The disqualification petition moved by Dominic Noronha as a citizen against the eight defectors of the Congress party, was decided and the petition dismissed. Defectors in Goa have killed democracy.
But if that is so, why are they not getting punished why do they again and again get away by defying the people’s mandate, betraying them, taking pledges in temples and churches and then turning around to say I have a connection with God?
This is very well known and settled that this is the way Goa has been for a very long time. Today all that we need to figure out is why do they get away again and again, why do they not fear the wrath of the people and most importantly, why our people as well as the parties that suffer defection, are as quiet as we see them now?
Congress of course is a party that probably has suffered defections more than other parties and it keeps on happening to the Grand Old Party. It happened twice in the last two terms.
It has also suffered as various chief ministers were toppled in the past. The point here is when this continues to happen, why is the Congress not strong enough to ensure that this does not happen and every time one can't blame the other party for giving money to its legislators. Why can't the Congress keep its flock together?
Secondly, the issue is why do some of these people get away from the Congress and yet continue to win elections? Digambar Kamat, Vishwajit Rane and Mauvin Godinho, who are from the old line of defectors, are some examples.
In his reaction, Sunil Kawthankar, Vice-president, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) said, “If you look at the history of defection, I think rather than saying that Congress has suffered due to defections, I believe that Goa has suffered more. Definitely we faced defections repeatedly in recent times. We had a defection of 10 MLAs from the 2017 batch and then again we had a defection of eight MLAs from the 2022 batch of MLAs. If you see, during the first defection out of the 10 defectors, seven lost the election miserably and three won, including Babush and Jennifer Monseratte and looking at the trend, I believe that the people of Goa had rejected the defectors.”
“Congress had definitely promised that we will avoid defection and at the scenario of the representation, especially the legal aspect from the point of view of the People’s Representation Act, I believe whatever we could do, we have done and as far as the public representatives are concerned, ultimately they have to appear before the court of people more than the court of law,” Kawthankar said.
“We went with a promise. Our candidates even visited various religious institutions and pledged that they wouldn't defect. Despite that, they defected and I believe it is actually the responsibility of the people to show all the defectors the door,” he said.
But the point is, Congress has also accepted defectors. Before the election, Michael Lobo and his wife came to Congress from BJP. There were other people who had come from other parties.
It is not that Congress is holier than thou and they were accepted because the party wanted “strong leaders” in different constituencies to literally outsource those constituencies, in the sense that Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik - they would ensure that part is taken care of. What has now happened is all this has become a fiefdom and you all ultimately do a contract with the chief of that fiefdom to deliver seats. So if that is the formula, then defections will always happen.
“See, when we speak about defections, it is of two types - by the elected representatives, who are elected on one party's platform or one party symbol and then they defect without asking their voters, because there is no mechanism where you can go back to the people you can ask your voters, because technically, the MLA won’t even know who has voted for him,” Kawthankar said.
“Second part of defection we can see is the people who have changed parties, meaning they have quit their parties, resigned as a MLA and then joined some other party and faced the electorate. In this kind of situation, as I’m repeating myself again, that in politics and in this social fragmenting, whatever we see, what is more concerning is that for these people, court of people matters more than the court of law because, when you change your party and when you join some other party and when you go before the people, you definitely have to make yourself clear you have to place your agenda, your reason for quitting before the people,” he said.
“Then if the people accept you, that is totally up to them,” he said.
Ultimately the court of the people is the most important. But what if the court of the people itself is getting tainted, in the sense, it’s very important to look at people themselves. If you look at the last Assembly election, there were mass scale defections even from constituencies like Nuvem for instance. Now, this happened in the heart of Salcete taluka, where a minority MLA defected to the BJP.
This has happened all along that minority community MLAs have defected and moved ahead. Now, the point here is that after these things happened, there was no public outburst. That is where the shocker is. Look at Babush Monseratte. He has switched so many parties. But there is no public outburst against the current MLA and this is worrying.
“I fully agree with this,” said Dominic Noronha, petitioner in the anti-defection case. “The problem starts right from the parties that give tickets. They don’t decide on the merits of whether the candidate is potentially a good leader. Tickets are given on your personal capacity. This is one part. Then the voters come into the picture, where they vote for various reasons. Most of the reasons are personal. If the voters see a possibility of getting personal gains from the potential leader, then the latter gets the votes. Now when you win by a majority, say let’s take an example you win by 13,000 or 12,000 votes. If that type of a leader has defected, why is it that even 2,000 people don’t question their elected leader and why is there no social unrest? So this is what is missing,” Noronha said.
He however clarified that the civic unrest should not necessarily be like a civil disobedience movement.
“If you have been a genuine voter who has been associated with a certain party, whose candidate has been elected, then it is the voter’s duty to go back and ask the elected representative as to why did he or she defect when I voted for the party’s agenda,” he said.
Is this because people are doing deals with politicians and not voting because of ideology?
“It is exactly a deal-based relationship. Everything is a personal agenda. If I have a personal cause that has been taken care of by the concerned candidate, then the vote will go to him or her. That is the kind of politics which is being played across Goa and if we need to survive with good leadership, the parties also have to review their way of choosing leaders,” Noronha said.
