The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee needs to take a long, hard look into the looking glass. And no, not the cloud cuckoo land brand they have obviously been using thus far which reflects, Alice-in-Wonderland like, only what they want to see.
Any reasonable Goan “ as opposed to the Whatsapp chatteratti which has little if any concern with the substantive issues that face Goa today “ would want a vibrant, alert Opposition that grapples with these real concerns of the people and attempts to construct a viable counter-narrative. But what have we got instead? Rhetoric, piggy-back-riding and attempts at polarization, combined with a breathtaking lack of any introspection whatsoever and an unwillingness “ or is it inability? “ to engage with the substantive issues that any potential government-in-waiting, which is what the principal Opposition party in a democracy is, ought to have as its top priority .
Look at the so-called issues the Congress has been raising in a bid to stage what its leadership is hopeful will be a comeback “ “secularism” and “intolerance” (rhetoric); the tragic death of a former priest which is being investigated by the State’s top police officers to put it beyond any doubt and the controversy over some ration cards issued in Vasco mentioning it as “Sambhaji” which the government has since loudly clarified it has nothing to do with and has even ordered an inquiry into the “mischief” (piggyback riding); and last but never the least the sotto voce campaign against all those who don’t see evil incarnate in everything the duly elected BJP government of the day or a putative Third Front or even the fledgling Aam Admi Party does or says (polarization).
As for the substantive issues of the day, from viable tourism to sustainable mining, more and better paid jobs to a land-use/zoning policy that balances the development-environment paradigm, does anyone know what the Congress stands is on any of these? More importantly, what does the Congress Party propose to do better than the current dispensation? How? Where will the monies come from for its policies (which it is yet to propound)? What will be the sectoral resource allocation priority? Facts and figures, please!
The hoary old leftist strategy of “popular fronts” that the GPCC leadership has adopted which uses sympathetic NGOs, trades associations, a section of the media and the like to create an “issue” and then uses the “atmospherics” thus generated to try and discredit its opponents is a strategy that is subject to the law of diminishing returns.
The Constitution, a liberal ethos, secularism, pluralism, individual rights, gender equality “ these are part of our DNA, in Goa and in India. We don’t need the scare-mongering of the Congress (or the BJP or Third Front, for that matter) to get us to support them to preserve these. These politicians are there to administer the State and tell us how they propose to do so. That’s it.
