There are very few Goan expatriates who would view the election results with anything but the deepest cynicism no matter who won. But the one that won this time is the Party of Death. The one that was responsible for the deaths in hospitals in Goa during Covid because arrangements for oxygen were not made.
The reason for the indifference to the winners is that they come from the same cesspool of crooks, grifters and their relatives who made it to the candidates list. Save for the very few who were beaten at the polls, the rest made it in safely. As the Diaspora sees it, whatever colours candidates choose to wear, they have only two places to jump. Both those places are corrupt to the core. So the process follows a single path: if you are in the party that wins, you get to dip yourself completely in the horse-shit of filthy lucre. If you are in the party that lost, you get some crumbs of office and crumbs of the cake the ruling party is gorging on, all the while keeping a low profile to get protection from your past mountains of sin. Stir the pot and you’re in the tangle of investigations by the Potpourri of caged parrots that serve as state and central vigilance. So here you are. The winning party loots the State and the losing party meekly watches, either biding time for their own moment to plunder, or not rocking the boat for fear of prosecution. This is India’s current understanding of democracy finely tuned in Goa like nowhere else. The idea of Goa not that once was but which should have been today has gone to hell in a handbasket on every meaningful count: the ecology and land is being destroyed, employment is an unknown word, crime and indiscipline is rampant, the coffers are perpetually empty and the bounty that nature provides is either lacking, poisoned or adulterated. So the greedy men who won, instead of folding their sleeves and getting to work on all these problems, will instead be folding up their trouser bottoms getting ready to wade in the pig swill of ill gotten gain. But there is one hope although it has shown but a few signs of emerging. That the ordinary Goan will be more militant in demanding accountability from those who rule them, rather than running to them for favours big and small. Roland. Toronto.
