Almost in every village, there is a ”lutt” from the candidates to contest the forthcoming Panchyat Election. There are so many candidates in this “lutt” whose track records of doing good for the people in their own localities are very poor, they don’t do any social work because they don’t like to help others, they don’t like to sacrifice even one minute and even one paisa for the sake of others and on top of it they want to be the official custodians of our localities.
When this is the case, how these candidates crave for the votes of the people and why people will vote for such selfish candidates? I cannot understand how these candidates take the voters for granted!! For the voters to vote for a particular candidate, that particular candidate must give an impression to the voters that he is capable of doing good to the people, based on his past record of helpfulness in his locality for the locals. Many of our candidates whose work in the service of the people is zero have got no right to contest the election because for such selfish candidates people do not vote and in fact they should not vote for such people. How can one accept that one Mr. X, the candidate, will work for the good of the society when he did nothing and neither got evidence to show that he did something?
In the first Panchayat election in Goa immediately after the conquest of Goa by Bharat, most of the Christian Brahmin Bhattkars were totally knocked out by their low grade opponents, even by their Mundkars because most of these Brahmin Bhattkars were known not to do anything good to their Mundkars and subordinates. This was the election fought on the principle of Bhattkars against Munddkars and Bamonn against non-Bamonn. People in that election opposed the top feudality because this feudality failed to do much good to the lower strata of the people. It is not possible to gain the goodwill of the voters and especially of the commoners to get their votes without doing anything good to them and to the society. If you are not even ready to give a simple smile to others even though that smile will cost you nothing, then how you expect the voters and people to support you? Contribute something for the cause of society and community and then expect good response from the voters.
Then there is a group of people who come under the umbrella of their panels to fight this election. They are mostly all old faces graduated in gaining expertise in looting the village Panchayats by doing chicanery and corruption. Because of their long term experience as Panchas and Sarpanchas they gained the mastery of making money thru looting the locals by way of extorting bribe from the public. Their urge and taste for Panchayat politics is so great that without being its members they cannot survive. For this reason, they are contesting the Panchayat elections again and again not to serve the village and the locals but to fill their pockets. How much such people served our villages? Everybody knows this. All the people below my nose knows this. The little they do is to get commission for them because they have their "cuts". These are the CHORS who are responsible for robbing our villages and on top of it they are shamelessly moving in society with their collar high. People should vote them out in the coming election otherwise they will destroy our villages.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim.