MARGAO
Guess the factor, or the combination of factors, that brought out the minorities in strength on polling day to cast their vote on May 7, the day when most of the polling booths across Salcete were hit by a tsunami of voters.
Post-June 4 results, it’s now apparent that voters had come out with a purpose, to vote against the ruling BJP in what has now turned out a one-sided battle in most of the minority-dominated segments in the South Goa constituency.
But why, is a question that will keep repeating in political circles and may come back to haunt the saffron party for a long time to come.
Poll pundits and political commentators have been quick to attribute the minority vote going to the Congress in line with the Pan-India voting trend, where the minorities voted strategically and tactically against the BJP.
A host of questions, however, still remains unanswered in local political circles. One, did the minorities come out to vote only to save Democracy and the Constitution? Or, to exercise their franchise enshrined in the Constitution for the last time ever, fearing that the BJP with 400-plus seats will change the Constitution, denying minorities the right to vote?
Or is it because of the host of local emotive factors, including a communal build-up over the last one year, centered on controversies surrounding around Maratha Warrior Shivaji Maharaj, attempts to revive the Sancoale Church row, with the Christian community dubbed as anti-Hindu and Pro-Portuguese at the drop of a hat by fringe elements and with no BJP leader worth its name coming out to the defence of the minorities?
Or is it simply because of economic factors such as inflation, unemployment et al that swayed the votes in favour of the Congress candidate or whether the people had come out in certain segments to teach the defectors a lesson?
Just consider this. Around 4 pm, when a media team took a round of the Salcete coastal belt to find out the progress of polling, they were all left stunned when they found not a single queue of voters, before realisation dawned that polling had already crossed 60-plus percentage, indicating the voters thronged the booths since early morning with a purpose and without waiting for leaders and workers of political parties to ferry them to the polling booths.
Commented a political observer: “It’s true that minorities in Goa have by and large followed the pan-India pattern of voting against the BJP. The BJP must have hoped on polarisation of the majority on a host of factors revolving around PM Narendra Modi, Ram Temple et al. In the same way, a combination of factors must have been responsible behind polarisation of the minorities. We should not lose sight of the fact that minorities in Goa were waiting for the opportune time to give vent to their anger against the BJP.”
He added: “Tension was palpable over the Shivaji Maharaj statue right from Calangute to Mapusa and Vasco down to Sao Jose de Areal. Then there was the incident at Sancoale Church, when an attempt was made to install a deity. Some of the BJP Ministers were pro-active in the installation of Shivaji statues. The law enforcing agencies, including the police acted as mere spectators. One did not hear any BJP Minister making an appeal for communal peace and amity. Instead, they only issued warnings that the government will book and jail people, including religious leaders, for fomenting trouble when the government was found wanting in enforcing the rule of law.”
PM tried to woo minorities during his visits
The BJP must have expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three visits to South Goa in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to create a feel good factor amongst the minorities. For, Modi tried to woo the Christian minority community in his own way during all his visits.
At the Viksit Bharat rally in Margao, Modi described St Francis Xavier as Goencho Saib and the exposition of his relics lining up later this year.
Unlike other states, when he had gone for campaigning for the party, the Prime Minister was careful in his election speech at Sancoale as he avoided targeting the minorities. In fact, while making a passing reference that Goa is blessed by a host of temples, Modi also reminded that Goa has beautiful churches, which many say was aimed at creating a feel good factor, not necessarily aimed at garnering votes from the minorities.
BJP State President Sadanand Tanavade’s statement blaming religious leaders for the party debacle in South Goa post-June 4 LS results has sent out confusing signals as to how the saffron party will go about in the future. In fact, questions are being raised whether Tanavade’s statement is a message that the BJP will adopt tough posturing hence forth or yet another attempt for polarisation of the majority.
Or, is it simply that the BJP chief’s statement was meant for the party High Command as an explanation for the party’s debacle in South Goa when the BJP leadership has evinced interest in the South Goa seat.
Sources, however, say the BJP can ill afford to indulge in minority bashing by pointing accusing fingers at the religious leaders, more so when the BJP has in its ranks around one third MLAs from the Catholic community, besides two minority MLAs supporting the Party-led government.
That’s not all. None other than Chief Minister Pramod Sawant knows for sure that minority bashing will in any way help the BJP maintain its stranglehold over the majority. For, the CM had gone to the 2022 Assembly election with a promise to restore the temples destroyed during the Portuguese era, with an eye on the majority vote, but the saffron party ended up in garnering 33 per cent of the total vote.
Similar situation was witnessed in 2004,
Cong’s Churchill had won by 50k votes
MARGAO: A similar tsunami of voters lining up at the polling booths, mostly in minority areas of Salcete, was witnessed exactly 20 years ago in the 2004 Lok Sabha poll, giving an unprecedented 50,000-odd vote margin victory for then Congress candidate Churchill Alemao.
Political observers recall that the minorities had thronged the polling stations in the 2004 Lok Sabha to vote against the BJP over a host of factors. “The 2004 LS election had come against the backdrop of the BJP government cancelling the holidays on Good Friday and on the feast of St Francis Xavier. Besides, the activities of the fringe elements in the State capital, targeting the legacy left behind by the Portuguese did not go down well with the minorities in the run up to the 2004 polls,” the observer recalled.
Sources said not just the minority community, but people from across religious communities had joined hands behind the Congress to send a message loud and clear the ruling dispensation attempts to disturb the peace and amity between the religious communities will not be accepted.
The political observer added: “The 2004 Lok Sabha mandate from South Goa must have paved the way for the fall of the BJP government a year later in 2005 after a couple of MLAs quit the ruling party, paving the way for the return of the Congress.”
