POLITICS OF REGIONAL CHAUVINISM.
This week has witnessed implosions within Regional Political
Parties in India.In faraway Assam, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta,
founder-president of the Assam Gana Parishad got the boot from the
Executive of the Party,whilst nearer home in contigous Konkan,
Narayan Rane of the Shiv Sena was expelled for"creating an
atmosphere of defiance in the organisation"
Both the political parties at their zenith were able to capture
the imagination of the disgruntled youth in their respective
States who were promised "the pie in the sky by and by" and led to
believe that their future was being usurped by "outsiders"/
"bhaile". (remember Konkani is used in the Konkan region and so
the term "bhaile" was in fact used in the neighbouring Konkan
region by the Shiv Sena. This is to our personal knowledge.)
Issue-wise the political content of both the above political
parties can in terms of "issues" be categorised as being
fundamentally similar,viz. "economic migrants", and "muslim
outsiders". Whilst the CONTENT was successful in EXTERNALISING
the actual problem, with the passage of time, it was found to be
INAPPROPRIATE in the CONTEXT of changed situations reflecting the
reality of India becoming a global village by the fallouts of
better communication capabilities,and Liberalisation,
Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG).
Both Parties are likely to meet their political waterloo at the
hands of a cabal determined to propagate a private personal
agenda.Whilst the Shiv Sena is still mired in the dictats of its
Fueher, it appears that in this respect, the Assam Gana Parishad
is better placed to survive, thanks to the democratic impulses of
the Party membership.
Both Parties raised the bogey of party discipline to respond to
the IDEOLOGICAL CRISIS within the Party.However both have not
succeeded in fooling anyone who cared to peer below its
petticoat.The YOUTH of both the States and the citizenry at large
have now realised that BIGOTED ATTITUDES,REGIONAL CHAUVINISM,and
DEMONISATION of "outsiders"/"migrants" was resorted to so as to
pull wool over over peoples eyes to explain away the hard and
harsh realities of POLITICAL HISTORY and ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY.
UNEMPLOYMENT,DEFEATISM,and LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES TO EXERCISE
CREATIVE IMPULSES led to the growth of these discredited monstrous
ideas of REGIONAL CHAUVINISM, not quite dissimilar to the ideas of
fascist Hitler.In the Indian context it is not surprising that
both these Parties were allied with---at the start covertly,and
latterly openly-- with the BJP and its precursor the Jana Sangh.
Poised as Goa is , at its political cross-roads, Is there a lesson
in preventive politics to be learnt or would Goa bumble and
stumble and wait to have recourse to heroic political medicine?
Perhaps a way out of the dilema was presented by an erudite,
contempory scholar of world repute who firmly and courageously
affirmed " You must have the courage to accept life as it is.This
means loving ones times, without vain regrets and without mythical
utopias, convinced that each one has a mission to carry out,that
life is a gift received and must be bestowed on others, whether
the times are serene or intricate,peaceful or troubled. But it is
not enough to accept life as it is. IT IS NECCESSARY TO TRANSFORM
LIFE from self-centred to an other- centred position. Love the
whole world, because we are all brothers and sisters and each one
must must bear the whole of humanity in his /her heart."
We submit that INTERDEPENDENCE is the correlative of SOLIDARITY.
"Solidarity is a firm determination to commit oneself to the
common good,to the good of all and of each individual, because we
are all responsible for all".
MUST NOT REGIONAL CHAUVINISM GIVE WAY TO UNIVERSALISM? IS THIS
THE WAY OUT, IS THIS NOT THE WAY TO GO?
GOA JUSTICE AND LABOUR FOUNDATION
(Registered under The Trade Unions Act 1926)
Registration No. Goa 413
Regd.Office: Annexe 271, Turtle Bay, Tembavaddo, Morjim Beach,
Pernem,
Goa-403512
WE CARE, WE DARE!
