Deepak Laad
After ten jelly back-boned Congress legislators crossed over to the BJP side, the ruling dispensation in Goa now enjoys an unshakable majority in the house, that gives it a free hand to run the affairs of the state as it likes, as the opposition is in total shambles.
The legislators from Goa forward party and the lone legislator from MGP are a diffident lot, since the time they were unceremoniously dropped from the alliance to accommodate Congress turncoats.
The Congress party, on the other hand, now looks more like a rest home for geriatrics and are of little relevance in the present house.
The Aam Aadmi Party, without a single lawmaker, is a spent force in state’s politics “ with precious little left to show off except for their trademark white caps, stale rants and slogans.
In short, the dispensation can rule unchecked and unchallenged treading in the footsteps of its big brothers, ruling at the Centre.
The party affiliates have even gained control of institutions like Bagayatdar and State co operative bank and with time will move on to other greener pastures.
In any democracy, good governance is the right of the citizens. But sadly citizens who seek personal favours and accept largesse from the politicians, lose the moral strength to assert their rights and have no voice to express their righteous indignation, and so are forced to take the harassment meted out lying down.
The recent water crisis is an eye-opener that shows how a rock solid stable government is a bane and not a boon to good governance.
Imagine the government keeps the residents of capital city and surrounding areas thirsting for water for more than a week and audaciously gets away with it without even tendering so much of an apology for having gone into major repair work without a contingency plan in place.
The PWD minister simply washes his hands off in the matter and blames his predecessor and in a way puts his own government in the dock for not carrying out the necessary repair works earlier despite being aware of the fault.
These days such faux pas, self goals are neither taken seriously by the firmly ensconced government nor by the people who have now got used to hearing worse nonsensical remarks from half-baked politicians.
And to add insult to injury, the stable government ‘thanks’ the janata for silently suffering all the torture.
People hailing from higher echelons of society, being influential, have responsibility to engage in economic, social and environmental aspect in a way to enhance society.
There is no dearth in our society of luminaries - intellectuals, writers, entrepreneurs, industrialists, businessmen, advocates, environmentalists and a horde of conscience-keepers.
Mostly, this exclusive didactic group of mutual admirers will be found in those crisp, shiny, glossy magazines with razor-edged pages educating, informing, instructing on various issues concerning our state and spreading wisdom, but unconcerned with mundane humdrum existence of those running after water tankers or desperate to get monthly rations or striving to get electricity connections.
They would never whack the government on its failure to rise to the expectations of masses, rather they would work to ingratiate themselves with the power centers to get help in their vocations, careers, businesses, projects and enterprises.
But what about the majority of people that can not afford luxury of spending money on bath water because putting food on the table takes priority?
The civil societies these days seem indifferent and apathetic towards pressing issues of the less fortunate fellow citizens and were uninvolved during the recent ‘trial by water’ of the people of small means.
The cause for recent disruption in water supply was on account of technical fault in the pipeline, there was no water scarcity.
In future, the water supply might stop on account of stock of water running out and not due to technical issues.
The permissions freely given to mushrooming residential building projects all over Goa, without a forethought for planning is an invitation to water scarcity, garbage accumulations and power shortages.
People can visualize this harrowing scenario, but our government can’t because while taking unprescient decisions, it acts like the bird that buries its head in sand to remain oblivious of dangers.
Water taps going dry and power breakdown are going to be recurrent and regular affairs. Traffic congestion, garbage disposal, river pollutions and roads turning into moon grounds are other pressing issues.
The government feels emboldened because of the robust numbers it has in the House. So it has been dragging its heels over all these issues because of weak opposition in the House and absence of demonstrative resentment and agitations from other quarters.