He emphasised on the need for the political parties to change their ways, which subsequently will also enable the voters to see politics with a broader angle, where there are legislators who legislate for them and not serve their personal needs.
From 1992 to 2002, Goa had 13 chief ministers in three Assemblies and defections happened 21 times during this period. The total number of defectors was 80. However, only three out of these 80 MLAs got disqualified. Ratnakar Chopdekar, Sanjay Bandekar and Luis Proto Barbosa are the only three MLAs ever in the history of Goa who got disqualified for defection.
Surely, by now the total defections must have gone up to almost 150. This is where we lie. In the history of defections, only three MLAs have ever got disqualified. Now, what is the reason for it? This is an old story. So when will this story end?
Responding to the question, Trajano D’Mello, political commentator, said, “See, there are two things. In the beginning we started by saying that Congress suffered. But the Congress party said Goa suffered. It is the Congress which is the root cause of spreading this disease. It came to power by finishing the MGP every time.”
“You must keep in mind that in 2022, the mood was in favour of Congress. But it became very clear that deals were done. Now you tell me one thing, when he said the tickets are not given on the credibility of the candidate but depends on certain considerations then on what basis are they facing the voters?” D’Mello questioned.
He emphasised on the point that no defection takes place if that particular parent party which breaks another party, is not at the Centre.
“So everything is controlled. Suppose BJP is at the Centre, then Congress cannot break anybody and bring him to its fold and vice versa. So everything stands there. Now the credibility of the party depends on its leader who is distributing the tickets. When it becomes totally public that everything is happening because of money, which happened last time, then your stature goes down,” he said.
Responding to D’Mello’s remarks, Kawthankar said that it would be inappropriate to discuss the party ticket distribution system in a public debate, because these are subjects which need to be “discussed within the four walls” of the party. Because it’s an “organisational matter”.
“But definitely we must have fallen short somewhere. I won’t
completely deny that mistakes have not been made and it is the responsibility of the organisation to improve and move ahead. But as far as putting the entire responsibility on the Congress is concerned and putting the party in the accused box as far as defection is concerned, is like you are putting the victim of a house theft in the accused box, completely giving a clean chit to the thief,” the Goa Congress Vice-president said.
D’Mello also pointed out that the central leadership of the
Congress, which came here to strategise, had a legal luminary along with him from Goa, who got a ticket. They told everybody
there was no problem as the candidates pledged their allegiance with the Congress party in affidavits.
“Now everybody in Goa understood that this affidavit was a piece of paper that didn’t stand as evidence in any court of law. When you start cheating the people as a leader that I have got this safeguard, which is of no value, then what do you expect the people to do?” he questioned.
Any party becomes a very easy prey, which can be used as a puppet if the party itself is weak from within, whether it is Congress or any other party.
In the previous Assembly elections, whether it is 2017 or 2022, the Congress party was used and misused by people within the organisation. What happens is, if there’s a low hanging fruit from a very weak tree, anybody will go and pluck it and this is where the issue lies.
Now you don’t have to pluck the fruit, as it falls. In 2017, there is no doubt that the Congress was knocking on the doors of Raj Bhavan to form a government. They were pulled back figuratively.
The entire scenario changed in 2022. With a little bit of push on proper ticket distribution, things would have happened (in Congress’ favour).
What are the mechanisms that the party has taken to ensure that the tree is so strong that you won’t have these fruits of defection falling into the laps of other parties?
In reply, Kawthankar said, “See, as far as the 2017 incident is concerned, Congress was almost at the doors of Raj Bhavan,
to form the government, but was not able to do it due to the scenarios that unfolded over there and various other reasons like the alliances, chief ministerial choice and several issues. Many of them are not even part of the Congress party today, but the blame till date has to be borne by the party. So there is our story and the real one.”
As far as the mechanism is concerned, the Goa Congress V-P said that going by the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1950 and the law on which the political parties function and on which the elections are held and the defections are challenged, there is a lacunae in the entire system.
“There is a big loophole which has been misused multiple times and till now there is no clear solution. It is the people who can only give a good solution to that and if there is some concrete fool proof solution, then the Congress party will definitely adopt it,” Kawthankar said.
As far as Congress party’s stand on defection is concerned, he said that the only fool proof thing that can be done and that was done in the 2022 election is that, the party didn’t give ticket to a single defector, as promised to the people.
“Even many of the defectors were desperate to come back to the Congress and contest on the party’s ticket. But we took a very strong stand. It was an in-principle decision that no defector will be given re-entry into the party. We stood by that,” he said.
Kawthankar however added that as of now there wasn’t any fool-proof mechanism to prevent defection.
“The best we can do is give tickets to good people, with high moral values and integrity. At the same time, we have to see whether the person is going to win the election or not,” he said.
“We must accept one thing very clearly that the political murderers of democracy are not being called out as murderers by the people, who are the murderers. Everybody is a murderer here. As a popular phrase in Hindi goes, ‘Hamam mein sab nange hai’ (everybody’s naked in the bath house)” he added.
In conclusion Kawthankar said, “Now with this kind of a situation, we can only kind of beat our heads. Unless there is some kind of a democratic revolution that people want and in addition to all the causes that they are fighting for, I think the next big revolution has to be a complete clean-up of democracy and make it totally bereft of this word called defection.”