After a lot of hustle and bustle of hustings, another election for the 40 seat Goa Assembly finally ended on the 7th evening (with the re-poll in one Margao booth). The fate of 250 odd candidates is sealed in boxes and protected by Kalashnikovs wielding security.Post poll, every political party claims to have felt the pulse of the electorate and come up with their confidant predictions of victory. Assuming that all these parties are bang on target, this is breaking news “Almost every constituency in Goa will have at least 2 MLAs”. Now that the people have taken the call, will these loudmouths please wait for the March 11th verdict?
Let us try and get this straight. Democracy is all about choosing honorable, efficient, eminent, selfless and taint-free leaders to represent us in making and enforcing laws for the development and prosperity of the state. Every single citizen of our highly literate state is fully aware of this.No rocket technology here. If so, could anyone explain this?Almost every constituency had most of its candidates who were anything but “honorable, efficient, eminent, selfless and taint free”. Most political parties, professing to be pure and invoking the name of the Lord, thrust some of the dirtiest scoundrels as candidates on the electorate. People of dubious character, looters of the exchequer, womanizers, ex-matka bookies, people facing trials of rape, arson, blatant corruption and the works. Every Goan knows that all political parties were fully aware of “the dirty scoundrel” they were propping up because of his muscle and money power to win, but tried to wriggle out by giving us the cliché “he/she is not convicted by law” line, when questioned. And we all know how the law and our courts work! (Remember the Salman Khan Best Bakery case?) But there is something called perception which is a very important factor in politics, which the parties conveniently ignore. But what about the electorate? How come we see so many people blindly following some of these rascals, a la rats behind the pied piper? Only in this case the bagpipes produce notes, freebies and favors as melody. Why do these people do so in spite of being fully aware that they are working towards causing irreparable damage to the fabric of our society and democracy? The only obvious answer is that they sell their soul for a few pieces of silver. If only the electorate would ask two simple questions of these candidates! Why are you splurging your hard earned money? How will you recover it? The answers are obvious. If it is hard earned he would be cuckoo to splurge it on the electorate, without recovering it a hundred fold later. If it is not hard earned we all know how he made it.And much as we appreciate the efforts of the Election Commissioner’s office for trying to curb code violations, it fell far short of attaining the desired results. The EC was running after the pennies while huge caches of pounds changed hands on the eve of the polls, as it happens at every election. Word has it that one tainted candidate, alleged to have amassed fortunes during the illegal mining, splashed in crores in a bid to salvage his hugely sagging pride. Some dished out 2 Gandhi faces, others the new pinkie for a single vote!! Another candidate, notorious for his cash politics, was seen on a local channel claiming he spent very little on his campaign as he didn’t need any money. And all this with a straight face! The viewers must have rolled over in laughter. That may have been the channel’s comedy program of the day. Why, outside some polling booths chamchas of politicians were seen “paying off” voters for votes polled. Some rascals managed to hoodwink the authorities, managed to influence voters with their ill-gotten wealth and most probably will be laughing all the way to their bank all set to stash fresh cash soon.And ironically some of these candidates were the first to cry foul and blame their opponents for “cash distribution”. A part of our electorate must have thus sold their soul.
Another section of the electorate must have voted only because “the candidate is from our caste/religion”. Irrespective of whether the candidate is competent, capable, taint free, selfless, possesses the virtues needed of a legislator, this lot of people will vote for the candidate just because “thoamchezaticho/dhormacho”. This stance is apparently taken by this group from their perception that, if it votes for someone of its own caste/religion, accessibility and fulfillment of its legitimate and illegitimate needs is guaranteed. However suitable the other candidate from the other caste/religion may be, he cannot be trusted. That’s their mantra which has been clandestinely imbibed in their minds by their communal and caste conscious leaders, in spite of the SC ruling against using caste/creed in elections. Yet another part of the electorate consists of diehard party supporters and would vote for a stone if it contests on its party symbol. These are normally people from the older generation who have seen the good governance given by their particularparty (known to them by its symbol) in the days of yore. But alas! These people are not aware or refuse to be aware that their favorite party has been taken over by unscrupulous, shady and corrupt elements which are now ruining our state. These elements however, visit the homes of this diehard older generation once in five years and place their hands on its feet. The rest of the five years they havetheir hands in these people’spockets. We can understand the older illiterate part of this section. But how is one to interpret more and more literate youth of this section joining this school of thought? Are they “xikunbruth” (literate idiots) whose reasoning power is held to ransom?A sizable part of the electorate must have voted thus.
And then comes the turn of the law abiding voter who has no vested interest. He wishes to elect only an educated, dependable, honest person of impeccable integrity to represent him in the assembly. He has no preconditions. Heis yearning to see our Legislative Assembly full of legislators capable of selfless devotion to the people of Goa. He is anxious to stem the rot and the cancer that has spread all over our polity and the system. He is rooting for a positive change and is itching to kick the bottoms of the incompetent and corrupt politicians. Hehas systematically scanned the available candidates, chosen the best and pressed the button accordingly. He is at peace with himself and with his God for doing what was expected of him.
It’s all over and done. The cash received will soon be spent. The freebies received will continue to remind us of the biblical Judas Iscariot. The stocks of free booze and xacuti will not be replenished and will soon run dry. The dirty war of words exchanged and the trading of blows will remain forever. The character assassination resorted to will be festering like a diabetic sore. The enmity between villagers will sour daily relationships for a long time to come.The thought of being responsible for electing an unfit person because of voting on the basis of caste and creed will haunt many.But most importantly, the thought that I can be bought for a few pieces of silver will lower me in my own eyes and I may never be able to see a mirror again.
Come 11th March and the boxes will be opened. Will there be more “bought” votes polled and a scoundrel named as our MLA? Or will there be more votespolled on “zat/dhorm” and we have a communal and caste conscious MLA? Or will we have upright, honest and persons of integrity filling up the 40 seats at the Porvorim Assembly Complex, bringing smiles on the faces of the vast majority of Goans eagerly waiting with bated breath?
What’s in the box?
