After a more than a month-long run, campaigning came to an end in Goa on Sunday evening as the Election Commission imposed a 36-hour silent period before voting kicks in -- an opportunity to allow the voter to make up his mind based on the issues that have dominated the debate in the run-up to the campaigning.
The campaign far from being positive has been dominated by parties raking up needless issues and avoiding speaking up or addressing the core concerns of the electorate nor have they been open or receptive to criticism. Instead, it has been a shouting match with noise from both sides of the aisle trying to make their point louder than the other.
In the midst of it all, the campaign has fallen to new lows with fake narratives, false allegations, misinterpreted statements, name-calling nationalism, jingoism, prejudice and bigotry being on display.
The Election Code of Conduct mandates that political parties should remain confined to their policies and programmes, past records and work and should refrain from criticism on aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided, the code says.
Instead what was on display was allegations, especially by BJP members personally targeting the Congress candidates -- questioning whether the Congress candidate was really involved in the Kargil war, whether he really was a Captain in the Navy, etc.
On the other hand, the accusation of wealth misappropriation was directed towards the north Goa candidate -- which if true, begs the question of why governments in power have done nothing all the years to bring justice to the people they claim to be fighting for. Similarly, the Congress has targeted the sitting north Goa MP and accused him of being a leader who has never opened his mouth, not unlike how the BJP used to target Manmohan Singh accusing him of being a silent Prime Minister.
The election also saw the involvement of the Enforcement Directorate that summoned leaders of the Bahujan Samaj allegedly in connection with the Delhi Liquor scam, but instead, the move was seen as one targeting the historically oppressed community in a bid to ensure that they stay away from campaigning for the opposition for the polls. It was also seen that there was little pushback from the authorities in attempting to bring order to the discourse or direct it towards policies and respective manifestos of the battling political parties. The Chief Election Office took cognizance of 31 complaints of violation of the code of which three remain to be resolved.
Among the 31 complaints marked as acted upon includes the complaint that the Directorate of Mines signed a lease agreement with Vedanta Limited during the period when the code was in progress thus allowing the government to claim that it ‘restarted’ mining. This action was found to have violated the code and the complaint was forwarded to the Commission for further action, and no action has been taken by the Commission till now.
A divisive campaign may bring in short-term electoral gains, but it causes long-term damage to society that is left permanently scarred as political parties taunt communities based on caste and religion. One hopes that the current campaign will not lead to further divisions and fissures in Goan society as a consequence.
