Monday, March 30, 2009
PARADOXES OF OUR TIMES
Our Political Parties bask in the sacrifices of their founding fathers, but forget to live by their footsteps and their vision. They use their history / heritage in their elections campaigns but forget to live by their sacrifices and ideologies. Our Governments spent so much from our budgets on education and eradication of illiteracy but failed to fix minimum qualifications for our representatives in Parliament, and in Assemblies to legislate and frames laws for us. Our Political Parties at times nominate Criminals and uneducated persons as their candidates to legislate and rule us based on so called winablity factor . Today we have more Degrees, but less common sense, more knowledge but less foresight. Our Governments spent crores on poverty elevation, yet their numbers surge and inspite of six decades of independence we still have millions of poor people homeless, uneducated, and without a one square meal a day Appeasement of the marginalized for election purpose is the rule of the day and the poor are exploited during elections with money power. Our Leaders spent crores on our defense outlays but allowed infiltration of cores of Bangladeshis, Nepalese, and Pakistanis from across our borders. We spent so much on maintenance of internal law and order, but cannot curtail terrorism from our soil because of political interference in Police Departments and General Administration. Our Governments spent crores on judiciary and justice; yet our cases takes minimum 10 to 15 years or more for final judgments. Our Governments claim non interference in Judiciary yet they interfere with judgments passed by even the supreme court through ordinances. Our Political Parties talk of Am Admi as the epicenter of Governance but always have their own Khas Admi to derive the benefits. Our Political Parties speak of large membership base and followers and yet find it difficult to identify good qualified, honest candidates and always nominate the own coterie for elections. We have conquered outer space, but not inner space. We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice. We have failed to curtail corruption, eradicate poverty, unemployment, injustice, and imbibe true democracy compared to developed countries and are still voting only for a note and on the basis of caste and religion. We adopted western module of Parliamentary democracy and praise ourselves as the worlds Largest democracy, but we conveniently ignored from them the concept of two Party Democracy and we have today multi Party democracy based on Religion, Caste, Language and Region which hinders uniform growth and development of all citizens. Today I therefore propose that atleast in Goa where the literacy rate is the highest in the country “ Let us all come together and ignore all Political Party affiliations and vote for only an educated, honest and a deserving Candidate irrespective of Party or No Party” Let us identify and field a Peoples Candidate if possible.” Orlando S. A. Da Silva Carmona
ITS NOW OR NEVER
Election is round the corner, and Major Political Parties will come asking for votes. They will place before us, their so called manifesto, and their ideology, which in the past have always been forgotten after the elections process is over. They have always taken the electorate for granted because they always believed that when there are ENOUGH FOOLS who can be bought for a note they will always be elected irrespective of their performance. Today we see a mad rush to get a Congress tickets. Some in the Party are holding the Party for ransom and threaten to backstab, others hope that if things do not go their way they will adopt underground guerilla tactics and defeat the Party Nominee. Every one poses self before the Party Ideology and Manifesto. Loyal Party Workers are sidelined and left in lurch and some even called them dogs forgetting that they were the watch dogs of the Party for decades and the leaders themselves strayed. The main Opposition Party has also not performed well either to the post they were elected for and instead kept their eye on vote bank politics and failed to ground the Government on issues like Ordinance Fiasco, the 73 rd and 74 th Constitution Amendments, Amendments to Town and Country Planning Act, Proposed Amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act meant to rob powers of the Gram sabha, Illegal mining terming anti mining activists as naxalites, and Mega housing projects etc. It is time now that we the electorate who in the past have always believed in the manifesto of the Political Parties and were fooled every time, and were forced to come on the streets on numerous occasions to highlight our problems, prepare our own Manifesto or Questionnaire and before we caste our precious vote compare it with the one presented by these Political parties and judge their performance regarding the issues dear to our hearts. In my opinion both Political Parties have no ideologies and principals left anymore to place before the electorate. Our tiny state with it past history and culture has always proved to be the most secular state in the Country so please ignore any Party’s call in the name of religion. In Goa all Communities has co-existed for centuries without any problems. Please try to know your candidate personal credentials. Please do not vote for Parties / candidates which are responsible for rape and sale of Goan lands to the land sharks from outside state, at the cost of Goans identity and abetted in degradation of our environment, our ecology, our culture in the name of development. Remember of the Promises made on Dabolim / Mopa Airports, whether Goa really needs two airports and whether in the long run Dabolim is destined to die a slow death. Leaders who trample the rule of law under their feet and intervene with the Police routine duties to misconstrue Justice. The Silence of the so called Political Leaders on these issues should be also evaluated. Its now or Never because by the next Election Goans may be aliens in their own land. A 1000 rupee note accepted for a vote for a term of 5 years is only 0.55 paise per day which today cannot buy even a bread that cost 2.50 paise. From: Orlando S. A. Da Silva Carmona
SERVING THE NEO-RICH
“Cidade effect spurs Micky “ on page one of Herlad dt. 27/02/2009 makes interesting reading. Hats off to Micky for asking the CM about the Am Admi who are served the demolition orders on the coastal belt. If the Cabinet can decide to issue an ordinance to support the Neo rich then why can’t the Government which claims to be the Govt. of the Am Admi come to the rescue of the so called poor Am Admi. The root question which disturbs me is why laws are to be framed if at all they are to be broken to protect the interest of the defaulters at heavy cost to the Public exchequer. The Apex court order has confirmed that Cidade is a defaulter which has broken all existing construction laws and agreements with the Government. The pretext of losing 500 jobs cannot be a good reason to sacrifice the prestige of the Apex court order at the alter of hypocrisy and corruption. Prostitution which some people are forced to adopt as profession due to their circumstances cannot be now legalized on the pretext that it involves thousands who itch a living in this country and yet every successive Government constantly endeavors to eradicate this unholy centuries old trade. If Cidade has concern for its workmen they should all be rehabilitated elsewhere but not at the cost of law which was framed to protect the interest of Goa and Goans and the country at large. If Cidade fails to rehabilitate its loyal workmen inspite of more than 25 years of existence then it has no right to exist like so many Companies which has to shut shops during the current recession. The Poor Fishermen’s houses existing within the 200 meters line prior to the cut of date should be distinguished by using modern testing techniques and saved and all those which are fraudulently built in recent times should also face the axe along with Cidade. If the existing law bans the existence of ancestral houses within the 200 meter of CRZ then the Government of the day should seriously think to Rehabilitate them all. My only plea please do not make Mockery of the Indian Judicial system. It has to be equitably applied to all Rich and Poor at par. Orlando S. A. Da Silva, Carmona. 27/02/2009
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