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**** Annual Goanetters Meet ****
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The annual Goanetters Meet is scheduled for the first week
in January 2012. Details to follow.
If you plan to attend, send an email to [email protected] with contact
details so we could reach you once the details are finalized.
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Code Of Conduct, A Decaying Tooth
The most expensive extravaganza in Goa has been flagged off, the games have
been officially declared opened with "let the games begin" by the Election
Commission of India, as polls have been declared for Goa and the Code of
Conduct has been enforced. Goa is all set and geared up for what looks to be
its biggest ever election in its history, as more parties and a lot more
candidates are willing and ready to take the plunge into the quagmire of Goan
politics, voters too have increased considerably and so too looks to be
spending power of the Candidates. 3rd March 2012 has been set as the day of
reckoning for a few new and a lot more, well seasoned politicians, may the best
win.
There is a lot of stress being laid by the Election Commission on the Code of
Conduct for parties and candidates who wish to contest the elections, but
unfortunately, if we go through history, isn't the Code of Conduct for the
politicians, like honour among thieves, non existent ? Do our politicians ever
follow this so called Code of Conduct ? Not so long ago, just before the
Municipal Elections, Panjim witnessed an early Christmas, where even senior
politicians and Ministers as well as the other elected members of the Goa
Legislative Assembly, become Santas one too many, all on a generosity spree in
broad daylight, wasn't the so called EC a bystander then ? Today the voters at
every election, from the mere Panchayat to the Parliamentary elections have
been lured by the power of money and as the stakes of the candidates go higher,
so too the price of a vote with every damned election.
At every election it in made mandatory for every aspiring and seasoned
candidate to declare his or her assets and finances but surprise surprise not
one of our politician has ever been investigated and debarred from elections
for wealth beyond legal means and resources, even though almost all our
politicians have perched themselves on a mountain range of illegal wealth and
assets which are flaunted in the open, like a pole dancer in a skimpy string
bikini doing her act of seduction. Is the EC so blind even to notice the well
defined contours ?
With the elections declared the Party honchos will start their gate collection
with the highest bidders getting seats irrelevant of the character or the type
of work put in by the individuals. As declared by the party leaders the
criteria for the distribution of tickets will be "winability", which literary
means, person with more spending power to buy votes. Like every election,
liquor taps at all bars will flow non stop without running dry, unlike our
water taps and all and sundry will be paid for or on the house, till the
election day for Goans to eat, drink and make merry, some will even provide
motorcycles, fridges, televisions and lot more but the offer will be for a
limited period only as the validity of the generosity of our politicians will
expire on 2nd March 2012, absurdly our EC talks about enforcing the Code of
Conduct, isn't that hilarious or even delirious ?
Even as the election date is set and the Code of Conduct supposedly enforced,
our inane politicians have suddenly started distributing jobs, to their
respective constituents. Out of the blues vacancies that were non existent have
become available and that too just before the elections. Isn't that amazing ? I
wonder what happens to the endless list of the unemployed on the employment
exchange roster ? Isn't it high time for the end of the winding line to move a
wee bit closer to the counter of hope ?
Our politicians with elections in mind try to popularize themselves by
distributing jobs and goodies to their constituents thus breaching the Code of
Conduct set by the EC and the EC with all the power bestowed on them, do
nothing but just watch the murder of democracy from the side lines. So what is
the use of this so called Code of Conduct when neither the candidates follow it
nor the EC enforces it ? We do have laws in place to support our Constitution
but unfortunately our Authorities lack the will act, for the laws to be
effective, so much for democracy and the self rule ! The Code of Conduct is yet
another decaying tooth that lacks the bite, in India's Constitutional armory.
Freddy Agnelo Fernandes
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Protect Goa's natural beauty
Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve
Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php
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