Of polls and unfulfilled manifestos
By Nisser Dias
nisserdias at gmail.com
SMS to 9422437029
Elections and party manifestoes seem to have become akin to
stuck-records, which are played again and again. The only difference is
poll stuck-record is played every four years, unless the governor cuts
short the term by dissolving the assembly.
Almost two weeks from now we will be headed towards the polling booths
to cast our ballot after having hearing the same political speeches and
promises from almost the same people. The new entrants mostly try to
rubbish the claims of the sitting candidates and dish out some more
promises. However all the poll promises made by the candidates and
political parties come with a rider. In case of a candidate (independent
or otherwise) it is, “If you elect me” and in the case of a political
parties, “If you elect us to power”.
During the run-up to the 2007 assembly polls Congress manifesto promised
to preserve Goan culture, monuments, heritage, ecology and environment.
In reality what we saw during the past five years of Congress rule was
destruction of heritage, ecology and environment of the state.
The congress also boasted of providing government that would be people
centric and development oriented. In stark contrast hundreds of
thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the
government’s anti-people policies. Height of heights was the fact that
the author of the Congress manifesto for 2007 assembly election advocate
Uday Bhembre himself took to the streets to protest against government’s
decision to allow English as medium of instruction. Today advocate
Bhembre is drafting the script for the downfall of the Congress with the
help of BBSM.
Supreme Court lawyer and Union minister Kapil Sibal had unveiled the
2007 election manifesto in Goa during which he had said that the
Congress’ vision for the next five years was to make ‘Golden Goa’ by
2012 as part of the golden jubilee celebration of its Liberation from
the erstwhile Portuguese rule. Congress were elected to power and
completed its entire term and what we have experienced during the last
five years is destruction, degradation and gang rape of Goa.
BJP’s state manifesto was much brief as it just said if elected to power
they would provide Goa centric governance and administration.
The most interesting manifesto was of the Save Goa Front – a fledgling
regional party propped up to field defectors like Churchill Alemao. The
strongman from Varca wanted to get back to state politics while he was
the Member of Parliament and the reason was obvious, there is more money
to be made here then at the centre.
Save Goa Front’s manifesto or rather Churchill’s manifesto was touching.
However today it feels that it was cleverly crafted to pull wool over
the eyes of the people. His manifesto spoke about:-
1) Recognition of Roman script in the official Language Act.
2) Scrapping of Mopa airport.
3) Scrapping of Expressway project.
4) Scrapping of regional plan 2011.
5) Scrapping of SEZ.
6) Solving Tourist taxi operators problem.
7) Administration reforms.
Besides this Save Goa Front manifesto spoke of Mediclain facilities for
artistes attaining age of 55 years, girl child to be given Rs 25,000
without interest for a period of five years to facilitate marriage and
no new industries to be allowed in Goa unless local youth were trained
to suit job requirements and employment guarantee.
If on analyzing this manifesto after 5 years Churchill Alemao did not
fulfil even one of his promises. What he achieved was to merge Save Goa
Front with the Congress to make a forced entry into the cabinet. He
failed to move the bill in the assembly to include Roman script in the
Official Language Act. Now he claims he did could not muster support.
Ironically he could muster support to save Education minister Babush
Monserrate from being dropped from the cabinet after being caught at the
Mumbai International Airport with huge amount of excess currency. He
even threatened to topple the government if Mickky Pacheco was inducted
into the cabinet.
He did not scrap airport at Mopa, it is just kept on hold. Then this
same man who kept saying no to expressway throughout his campaign wanted
4-lanning of the national highway the moment he became the PWD minister.
Regional Plan 2011 was scrapped earlier even before he became a minister
in the Digambar Kamat led government. Today besides supporting the 2021
regional plan which is even more draconian, he is staunchly behind mega
builders who had their construction plans approved under RP 2011. Worst
still he has called Goans opposing mega housing projects as ‘squealing
pigs’. SEZ were scrapped by the High Court due to the efforts of
spirited individuals like Franky Monteiro and others.
If at all Churchill Alemao won the 2007 assembly election against
Luizinho Faleiro from Navelim constituency (before delimitation) it was
because there was anti incumbency wave against Faleiro, BJP transferred
their votes to Churchill and third was tourist taxi operators and their
family which constitutes a huge chuck were behind him. He promised to
solve their problems but after 5 years being in power the impasse
between tourist taxi operators and tour operators in south Goa still
exists, which means Churchill did not work towards bringing a truce
between the warring stake holders in the tourism industry.
Thus poll promises or manifestos be it of the national political
parties, regional outfits or independent candidates are like baits. They
dangle it like a carrot before the eyes of the gullible and vulnerable
constituents and after they get elected or come to power forget about it.
After five long years we are facing elections again, Congress promises a
transparent government again which they did not do during the last
tenure, BJP is promising to clean up the mess of the Congress government
and also bring in all round development without discrimination to any
religion and Churchill Alemao is promising a sewerage plant in Benaulim
constituency if only his daughter Valanka gets elected.
Is it not proper that the state and its people get what it deserves as a
matter of right? Or should we continue to believe that political parties
and candidates will fulfil their promises in the manifestos. I for one
have stopped believing in manifestos. So at-least this time round let’s
not fall prey to false promise in the manifestoes and cast our franchise
for a change. (ENDS)
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First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - February 16, 2012
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