IN FOCUS

from Incredible Goa September 2022

GOAN TALENT

I n a d e m o c r a c y , t h e opposition is a strong pillar that maintains the balance by keeping the ruling party on its t o e s a n d m a k i n g t h e m answerable for their every wrong deed. But imagine an a s s e m b l y h o u s e w i t h n o opposition! Now this notion is becoming a reality in Goa. The rumours that Congress MLAs, including the former BJP rebels Michael Lobo and former Chief Minister of Goa in the Congress regime, D i g a m b a r K a m a t , h a v e transformed into reality. Eight MLAs initially took a trip to Delhi and later on formally joined the BJP party. Before this the Congress tally was at 11 and now they have only 3 MLAs left and there are even rumours that they too are about to deflect to the BJP. In a 40-member assembly, the BJP now has a strength of 33 MLAs (20+8+5) which includes 2 M G P M L A s a n d 3 Independent supporting them from outside. Considering the 33 on BJP' s side from 40 Member house leaves with only 7 MLAs (3Cong + 1 GFP + 2 AAP) and none of them have a common agenda hence them coming together on a single platform is next to impossible a n d t h e r u m o u r s o f t h e remaining 3 MLAs waiting to join BJP in the near future, leaves the house with hardly 3 MLAs sitting in opposition. The Congress party started losing ground in Goa after the results of 2017 elections when Goans gave them a mandate to form the government, but despite them having the majority (being single largest party), they could not manage to form a government which in turn left some discontent MLAs to form a gang and leave the party to join the BJP and to make it politically viable. 11 MLAs (2/3rd) entered into BJP with no risk of facing reelections. According to the reports, in what political experts are calling a record, 24 members of Goa's 40-seat Legislative Assembly have switched parties during the current fiveyear term. This means 60 per cent of the assembly has changed parties between the two state elections. Congress did everything in its power to retain their MLAs loyalty (which was never there in first place) by taking the oath and filing affidavits but they failed. The former CM Digambar Kamat, who led the r e b e l M L A s a l o n g w i t h opposition leader Michael Lobo, said he “spoke to God” before joining BJP and he was a d v i s e d t o t a k e a n “appropriate decision”. “I am a person who believes in God. I went back to God. I told h i m t h a t t h e s e a r e t h e circumstances. What should I do? God told me to take my decision. I am with you,” said Kamat, who returned to BJP after almost 17 years. The Calangute MLA Michael Lobo had left the BJP in the recent assembly election and joined Congress with a vision to form the government in Goa this time, but failed miserably. By the time he realise his mistake it was too late and he and his wife, who won the seat from Saligao constituency defeating the Goa Forward Party candidate, were left with no option but to sit in opposition. The problem with sitting in opposition is that it does not allow them to do any self or public development and finally he decided to leave

Congress. St Cruz MLA Rudalf Fernandes who won the seat defeating the BJP MLA and won the seat had assured the people of St Cruz that he will stay in

Congress and he would focus on development and won 't allow the BJP to sell the land to outsiders. However, he too decided to join the BJP! Everyone who left BJP has one common agenda and answer and that is they have done this for the development of Goa but they forgot that their a c t i o n s w i l l f i n i s h t h e opposition. Meanwhile the Congress leader Pawan Khera blamed the BJP for poaching the Congress MLAs using the

Saam Daam Dand technique. “ T h e s a f f r o n c a m p h a s adopted all kinds of tactics to poach the MLAs. They used federal agencies to threaten these MLAs, wooing MLAs with m o n e y , g a v e t h r e a t s b y goons- they left no stone unturned to make 'Operation Kichad' successful. The question here is, who is responsible for this? The BJP who did everything in their power to finish Congress? Or the Congress MLAs who could not stand the heat of the situation and decided to succumb to the might of the ruling party? Whatever may be the reason, we cannot deny is there is no more opposition in Goa. Now the ruling party may not be required to go on the floor of assembly with bills etc and instead they'll pass them anonymously and there won't be any opposition for the same. This is just the beginning. The game has just begun and slowly the remaining people will also join the BJP for the sake of 'development' and the day is not far when you will see Goa as the first and only state in India to have zero sitting in opposition and once this formula becomes successful, they will start implementing it across in other states. What will happen when the opposition is melted down to zero? Will democracy survive in such a situation? The mandate of people does not hold any significance in today ' s corrupt political scenario hence voting for anyone from any political party will be of no use if they are going to jump from one party to another or merge into single party on the pretext of development. What is the solution for such situation?