[Goanet-News] Goanet Reader: Politicos, hands off civil society (FN, Herald)

[Goanet Reader]

Politicos, hands off civil society

By Frederick Noronha
fred at bytesforall.org

[Herald, June 26, 2008]

Short of running a matrimonial agency and a motorcycle-pilot
taxi service, the BJP in Goa, it seems, wants to get into
almost everything. Earlier in June 2008, newspaper reports
announced that the BJP has plans to set up and "register 500
NGOs".

The BJP NGO's cell national co-convenor was in town. The
party has big plans, it seems. Well and good; but what are
its implications? What's there in common there between a
power-seeking political party and an organisation which is,
theoretically at least, meant to work without keeping profit
in mind?

Significantly, there hasn't been much debate on this issue.
Nobody bothered too much.

Moira-based Goa Suraj Party's Floriano Lobo, one of those to
speak out on it, voiced "intrigue" over the announcement. He
commented wryly: "Wow!  So many NGOs at one go?  The BJP must
get into the Guinness Book of World Records."

Lobo added in a comment, "When the BJP comes back to power in
Goa, it will hopefully desist from giving each and every one
of the 500 NGOs a fat monetary grant each year, thus
scrapping the bottom of the public exchequer pot which the
Congress has emptied already."

But is this an issue of numbers alone? Pointing to the "500"
goal, Lobo asked, in passing, whether there are actually so
many issues in Goa waiting to be battled over.

So are we missing the point? The problem with the BJP is that
it's a party which is not content with being a political
party. It wants to take on larger than life roles. In this,
it does injustice to itself and the people of Goa, in whose
name it speaks, either as the Opposition or ruling party.

Take a look at the BJP's record during its past term in
office here. For reasons it well understands, the BJP worked
overtime to specially spread its influence in fields like
education. Look not just at its own party-men and RSS
affiliates who have been raised to the level of prominent,
prize-winning educationists. But see the way it also handed
over government property to thinly-disguised Sangh affiliates
in the guise of a "lack of students" for Marathi primary
schools, and doled out MPLAD (Member of Parliament Local Area
Development) money to schools run by the extended sangh family.

As if this was not enough, the BJP went about working to
control the media. Not satisfied with having pliable
journalists and publications at its beck and call -- a luxury
that any ruling party has, but mostly bought with bribes not
ideology -- it went about setting up its own organs in the
media in Goa too.

Another crucial pillar of control that the BJP made no bones
about wanting to control was the police. Using the argument
that the cops were short-staffed, the BJP packed its own
supporters into uniform. We know the results have been
negative when it comes to raising efficiency, or tackling
corruption, as dramatically brought home by the Scarlett
Keeling case.

Likewise, the BJP has gone about spreading its stranglehold
to decide who controls Goa's vegetable trade, at what prices
essential commodities should be sold, and such activities
which clearly fall beyond the domain of party politics.

Why can't Goa's main Opposition party just be that -- a
political party? From its own affiliated student unions, to
trade unions it controls, the BJP wants more.

Not that the BJP's interest in controlling and manipulating
NGOs is new. BJP's Goa NGO cell convenor Dr Dattaram Dessai
has been active in the anti-Nylon 6,6 agitation at Keri,
Ponda. With the fairly open involvement of saffron politics
in the agitation, it seems, at least one can avoid the label
of being "anti-national", as faced by those protesting the
Konkan Railway.

One significant part of the infighting within the GBA can be
laid at the door of Goa's main Opposition party and its
ideological allies. Already, the BJP's party-men have
interest in the anti-tobacco campaign. Isn't it strange that
it was during the BJP rule in Goa itself that NGOs here came
under the most fire? Today, the BJP's policy seems to be one
of 'if you can't beat them, you might as well join them.'

That every citizen will have political views of their own and
vote at election time is a given. Nothing unexpected about
that. That some citizens, who are active in NGOs, will have
strong political views, is also understandable. Even not
voting at election time is a political position in itself.
But for a party to want to control and decide the direction
of civil society is indeed a unhealthy trend in itself.

In its eagerness to extend its hegemony over society, the
party is making the mistake of blurring the checks and
balances that can work to control each other.

For one, the party risks to bring under a cloud the
credentials of NGOs as a whole. Such organisations, already
under criticism for other reasons, could be seen as the
cats-paw of their political masters.

But, for both civil society and Goan society, the
implications of its stand are strong on other grounds too.

Whatever the shortcomings our NGOs in Goa have -- ranging
from arrogance, to tunnel-visions, even corruption, being run
like a family-enterprise, or not being accountable to society
-- they do have a crucial role to play. Politicians should
keep their hands off civil society. Else, we will have a
situation where politicians manipulate NGOs while they are in
Opposition, and simply bribe them with official largess when
they are in governance.

Goa has had many pseudo-Opposition parties in the past too.
Our politicians need to simply play their role better. Not be
a tool to diffuse people's protest (as in the Konkan Railway
case), play footsie with those in power (as in the drafting
of the official language act), or seek to discredit those who
are raising crucial issues (as in the ongoing mining
protests).

Are NGOs just a political tool, to be used and discarded like
used condoms, when there is a political need for the same?

Already, in the determined thrust to jockey back to power in
Goa, a BJP which has failed to build a large-enough vote-bank
here, is showing its interest in floating all kinds of
abhiyans and manchs. At the same time, the party and its
ideological allies are showing signs of selectively
targetting those who have any potential of raising concerns
of the commonman.

Even someone with no sympathy for the Congress can't help
suspecting this. Is this just a ploy to create enough dissent
and cut into the Congress votes, in a way that gives the BJP
a chance to somehow take power in Panjim? If "people's
movements" are prostituted into playing such roles, will it
not just dent the long-term credibility of such
organisations?

Assuming it touched the figure of 500, what role would the
army of BJP-floated NGOs floated play? Would they continue
their crucial oppositional role once the BJP is in power? Or
would they just reach out their hands to accept governmental
doles? Or would they simply block dissent space, raise issues
only when they are compelled to, and otherwise drop them --
the protests over the casinos being a case in point?

Clearly, the BJP is overplaying its hand. It needs to leave
space for civil society to do its own job. By building
pseudo-NGOs, it is doing a service to nobody.

Not to a Goa which can't depend on such organisations. Not to
the people on whose hopes and aspirations political capital
is sought to be built. And not to the BJP itself which is
proving great at garnering sensational headlines, yet failing
to play its role as an Opposition party in a society which
also needs to have some modicum of self-correcting mechanisms
in place -- even if far from perfect.

ENDS