Politicos, hands off civil society By Frederick Noronha [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[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