>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Jun 4 02:30:57 2002 DECCAN HERALD (Editorial) Monday, June 3, 2002 ______________________________________________________________________
Gamble that failed The reckless and ill-conceived decision of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to dissolve the Assembly in February in order to seek a "clear mandate" for the continuation of the BJP government has come unstuck with the recent poll results. Though an improvement on the ten seats it won in the last election, the 17 it won this time fall short of the figure of 21 required to form a government in a House of 40. This has pushed the smallest State in the Indian Union into a situation of greater uncertainty with the Congress Party also failing to live up to expectations. Mr Parrikar may heap encomiums over the party's improved performance, but the results clearly show that it has failed to stem the apprehensions of the minority communities, still under the pervasive and dark shadow of the aftermath of the communal carnage in Gujarat. The BJP failed to make its presence felt in the Catholic bastion of Salcette in South Goa, proving yet again that its saffron agenda has no place for the interests of the minority communities. The devious effort of the party to polarise the vote on communal lines has reached its outer limit with the 17 seats the party won. It cannot overcome its own barrier which the party has imposed on itself by its narrow, sectarian policies. The instability in the State has now reached a critical point. Defections and cynical horse-trading, a dismaying occurrence in the political history of Goa, are now set to become a permanent aberration, a revolving door through which will pass faces mostly stale and familiar. The Goan voters may well feel a sinking sense of deja vu as they watch their political masters play out their compulsive charades. Mr Parrikar, by wilfully imposing a costly, enervating and in the end, fruitless election on the people of Goa, has only shown up the myopic, short-term hankering for power by his party. The coalition he has cobbled together to form the latest government, with disparate elements and contrary to the ideology of the BJP, only amounts to a mechanical and facile adding up of numbers. The teetering chair may well topple over again. Goa has seen a veritable parade of 14 chief ministers in 12 years. If it were not for the serious concern over the denigration of the wishes of the people, this parade may to outsiders seem Carnavalesque. _________________________________________________________________________ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
