Goa: Failure to Tackle Real Problems

Despite the incumbency factor, the unrest over the 2011 regional development plan, and internal dissent, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance won the Goa assembly elections with a tally of 19 out of a total of 40 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 14 seats (in comparison to 16 in the previous election), with the smaller parties and independents bagging the remaining seven seats. The question is whether political instability will again lead to government failure in tackling the many real problems that Goa faces.

Over the years, Goa’s politicians have earned the dubious reputation of being particularly agile at shifting political loyalties and switching sides merely to stay in power. In the decade of the 1990s, Goa had 13 chief ministers and a brief period of president’s rule. Such a frequent change of governments can hardly create an atmosphere conducive to meaningful development. The Congress seems to have shown some spine in refusing to give in to threats from former Congress chief minister Churchill Alemao who rebelled to form the Save Goa Front and was opportunistically backed by the BJP. The initiator of the controversial 2011 regional development plan, Babush Monserate won on a United Goa Democratic Party ticket. It may be recalled that his desertion from the BJP in 2005 led to the fall of the Manohar Parrikar government. While Alemao has now pledged support to the Congress, Monserate presently finds himself unwanted by both the major parties.