The root cause of Goa's critical state of health is unhesitatingly a corruption and precipitous fall in the moral standards of our politics and public life. On count of heavy corruptions Goa Buchav Abhiyan (GBA) & Archbishop of Goa too have rightly and literally washed leaders of ruling congress party of Goa without even applying soaps.
Knowing this fully well, the shameless peddlers of Congress Party (CP) and their followers in Goa are still traversing the length and breadth of Goa and also trying to rope in GBA & the Archbishop, propagating the "gospel" of venal corruption. I'm not too sure of general public but GBA being apolitical force and Archbishop representing Arch of Christianity will never re-apple Goans to reconsider congress party in Goa in the upcoming election. To counter these two forces, statements and pronouncements like "corruption is preferable to communalism", "corruption is lesser evil than communalism", "communalism is infinitely worse than corruption", "corruption is reversible while communalism causes irreversible damages", "corruption is not a public issue", "corruption cases against CP leaders are nothing but political vendetta" are ringing loud in the news papers and electronic media almost every day. So much so that even some of the educated thinkers appears to be working over time to sanctify corruption and give respectability to CP leaders and their affiliates, who are facing charges of bribery, criminal misconduct and misappropriation of public funds. Afflicted by this virus and emboldened by the weakness and meekness of our judicial process, several other political entities have entered this bandwagon and are flooding the media. These statements sanctifying corruption and giving certificates to its avid practitioners cannot be allowed to go unchallenged and unquestioned. While the ills of communalism are known and should be countered effectively, it need to be realized that corruption is like AIDS which sucks up and destroys the basic value system on which a society is founded and has no cure if allowed to go beyond a certain stage. Furthermore, unbridled corruption in government and public life could be a major causative factor in instigating and inflaming communal passions and disturbances. Besides, corruption, by slowing down economic development and accelerating poverty, is a major factor in causing and sustaining social inequalities and tensions. The significance of corruption in Goa is highlighted by the fact that whenever congress political regime has crumbled a major and often decisive cause has been the prevalence of corruption and misconduct among politicians and administrators and the resulting spread of unlawful practices among businessmen and the general public. The problem is of vital concern to the governments of Goa & India, because the habitual practice of bribery and dishonesty paves the way for an authoritarian regime, which justifies itself by the disclosures of corruption and the punitive action it takes against the offenders. Turning to economic development, corrupt practices have proved highly detrimental in achieving modernization ideals. Its prevalence has raised strong obstacles and inhibitions to development. It has decreased respect for and allegiance for the government and its institutions. It has even promoted irrationality in planning and has limited the horizons of plans. The corruption being spurred by fragmentation of loyalties has acted against efforts to consolidate Goa. Goa, ranking 3rd among the most corrupt states in India, has witnessed the dangers of collapsing politically and economically on many occasions only for allowing corruption to survive and sustain itself in the system of governance. Besides this, corrupt politicians, more typically congress leaders, under pretext of secularism have very shrewdly injected, within Goa's social fabric, conflicts between individualism vs. communalism, greed vs. sharing, formal vs. informal dealings, the willingness to view life as dispensable vs. our love for humanity, and religion vs. spirituality. The net result of all these implanted conflicts are an irreversible multiple damages within the peace loving communities in Hindu, Christians, and Muslims of Goa. History of Goa very clearly says that "CP ruled Goa without a backbone - All that CP knows is corruptions and nothing else - It is also equally surprising to see CP in Goa is bending twice before Karnataka lady whose intention is to divide and sell Goa for personal monitory gains". Now let's have a closer look on other aspects of corruption. Corruption has resulted in undermining Macroeconomic stability due to the loss of government revenue, excessive spending and leakages. It has increased the costs of doing business and small firms have started bearing a disproportionately large share of these costs - small entrepreneurs are badly affected. It has also compromised on pollution norms pushing the environment in danger. The poor community has already started suffering the most since they are getting to low quality public goods and services, leaving no "exit" options. There is a negative correlation between the level of corruption and the level of investment in the economy. This has severely constrained economic growth and employment generation. Large-scale corruption has also been instrumental in causing death and destruction like illicit liquor tragedies, accidents due to consumption of drugs, opium, ganja, heroin, etc. What is worse, by spawning inequity and injustice, corruption has proved to be an underlying cause for the growth of terrorism and militancy in peaceful Goa! Corruption is the single major factor in keeping Goa poor and backward despite having the best of natural and human resources. It is a major destabilizing factor in politics and economics. If the modern day "advocates" of corruption are allowed to have their way, they may as well wind up the Indian judiciary and scrap all the laws and statutes that help in punishing the corrupt. By pronouncing that "cases against XYZ of CP in Goa are politically motivated", they are casting aspersions on the independence and integrity of India's higher judiciary. By airing statements and pronouncements in support of "corruption", these worthies are, in fact, clamouring for this heinous practice to be declared legal and respectable! They are also insulting the intelligent, and indeed mocking at the common man who is carrying the burden of "the loot of the public exchequer" on his frail and slender shoulders. In fact it is a crude attempt to hoodwink the people and institutions of Goa and to protect the venal elements that have brought our Goa to such a sorry pass. Communalism is no doubt a scourge and a menace that needs to be combated with all our might. But by no stretch of the imagination could this be made into a smokescreen for justifying corruption at high places, which is far more venal and debilitating to the nation and its civil society. In the upcoming election, Goan electorate must know that Goa is surely a sinking ship under the captaincy of congress party and its right time to jump out by getting away with "the lesser of two evils" or "the evil of two lesser" theory and casting our votes judiciously or else we will sink our Goa to point of no return. Goans must also realize the innate wisdoms of our corrupt congress politicians and must surely reject attempts by political busybodies to "dry-clean" corruption using communalism as the "washing agent" Dr. U. G. Barad Margao - Goa
