The current debate surrounding jobs and their availability has only served to prove that locals' fascination for government jobs is as strong as it always was, but what makes it worse is that the government hopes that by promising government recruitment soon, it will be able to hide its failures at job creation in the private sector, which the BJP had itself promised.
Controversy first erupted after it was reported that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told his MLAs at one of their regular meetings that there will be no large scale recruitment in government departments in the near future. The news sent shockwaves through the state with the Congress juxtaposing the BJP's promise of 50,000 jobs with the Chief Minister's recent statements.
And that the government sought to seemingly rescue itself by claiming that government recruitment will be restarted soon, has completely absolved itself of the responsibility of job creation and completely skirts the issue of job creation in the state.
The BJP quickly went into the defensive claiming that the situation was not as bad as it was reported and that not only will the government begin recruitment but that old recruitment procedures will not be scrapped and continued.
Lost in the confusion is the BJP's promise to create 50,000 jobs in five years. The State government is under no obligation to promise its constituents that they will be given government jobs and further sound all apologetic if they cannot seem to keep that promise.
But the promise to create 50,000 jobs, in the state through promotion of industries and investment is a promise that they had better be held accountable for. Not just in Goa but all over the country job creation is at an all time low, but the government's efforts to remedy the situation have had very little effect. Perhaps for this reason, the government is so eager to ensure that at least government recruitment takes off.
However, such a move has several inherent risks. No doubt, vacancies should be filled from time to time and if posts are superfluous they should be allowed to lapse. However the manner in which the party has sought to handle the issue, it's hard to ignore the fact that the party only aims to legitimize the fact that government recruitment is only a tool for political appeasement and to help party legislators appease their constituents in turn.
Hitherto this practice was prevalent but it wasn't as blatant as it is today. And if a system isn't how it is supposed to be, it must be challenged, irrespective of how popular it is.
In the case of political recruitment in government departments, having a government servant having political allegiances isn't just wrong, because fairness cannot be expected from them and further such recruits often believe they are above reproach owing to their allegiances.
It is this that must be carefully guarded against.
