BJP nails the last nail in the death of democracy in Goa -- By Nisser Dias

During the ongoing Assembly session we read and saw the Opposition which have cooked up a strange ‘matganbandhan’ to take on the government unitedly, walking out of the august House to mark their protest against the government for not providing them the answers to the questions they had asked.

It is indeed very obvious why the government had not provided the answers or the replies. It is simply because they either do not have the answers or are afraid of exposing themselves of their wrong or shady decisions. It can only be summed up as corrupt decision either for their personal benefit or for the benefit of the party, but for the betterment of Goa and Goans.

CM Laxmikant Parsekar

However we should not be surprised that BJP is adopting to such tactics as we had seen it even during 2002, 2004 terms.

How can we forget that in 2004 BJP with Manohar Parrikar as the chief minister tried to bodily lift then Velim MLA Philipneri Rodrigues from the House using police as ‘Marshals’ minutes before no confidence motion against him was put to vote to forcibly stay in power without having majority in the house. However his efforts had not fructified as the then Governor S C Jamir immediately dismissed his government.

The current term that is from the year 2012 has not been much different. For the first two years the same man Manohar Parrikar for the first two years used various methods to save face for his below average performance. Have we forgotten Fatorda MLA Vijay Sardessai making allegation that the Speaker was not allotting him time for asking supplementary questions to the ministers. The BJP had not even rejected the statement which implied that the Parrikar government admitted to bad decisions which did not benefit Goa and Goans.

At that time Vijay and Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco were the only opposition to the government and even then ruling benches could not handle them, but today through some divine intervention there is a stronger opposition in the House with Opposition Leader Pratapsing Rane being very vocal giving that much required boost to the Vijay and his nascent party ‘Goa Forward’ members Rohan Khaunte and Naresh Sawal.

All party protest against the BJP government.

From the very being of the current Assembly Session Fatorda MLA moved a privilege motion against the government for not only providing him answers to his queries but also providing some answers at the eleventh hour. These all are indications that the BJP government have accumulated plenty of skeletons in their wardrobes during this term which somehow they want to keep from spilling out in the public domain.

Nevertheless the BJP ministers should realize that truth never remains hidden for long as it has to surface one day or the other.

It is a foregone story that BJP is going to meet the same fate as that of the Congress where the latter was reduced to a single digit during the 2012 Assembly polls after being in power from 2006. Just as the Congress ministers had become too big for their boots with power going to their head, corruption all round, weak leadership etc, the BJP is not any better in fact one could safely say worse than the Congress.

Congress never used dirty tricks in the House but bravely faced embarrassment at the hands of the BJP, but the present government is stifling the voice of the people and they have to be ashamed of it.

Incidentally, they do not realize when another ruling dispensation comes to power and BJP have to sit in the opposition, tables will be turned and BJP will have the face the same situation which the present opposition is facing.

Goa Forward protest. Last nail in coffin
of Democracy by the BJP in Goa

Goa Forward rightly held a protest wearing black T.shirts and carrying a coffin which symbolized death of people’s voice right in the Temple of Democracy, but BJP never believed in democracy in any case and that is the reason they even dictate what people should and should not eat.

The only silver lining in the dark clouds is that the term of government is nearing its end and today we have an alternative either in Aam Admi Party and the Goa Forward and we should seriously think of keeping both Congress and BJP out of our lives, politics and our beloved state if we need to save the last remnants of much loved land – GOA.