In Goa’s politics, there seems to be a thin line between intelligence and idiocy. The higher the intelligent rise in the corridors of political power the more idiotic appears the behaviour they manifest. The recent utterances from some ministers to ridicule and demoralise civil society groups (CSG) opposing blatant environmental and human rights violations in Goa, by accusing them of blocking development and destroying people’s livelihood in the State, are simply a manifestation of idiocy rather than intelligence. A government is put in place by the people with a mandate to promote the ‘common good’ in society. But, when such a government itself begins to violate its own laws it will take no time for a fascist rule to overtake democracy if not opposed by the citizens of this country. The very fact that CSGs are able to get relief for the affected people from the courts against such criminal violations which get carried out under the pretext of development, in itself establishes the guilt of criminal negligence or abetment of criminality by the government. However, instead of correcting course, ‘Ram Rajya’ is made to degenerate into an ugly and dirty street battle between the politician and the people with abuse of the State machinery to outsmart the people who democratically attempt to seek justice.
For the intelligent when in the opposition benches, any issue or NGO embarrassing the political party in government is constructive and progressive politics, but no sooner in power the same issues and NGOs are realised to be anti-national and anti-development. Until such time as power gets snatched it is mostly about tall promises on eradicating corruption and protecting culture. Once in the ‘mantralaya’ nothing else seems to matter except the thumb rule of ‘4 Cs’ – Construction, Contractors, Commissions and Communalism. The commissions mentioned here are besides those which get constituted to harass and destroy political opponents, but more about the unwritten code of monetary share from development projects, which in other words is intelligently labelled ‘corruption’ only till one is in the opposition. The intolerance and contempt for the democratic rights of the citizens gets so pronounced in such politics of idiocy that it becomes difficult for a common man to find a more polite term in the dictionary to portray the people’s anguish and disgust, other than the term ‘psycopath’ used recently by the Chief Minister of Delhi to describe the gutter level of harassment by the Union government.
Idiocy in Goa’s governance seems more about promoting the devil under the tag of development. Unfortunately, it is always the common citizen, particularly the poor, who bears the brunt of such devilish development by having to mourn the loss and suffer the pain from floods, cyclones, air and noise pollution and road mishaps. The privileged political class on the other hand, is insulated from this brutish onslaught of idiocy in governance by what is called security cover and economic privileges again afforded by the very same common people who get tormented. It is hardly ever heard that politicians and their families have been washed away or have lost all their belongings in a deluge like the one in Uttarakhand or Chennai caused by criminal development. We do not see any minister and their family gasping for breath or suffering respiratory diseases because of the alarmingly high levels of pollution which again results from criminal development. One never hears about MLAs or MPs and their families being buried alive in landslides caused by rampant hill cutting and deforestation which takes cover under criminal development. The fall-out from promotion of alcohol, drugs, gambling, prostitution, noise and other evils under the garb of casinos, music festivals and night life is suffered by innocent children and helpless women in Goan homes. For idiocy in governance, development is about revenue generation and kick-backs. For the commoner, development put simply would imply fulfillment of basic needs and liberation from huge tax burden imposed by a governance of merry-making and foreign jaunts.
It appears that this regime of political idiocy has become deaf and blind to the people’s cries and more eager to rub salt in the wounds of the Goan people by defiantly persisting with nuisance like aero shows, EDM festivals, casinos, 6-laning, and the rest. With limited scope of choices left with the common people to defend themselves besides the courts, they can only wait for the next election to teach a lesson, as amply demonstrated by the people in Delhi and Bihar, to those claiming to possess intelligent solutions to political problems. It’s time for the Goan to be intolerant, not on the basis of caste, religion or region, but towards those who seem to flaunt their intelligence with 4C governance and U-turns in an attempt to make idiots of the citizens who vote them to power in good faith.
