PANAJI
The meeting was being closely watched by political foes to see how much of a crowd the party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would pull.For the supporters, the meeting began on an edgy note with most of the crowd sitting in the shade and not occupying the seats which were directly under the sunlight. The AAP topi too offered little respite from the sun. However as the evening progressed, the seats filled up with several choosing not to sit on the vacant seats at the back and instead crowding on the footpaths and the stadia behind.For skeptics, it was an edgy beginning to the meeting. Right from the sight of groups of people appearing to be outsiders making their way to the meeting to the chants of Bharat Mata Ki Jai also led by volunteers of AAP from outside the State.Given the recent debate over nationalism and coercing to shout the slogan combined with the fact that many are not comfortable with public displays of nationalism, it was indeed edgy.However, all of it eased no sooner did Kejriwal take the stage and take up the issue of the chanting of Bharat Mata Ki Jai . “When Anna Hazare took to the streets at his call, the whole country shouted Bharat Mata Ki Jai in Unison. Today, the BJP government has to force Bharat Mata Ki Jai under the threats of being beaten up,” Kejriwal said.Even during the brief lull when a technical problem disabled the sound system during a speech by Pankaj Gupta, it was pre-independence slogans and nationalistic songs that were belted out by groups of supporters and volunteers.The issue once again came to the fore, when Adv Satish Sonak took the stage as one of the local leaders of the then anti-corruption movement chose to address the gathering.There were loud shouts from a group at the back predominantly from Salcete, who rained curses upon him for speaking in Marathi, which has no place in Goa .In the midst of all the stuttering screens and fuming generators, it was painfully apparent that the local unit of the AAP continues to lack local leaders with oratory skills.Not a single local leader had the firepower to say “Goa has been projected as Tourism destination for sex, drugs and gambling ” the way Kejriwal could.The AAP in Goa still needed their rabble rousers from Delhi to energise the crowd.
