What are ‘friendly fights’? Another scheme to now fool Goan voters?

Are the Congress and their new found “friendly allies” gearing up to engage in some harmless tomfoolery called “friendly fights” in some constituencies?

So can we really know what are these friendly fights? And by the way even those who are fighting the friendly fights do not know what this fight is really all about. As Babush Monserrate declared that in Cortalim an “alliance” was finalised and there would be a friendly fight between him and the Congress.

So will we now have a “friendly” fight in Saligao between Congress and Goa Forward, and ditto in Velim, where both sides have so far gone for leather, only to be literally hauled up and halted because leaders pushing or saving their political careers are redrawing the goalposts of engagement.

Engaging with the people of Goa, is obviously a very trivial issue that is not only NOT a priority but is a mere footnote in their election check list.

And that is why we need to talk, dear Goans. We are nothing but mere footnotes on the agenda of most major political parties and those who are clinging to them with apron strings. The latest bogey of having “friendly fights”, between Congress, Goa Forward, NCP and Babush Monserrate is a tight slap across the faces of ordinary Goans who expected transparency in the equation between parties and voters. What is happening now are shady clandestine deals because neither Congress nor the allies are confident of going to the election as rivals.

If party leaders agree to “friendly fights” in other constituencies of their candidates while protecting their own ones with the other party not fielding candidates, this will be a new low in Goa’s politics. We ask, will there be a real alliance in one seat, and a pretence of a fight in the next one, even though the respective candidates want a real fight? How do you expect candidates who are there to win to handle this and what do you expect voters to do?

An absolute farce is being played out. You ask Babush Monserrate what a “friendly fight” means and he retorts that he doesn’t quite know and the Congress should be asked. When AICC’s Dr Chella Kumar is asked (and let’s put this on record that he is the only sane voice in AICC  who is batting for a clean party which is built) he says, “A friendly fight is a friendly fight”. Well we do not know what that means. The people of Goa do not know what that means at all. 

An alliance is always between like-minded forces and this like mindedness cannot be through statements in the media or social media. Have the parties sat to even compare their vision documents, their manifestos and plans to ask what are the common grounds that they have. Do they have a joint vision for Goa? What are their respective stands on several contentious issues? How can alliance talks even start without there is a meeting of minds on what Goa needs? When there is not even a murmur of any of this happening, this exercise is a shameful step at grabbing power by manipulation. But power will be a very distant dream since the people, of Goa are being put through a nightmare. But they will find a way. Frustration will lead them to go and embrace alternatives that appear cleaner, more systematic and genuine, away from the deal making factory the Congress in Goa has become.

But isn’t political leadership all about a contract with the people that in lieu of their support you lay the cards before them and take them into confidence. Has the Congress deigned to even speak to the blocks and the districts which painstakingly shortlisted names of candidates, chosen through a process, only to find that the final candidates chosen have been plucked out of the  personal wish list of  so called “senior leaders” – with Junior and Senior Rane being the main protagonists, with Digambar Kamat being the architect of exploding the A (alliance) bomb.

Do the sides getting into an alliance of convenience, which in reality are a series of multiple deals (coyly called alliances or adjustments) even realise that the manner in which this sham is being carried out will affect their own candidates who have applied brakes on a speeding car, hoping to avoid a political crash even before a single vote has been cast. We are researching  how in constituencies, there has been a deliberate attempt at bringing in candidates from out of the blue to jeopardise the efforts of ground level Congressmen who have never left the party and worked for it selflessly. And this has been done after the GPCC president has assured loyal Congressmen to start preparing in constituencies where they would eventually get tickets. But here it seems that even the GPCC president’s word is not good enough because there are other “deal making presidents” who have bulldozed their way and created extreme disruption in the AICC to force their candidates in or force alliance talks to happen, eating into time for campaigning and strategy.

There is despondency, pain and a lot of hurt caused to  genuine loyal Congressmen, as some Johnny come latelys who owe personal loyalty to certain leaders, like the Ranes, who have  had nothing to do with the party from the last election to next, have been given tickets.

One loyal hardworking genuine Congressman, a young man, who was given the hope of contesting his first election, met this writer. And with moist eyes, desperately trying to hold back his tears, he said, “For years I’ve worked for the party expecting nothing. When managing a university election for the Congress, I got my volunteers to stay at a government guest house for some days. When the bill of Rs 20,000 arrived, I had no money to pay. My father a retired government servant withdrew money from his PF account and gave it to me. The party didn’t help. And today, I have no answer when my supporters ask, why my ticket isn’t getting cleared because a “senior” leader wants his own man.”

Incidentally, many of them with moist eyes are young blood picked by Mr Luizinho Faleiro, who are now asking whether building a party is just a game to be played till deal making time arrives before the elections and other senor leaders take over.

And the answer to that is sadly yes. In a season of deals, the politics of people has been crushed.