Goa joined Indian democracy late when the Portuguese finally left in 1961. The states politicians have made up for lost time. More than the last 50 years of freedom and the 450 years of Portuguese legacy,they seem to be celebrating that formidable 15th Century Florencian,Niccolo Machiavelli. Every trick in the political trade has been tried out hereto grab,retain and wrest power and new tricks invented to bypass regulations. For a small state,barely one per cent of the Indian landmass,Goa has thrown up a record number of court verdicts on the Anti-Defection Act. The only game that is being played here with a semblance of rules,says a veteran Goa watcher,is football. Off field,the team spirit promptly vanishes. Churchill Alemaos rival candidate is a former goalkeeper who played for Churchill Brothers,the familys football team. The state has had 16 chief ministers in 25 years. Doesnt take long to realise the place is too exceptional for national averages to apply. Chief ministerial tenures have been as short as three months,a little over a fortnight and once,barely a week. Things have surely changed with the current CM completing a record full term. Far from it,says the watcher. Only the captain hung on,the crew changed midstream,making a mockery of the mandate. The sole difference this time is in the voting. The voters have had to wait full five years to vote again. And would they,with a vengeance? Against whom? Possibly,against the incumbent. No such mechanical voting here. The Goan voter is smart enough to know that she (no concession to gender correctness; there are more women voters this time) doesnt step into the same river twice. The 2007 Congress-NCP pre-poll alliance she voted in isnt the same as its 2012 avatar. Much happened in between. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) came into the Congress fold post-poll and stayed on only to exit and partner BJP on the eve of this campaign. The full term is a much-flaunted feather in the Congress cap but it isnt clear wholl wear it after March 6. Take your chief ministerial pick from Pratapsinh Rane,Digambar Kamat,Churchill Alemao,and any dark pony the AICC fancies. If the verdict gets too close,the spectrum could stretch as far as a Mickey Pacheco,the supremo leading the nine candidates of Goa Vikas Party. Whoever can have anything against vikas? Never mind the gentlemans track record. (Do Google if youre curious. The first scroll would be telling enough.) The identity issue While there are only question marks in the Congress scheme of things,there is at least a semi-colon in the BJP. It is Manohar Parrikar who is clearly running the party campaign. However,no willing necks are sticking out to commit any further. Post-poll,the local tail could wag the cow. While the big parties have therefore to connect locally,ironically local outfits have often thought big,says Radharao Gracias of the United Goan Democratic Party (UGDP). The party had two MLAs in the last Jharkhand Assembly. He,however,admits no more than the two leaves party symbol travelled from Panaji to Ranchi. But by and by,who knows,we could get national status. Why do you think Mamata Banerjee is looking at Goa? asks Gracias. You can come in as a tourist and stay on to do business here. For a regional leader,Gracias is quite liberal with classy immigrants,the political class as well as the big guys from Delhi and Mumbai who want a holiday home or retirement retreat in Dona Paula. He only wants the mass immigrants outcertainly from the states voters list. He says they must cast postal votes in their home state polls. The point is,in a fast urbanising Goa (65 per cent by last count),which has moved up from manual jobs,you surely need the mason and the plumberready to dirty their hands with anything but the indelible ink. Even the Congress CM Kamat has poll-time qualms about breaching what he calls the Goan identity. He got a pick of professionals to prepare a vision document for the state and he would rather leave it to the public to accept or reject it. Development would inevitably bring outsiders and with it the predictable backlash. Thats a catch-22. His pet Regional Plan 2021 to regulate land use has ended up similarly jinxed. So it is a fish-eat-fish situation and the small fish dont want the big fish to get bigger and no fish,big or small,wants the pond to get much bigger. The pond has already grown enough to house a couple of sharks none wants to offend. One keeps hearing about the land mafia and the mining mafia. Both could ultimately be self-limiting. Theres only so much of land and so much of ore. So what is Goas future? More tourism? Last season saw some four lakh foreign and 22 lakh domestic visitors. For a local population of 14 lakh,this looks pretty close to saturation. And one election issue is the mounting urban waste waiting to be managed. Given the bleak global economy,some backpackers will be in no hurry to return, a banker friend cautions. There are reports about Israeli and Russian tourists overstaying to set up beach shacks and stuff Most campaigners will make a noise about such issues but wont tarry too much on the big picture. The candidates focus is on the constituency which in Goa is a mere 25,000 voters or thereabouts. A wieldy customer base. Ensure a loyal core and work on the rest. The biggest sales pitch from a constituency this time is the promise of a two-wheeler to every family. Which means you keep 1,000 homes and 5,000 voters happily mobile with just about Rs 3 crorewell within the going return on investment. This lesson in innovative vote banking is imparted across dinner at a restaurant facing the Assembly building. Well lit from all sides,the rooftop of the august house is shining through the dark. No time for nostalgia From either side of the Mandovi River,you cant see much more of the buildingat any rate not from a safe distance. Only the roof sticks out of the lush touristy green. The old secretariat that housed the Assembly until 2000 is however in full viewPortuguese windows,the front doorway that proclaims the triumph of truth and the back door crowned with the Ashok Chakra. Goings on here were no holier. No point looking for the good old days in the immediate past. Try the distant past and you get no luckier. Middle-aged Goans such as Valmiki Faleiro,author and one-time head of Margao Municipality,can precisely recall historic events across the colonial semi-millennium but with no urge to glorify the Portuguese past. He tells you Goa got its first municipality long before the rest of the nation,way back in 1511,on the lines of the Lisbon Metropolitan Councilwith a caveat that it was a far cry from participatory self-rule. Again,when he points out that printing started in Asia from here in 1556,he is quick to add that it was a happy accident. The press was off-loaded mid-way here because the Emperor of Ethiopia,where the consignment was headed, wasnt ready to receive the Jesuit priests who went with it. So the past,however hoary,isnt riding with much pride in these parts. What then drives the Goan voter,variously described as old-world,laid-back,smart,and cool? No nostalgic markers from the past. No anxiety over the electoral outcome. Any scope for correction? None at all. How do you join a protest with the kind of NGOs we havewith their high rate of co-option? asks Faleiro. To a campaign rendered thoroughly invisible and inaudible by the Election Commission,keep adding more negatives. No sorrow,no anger,no bitterness,no rage into that dying night. Looks more like a gamble into the waking day. The winner steps out of the Goan casino thanking his stars and the loser (voter included) knows there is a tomorrow. Gambling instinct is a strong one and is addictive enough to keep this post-cynical democracy going. It is all-season entertainment before,between and after pollsnot without a periodic message for democracy watchers the world over. Like its annual international film fest,time Goa hosted a Machiavelli Mela.
