Whether Goa gets a better government or the
government it deserves, is something that
the electorate will decide on 4 February. In
the meantime, it is raining manifestos. It is a
tradition for every political party to come out
with a manifesto which enshrines its vision for the state for the
next five years. Earlier, this exercise used to be handed over
to a group of intellectuals who usually came out with a document
that seemed very clever, but difficult to implement. This
practice would have continued if the Aam Aadmi Party had
not launched its Goa Dialogues to elicit views and suggestions
from people. From this process arose 40 constituency-specific
manifestos which were filtered to create a common one.
This turned out to be a game changer. The Congress followed
with, what it claimed was a consultation process with around
50,000 voters. The result was a manifesto released last week
with a host of freebies and promises, many of which seem implementable.
The salient feature of
consulting people is that they suggest
things that can be done, unlike
Think Tanks which go off on a tangent.
Sooner than later everyone
wanted a manifesto and candidates
put up by political parties and independents
all started pouring their
efforts into creating manifestos.
One wished there was a law to bind political parties to their
manifestos. Sadly, this is not possible because manifestos are
an expression of intent. Nonetheless, the exercise kicked off
by AAP has created a revolution of sorts. Although in the past,
some candidates used to print their agendas on pamphlets,
leaflets of fliers, the manifestos we see today are on a higher
level. The idea of having a bottom-top approach to writing
manifestos is much more refreshing. It gives the voter an insight
in to what needs to be done and helps identify the aspirations
of voters in a particular area. Even though Goa is a small
state with small constituencies, people in one area are often
unaware of the problems or needs of other villages. These localised
manifestos act as an eye-opener. Generally speaking,
politicians have their ears to the ground, but an exercise to
elicit views puts them in touch with the aspirations of voters.
Some have even gone to the extent of having separate youth
agendas, which is happening for the first time.
However, while the exercise is a good one, the rather disturbing
aspect is the number of freebies that political parties
and candidates are offering to woo voters, from increased payouts
to the unemployed, apartments for slum dwellers and offers
to wipe out loans. Another word for this is future bribes
which is not good for democracy or the electoral process. We
certainly welcome the hyper-local manifestos but continue to
worry about the freebies and the burden they will place on the
exchequer. An intervention by the Election Commission is solicited
in this area.
