The principle behind reservation of wards for municipal elections is to give the underprivileged sections of society a fair chance to represent their communities in councils. This would generally apply to various caste groups that have hitherto remained backward for historical and social reasons. The reservation for women is on a different plane and is aimed at bringing more members of the fairer sex into mainstream politics to enable women's issues to get highlighted, debated and resolved. As a corollary, reservations ought to be undertaken by an independent body and based on numbers. It is not a very difficult task provided principles of justice and fair play are upheld.
All these principles were thrown to the wind in Goa and reservations for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, women and Other Backward Classes have been guided by politics and to give the ruling party an unfair advantage. The approach was not only blatant but in total violation of all rules. In almost all municipal areas, efforts were made to undermine the local MLA. Although the principle of grass-root level democracy exists on paper, in reality panchayats and municipal councils are controlled by the MLA or the candidate seeking to become the next MLA. The municipal elections which are to be held on October 25 might be far removed from the assembly polls which are due in March 2017, but the ruling party needs to prove that it still retains a stranglehold and it is to this end that reservations were manipulated.
In Cuncolim former MLA Joaquim Alemao has openly accused the government of using reservations to undermine his candidates in at least five wards. The situation is no different in Mapusa with the ruling group ensuring that the main challengers to Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza were booted out of the race. In Margao it would seem that one ward has been reserved exclusively for men. Besides, the quantum of seats reserved for the SC and ST community is not proportional to the population. That there was immense political pressure on the Director of Municipal Administration to effect changes became apparent when the list of reserved constituencies was delayed by a day. Also, the last minute decision leaves potential candidates with with little or no time to challenge the order.
Delimitation of assembly constituencies and wards is a political process and political parties always jostle for the best deal. In the case of Assembly seats the political party in power is in a better position to steer the process to its advantage. But the Constitutional mandate that the process be entrusted to an independent body ensures a semblance of balance. In the case of delimitation of municipal wards the process was infiltrated by the governing coalition as it was handled by a government department. Ideally, this process should have been handed to the state election commission as is the practice in other states. In the present instance the government has misused its power to create an uneven playing field. It has allowed its MLAs to interfere in the delimitation and reservation process and made a mockery of the same. This is a sign of weakness on the part of the government and an admission that it is afraid to face its opponents in an free and fair election.
