The parties in
play in Goa and new forces claiming to be the real opposition who are B teams
of the ruling party, will not ultimately protect Goa’s interests. It needs a
people-based party with a proven track record of strong opposition to
anti-people interests without compromising and buckling under the pressure of
ruling forces anywhere.
Currently, all
local parties are playing the fixing game with the ruling party becoming the
ultimate beneficiary
While the ruling
party’s rule has raised the need for a people’s governance with the
participation of people, not a single opposition party is fighting for change
in the way a people’s party should and will.
The job of
opposition parties in Goa was to demand accountability from the ruling party on
its promises and schemes. Have they done that?
The BJP got to
double digits in the next elections on the basis of its welfare and financial
schemes like DSS, Laadli Lakshmi etc. But not a single opposition party has
either demanded or revealed the block-wise details of schemes applied for and
disbursed? There are complaints of scheme amount not being deposited accounts
for months. Herald met and did a story on an elderly poor couple in Panjim who
were literally starving with the scheme money not reaching them for months. And
there are so many like them.
What Goa needs
– a new political force of the people by the people for the people
There is time for
a fresh political force, based on the ‘people first’ principle, to be the
people’s voice and the only pillar to offer a real challenge to the ruling
forces in the Goa Assembly elections. Goa needs horses it can trust to win this
race. At the moment it doesn’t find any on the starting line and waiting for
one.
