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. 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. 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 pay-outs 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.
