Dear Editor, Treachery by any other name is just as despicable.There is no way in which treachery can be condoned. The Congress Party, however, has given a new twist to this reprehensible phenomenon in Goa's politics. When an elected politician from the BJP joins the Congress Party, he is welcomed with open arms; and is even rewarded with a ticket to fight the bye elections in the Cumbarjua constituency. But when Nirmala Sawant opts out of the Congress for being a party without principles, she is branded a traitor and is publicly humiliated by the "High Command" which declared that the doors of the Congress Party will remain forever closed to her. The Congress Party has specialized in this form of double-talk and has corrupted the electoral process to an extent never known before.
Most of the present "leaders" of the Congress Party are traitors in the classical meaning of the word. They should have been barred from standing for electoral office on the grounds of moral depravity. However, it appears that the more unethical they become, the more they are rewarded because of their "winnability" factor. The BJP in Goa has been a disaster for the State, but the Congress, with its twisted principles, is no alternative either. It is time that the citizens of Goa reject both the BJP and the Congress and elect new incumbents to the Legislative Assembly - persons of integrity, who have never changed their political affiliations, and who will clean up the mess which has been left by both the Congress and the BJP. Yours faithfully, Averthanus L. D'Souza, D-13, La Marvel Colony, Dona Paula, Goa. Tel: 2453628.