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| Fr. Victor Ferrao |
The political scenario is heating up day by
day in Goa. The keys of ignition are in
place and the buttons seem to have been pressed on for the grand unfolding of
the political drama. While the politics in the political drama is going to be
chaotic and polyphonic, it would be interesting to discern the political in our
politics. This quest to understand the political in the politics at play in our
society is very important to understand and respond to the same. Some among us
might trace the political in the out stationed national leaders who keep crash
landing in Goa to catalyse, stimulate/ manipulate our Goan people. Others may
find the political in the way local leaders mask their manipulative intent by
hiding under the mask of the grand national leaders and claim legitimacy of
their decisions by assigning their origin to Delhi (high command hiding self
command). Still others may say that the caste or religion is the political that
energizes our politics. Therefore, we do not caste our vote but end up voting
our caste and religion. This means the
diverse sources of our selves like our caste, culture, regionality (north/south
or our Goan-ness itself ) and even our
hopes, fears, and aspirations form the political that engineers the political
drama that is being enacted in our society in Goa. All this means that the political
hides under the cover of politics that
it creates and sanctions. Hence, the (un)covering of the political that
animates the politics of each party is very important because it politicizes
our society. The identification of the political that politicizes each one of
us is important so that we become active and enlightened citizens.
Politics is complex, plural, dynamic and
fluid and is not easily determinable yet the understanding of its dynamics will
assist us to become mindful and not mindless Goans. We have not yet reached a
discussive totality both in India and Goa and hence, the political will always
remain plural and keep politicizing us all the time. That is why it would be important that we
become watchful. Political scientists have abstracted the political in the
process of asignification that generates and fires an ‘us and them’
division. The dynamics of signification
results in the removal or squeezing of the meaning or content from the local
and singular person or states of affairs.
What we call asignification or the generation of a loss of meaning or
content is indeed a manufacturing of new content that becomes sufficiently
universal and converts the individual person or state of affairs as a master
signifier. A master signifier is an
empty signifier/symbol that has no core content but draws is content from
outside of itself. Thus, for instance, PM Modi or
A. Kejriwal have emerged as
leaders through asignification that triggered a new ‘us and them’ division on
the national scene though in different ways.
We can clearly discern in both these instances, the local and individual
content of their personalities is squeezed out and they have become master
signifiers, one posing as an ‘Hindutva’
icon of development while the other
standing as a crusader of anti-corruption. Thus, the asignification (loss of meaning)
as well as resignification (acquiring of new meaning) in both cases continues
to politicize us and feeds the ‘us and them’ divisions.
We have manifested the dynamics of the
political in the politics in the analysis of asignification and generation of
new ‘us and them’ divisions. But our task is not over. We have to attentively do the same in the
complex contexts of the states of affairs that become raw materials to generate
the political for the political master players (manipulators) in our society.
It is in this context, castes, religions, cultures, hopes, fears and
aspirations of our people become the resource for the designer politics to prey
upon. The dynamics of asignification,
for instance, in the case of national parties like the BJP puts an erasure on
every on aspects of a being Indian and creates a narrow majoritarian ‘Hindutva’
politics. The loss of content in this case is clear when we see that every
Hindu is Human, Indian, Goan, and more.
The primacy of being Hindu provides the
narrative content to the ‘Hindutva’ politics. Congress on the other hand has
undergone an asignification of it plural and secular image and come to acquire
corruption as the chief anchor of its politics.
Reeling under the new political (Corruption) Congress seems to have lost
its narrative and is unable to resignify itself (acquires new image content).
Thus, we can see how different states of affairs are crafted to fire politics
that politicizes our society. That is
why the discernment of the politics becomes urgent and important to respond
mindfully and not mindlessly to the poli-tricking of the political drama that
is enacted in our society.
Our quest for the political in ‘the
politrical scenario’ in Goa becomes very important because we are in an
election year. To decode the plural political that is at play in Goa, we will
have to discern the various processes and dynamics of asignification and
re-signification that generate divisive ‘us and them’ in our fragile
society. The divisive politics of BJP
cancels, abrogates, keeps under erasure our Goaness (and more) and we end up
voting for our religion pulled by the primacy of Hinduism. The entry of the AAP
and Goa Forward on the political horizon has opened up the primacy of issue of
corruption and the issues of Goa respectively and opened new ‘us and thems’ in
our society.
An ascription as well as
acquiring of corruption image of both Congress and BJP has inscribed new
meaning/content into the MGP, AAP and
Goa Forward and they have begun to look viable options for Goans. This shows that the political emerges through
an engineered craftsmanship vis-à-vis the political craft played by other
political players. Designing of the political that is at play into the
politics in Goa does not only rests with
the political parties and their think thanks. NGO’s, RSS, activist groups, BBSM, CSJP etc., all play an important role. Although there is no level playing field in
the making of the political in Goa, It is important that we Goans become
mindful lest we mindlessly vote our ‘caste’ of different hues instead of
casting our vote in the upcoming election 2017.
