Days and weeks of vilification of the Ruling panel is going to come to an end tomorrow, or at least I hope it to. I have been closely following the rat (Monster Rat should I say ;)) race to the coveted seats in the CCP hall (quiet ironically lots of SEQC members including yours truly have adorned these seats as part of our monthly quizzes being held here).
Off late, loads of forums and groups, many of whom having the so-called elite Panjimites, have come forward and openly criticised the sitting CCP corporators. They have alleged huge scams and large-scale wrongdoings and have attributed this to the actual god-father running the show from behind curtain. Couple that with the garbage management(or mismanagement) and the traffic woes.
From ‘Panaji First’ to ‘Friends of Good Governance’ (Is this the same old ‘Friends of BJP’ with a more politically correct title?), and from ‘Panjimites Initiatives for change (PINC)’ to the Forum of Doctors have been crying on top of their voice in the past few days. It seems though Panjim suddenly have been plagued with horde of civic issues ranging from Parking or the lack of it to garbage disposal. Pat would come a reply that these issues haven’t aroused just now, but have been persisting for quite some time. In other words, since past 5 years when the current council was garlanded victorious in the last elections. And precisely that is the point I want to drive home.
Where were all these ‘Panjimites’ when all these years Panjim was being ruined? I know an election is a good chance to show the door to the non-performers, but is waiting for 5 years a good choice? Why the forums that have been mushrooming off late were hibernating all these years? What were the Rebeiros and the Bhatikars doing and why didn’t they make their corporators (whom they themselves have elected, directly or indirectly by abstaining) act? The panel backed by the al-mighty minister whom they are crying foul, were awarded a thumping majority during the last CCP polls by none others. Why did that happen? Was he any lesser evil back then?
I feel that the Panjimites were being most opportunistic, even more so than the Minister who is been vilified. Quiet many of these Panjimites fancy their residential address reading as ‘The Kingdom of the Monster-Rat’. An adobe in his den is kinda a status-symbol for all and everyone vies for it. And those who have not been able to make it there probably wanted him to transform their own capital city into the towering concrete jungles like the one in the precincts of the city. Probably with these very intentions they had handed him the powers in the last CCP elections. However, to their utter disappointment the city went to the dumps and prosperity beckoned his kingdom at the expense of the capital city. Thus the citizens have risen now from their slumber and got onto the bandwagon of lambasting him.
Even the technocrat MLA who has been personally attacking his political rival should resort to some soul searching. For each one of us knows, ‘who has created the Monster Rat?’. Ironically the same rat has become a nemesis for him now, so far so as to even threatening to steal away the constituency in the upcoming legislative elections. Needless to re-iterate, it’s an open secret that in the last assembly elections, the technocrat was elected at the mercy of the same 'Bhasmasur' he had created back then (In fact its quiet a apt to co-relate the mythological story of ‘Bhramha-dev creating the Bhasmasur’ in this case. The technocrat invented the Rat to get even with his old foe, further found a loop-hole in the anti-defection law and taught him the ‘resign & re-elect’ trick, and finally found the same trick being used against him to topple the government). And now this rat has over-grown his size and more so his political ambition, it has made the technocrat go panicky. Infact the technocrat has gone berserk and quiet unlike to his shrewd personality has been levelling personal charges against him (Latest Google news tells me: Technocrat calls the Monster Rat a ‘goonda’...... Everyone knows that, so what? ;))
If you have managed to read until here, you must have likened me to one of his toadies from the CCP council. Let me tell you, I am not. The very fact that I am calling the Monster-Rat a ‘Bhasmasur’ should suffice my defence. It’s high time we tame this Bhasmasur who has been let loose and if not now, then it won’t be too long that everything will be turned to ashes. Tomorrow is the day of judgement wherein let’s make this Bhasmasur dance to our tunes and eventually let his own action precipitate into his own debacle.
