Even before the BJP has woken up to demand that the Casinos operating in Mandovi river be sent out to sea by 15th March 2009, one can very well conclude that their demand will be fullfilled by the 31st march 2009. This is called 'perfect setting' in politics. There is no difference between one political party or the other, one politician or the other, they are all members of one club. They need each other to survive in this loot and plunder and all the bouts of blowing hot and cold is well synchronised to keep the common man entertained. With the Lok Sabha elections due in April 2009, no political party would like to risk losing the elections. The public anger against Casinos is well known to the political party in power. That if the sentiments of the people are not respected there is a possibility that the opposition party may walk off with the cake at the end of the day. So, it is almost certain that for the months of April and May the Casino royals and maharajas will stay out at sea or temporarily berth somewhere away from the public eye. The removal will save face for both the major political parties. One will claim that it has heeded the demand of the 'aam admi' while the other will boast that it stood with the people and forced the government to get the casinos removed. It will be a win-win situation for both groups. The ever forgiving public will be entertained into forgeting the pains and torture they went through at he hands of these politicians and will be busy basking in the success of driving out the casinos into the deep blue sea. Every one of the public will be an Obama. The river cruise operators and on-shore casino operators who hate the floating casinos, not because they are culturally or morally polluting but everyone knows why, will also be happyto project themselves as social activists. As it is commonly said 'there cannot be smoke without fire' and so this all about 'AAG' somewhere. Once the elections are over and with the approaching monsoons the royals and the maharajas will all be back to clog the Mandovi water channel until the next election is round the corner. But by then the common man will be immunised to into tolerating the casino culture and we always have the politicians with an alternative distractor in their pockets. It could well be the lollipop of 'Special status' which is softly cooking on low fire on the backburner at St. Inez and Campal. Jai Ho! Jai Ho' Yeh hai slumdog politics bhai.
-Soter D'Souza
