New vocabulary of Election 2017

Photo Credits: edit pagee- leadd

Pramod Acharya is Editor, Prudent Media

It all started with “an attempt to scam”. None of us had heard the terminology before and Manohar Parrikar too hadn’t mentioned it even once during his two decade long (and still ongoing in the court of law) crusade against Mauvin Godinho and his much debated power scam. This phrase, newly coined to avoid cocky and boisterous questions from some young reporters opened the floodgates of more such weird and unconventional vocabulary this election.

I interviewed Mauvin in the subsequent week in Prudent’s weekly interview programme, “Head On” and he summed up saying the alleged scam happened due to “oversight” and not as an act of participation. So there it was. Power scam was reduced to “power oversight” - another addition to the bizarre vocabulary of Election 2017.

Then coined was the “friendly fight”. Babush Monserrate arrived from Delhi after holding initial alliance talks with the Congress and jubilantly mentioned that his newly formed party- the United Goans and the grand old party- the Congress would fight this election in Cortalim constituency as a “friendly”. Usually, “friendlies” are not considered on record. However, our politicians took the concept to a whole different level.

Then came the biggest of them all – seat adjustment! It wasn’t an alliance nor seat sharing, merely ‘seat adjustment’, said the Congress and the Goa Forward. Moreover, they did not tell us where the adjustment is being made. We guessed, predicted and speculated till the last day of filing nominations and received a rude shock first from Saligao and then from Fatorda.

Congress filed candidature against Vijai Sardesai too. Comically, Goa desk in-charge of the Congress expressed “shock” over the development. How did that happen? – he asked us. Already confused newsrooms ended up being speechless too. So it wasn’t an ‘adjustment’ or can we call it “friendly betrayal”?

By the time I am writing this column, the Congress top brass has gone into a tizzy. They are pressurizing the Fatorda Congress candidate to withdraw his candidature. If that happens, we could term it ‘withdrawal of friendly betrayal”. If not, this is not the first time Vijai Sardesai has been betrayed at the last minute by the Congress. It happened during the last assembly elections too and served as a blessing in disguise for the Fatorda strongman. Had he contested with the pictogram of the Hand,he would have probably ended up with the Alemaos. Is history repeating itself?

Then there is ‘Mahayuti’. We had heard of ‘Mahagatbandhan’. But Sudin Dhavalikar, Subhash Velingkar and company coined and formed this ‘Mahayuti’. This maha-alliance too is characteristically unconventional. Sudin Dhvalikar is non-committal if he is asked about post-poll alliance with the BJP. He isn’t saying yes. He is not saying no either. And in times like these not ruling out a possibility becomes far more significant than ruling out one.

This election is merely two weeks away and there is high possibility of development of more creative and conniving vocabulary in the coming few days. But there is an underlining similarity in all of the above freshly baked terminologies. All of these are born out of coalitions of interests. Manohar Parrikar wanted to defend his decision to induct Mauvin in the BJP. He couldn’t have done so by acknowledging Godinho as a scamster. Babush wanted to field Ramakant Borkar on his party’s ticket and he couldn’t get the Congress on board. The Congress and Goa Forward wanted adjustment in spite of total distrust towards each other. Alliance couldn’t be formed and it had to be structured somehow. Sudin Dhavalikar succeeded in getting all the far-right parties on one platform. He wanted to convey the grandeur.

The moral of the story seems very simple. There are no alliances forged on the basis of issues or ideologies. What someone stands for is irrelevant. What matters is how to take voters on a ride and create such selfish companionships to fulfill the purpose. Such degradation of polity happens when it loses its conscience wholesomely to the gravity of power. Our political class has lost all sense of what they stand for. Ideologies and policies have been reduced to the glossy pages of the boredom manifestos. This is the precise reason why some of our tallest leaders come up with such lame excuses and lackluster defense for their breach of trust and change of stance.

In short, all of these can be termed as “attempt to alliances”. Some alliances are formed from within, like in the case of Mauvin and Madkaikar, where as some alliances are forged with outside entities, like Goa Forward or Goa Suraksha Manch. These attempts may succeed or fail in their initial flight but their longevity after these elections is unpredictably uncertain. Sudin Dhavalikar has already made it indirectly clear. As far as others are concerned, there is no whatsoever guarantee that these marriages of convenience would survive initial months after the formation of a new government.

All these parties have a set syllabus to garner votes. They have their structured ideas of social engineering. It’s time the voter revamps the syllabus and demolishes some structures. Then and only then these conveniences may turn into commitments for some issues or ideologies. Are we ready?