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Public Sins, Private Lucre, Goa Damned
Valmiki Faleiro
TGF:[ A sad reflection on
what has become of our own El Dorado, our home, our Goa. This once
pristine and peaceful place has spiraled down into the predicted form of
degeneration. ]
Goa’s stink would put a skunk to shame. Never
was the awful stench of corruption in public life so overpowering, so
intense, so pervasive. Originating from ministerial chambers in the
State Secretariat, bribe culture permeated down to the lowest rung of
Government functioning. So rampant it today is that we, the people, have
accepted it as ‘A way of life.’ If corruption has become
institutionalized, it is thanks to our politicians.
And, in a roundabout way, to us.
Bureaucracy is steeped in corruption because the top itself is. It’s not
just a case of setting a bad example. Instances show that our elected
honourables actually initiated field officials into corruption. For
starters, how do you imagine the poor official will recover the lakhs he
paid to the minister to secure his job?
Leave alone the individual ‘scoops’ for favours and licences granted by
bending or breaking the law. Forget the by-now-conventional ‘percentage’
on all government spending. Ministers have developed ‘Regular Income
Plans.’ A fixed amount every month collected by the department for the
minister. The lucre is not confined to RTO check-posts, gambling, petro-adulteration,
narcotics and rave parties. Newer rackets are hatched and choreographed
from the top.
Take the case of Sub-Registrars. Times were when
Sub-Registrars like Floriano Barreto, Vishnu Sinai Priolkar or Egidio
Fernandes might have actually dug into their own pockets to help a needy
person rather than demand, expect, or even accept a bribe.
As corruption seeped
into the corridors of the Palacio do Idilcao, Sub-Registrars began
demanding money for not referring ‘undervalued’ Sale Deeds for
adjudication. Then a Mapusa advocate became Law Minister. Based
on average transaction volumes and values, he fixed a monthly ‘quota’
for each of Goa’s eleven sub-registries. Even the few fairly decent
Sub-Registrars had to fall in line.
Corruption was unheard of during the first government of Dayanand
B. Bandodkar, 1963-66. Bandodkar of course was smart in knocking
off money for every "donation" he announced in Chief Guest appearances.
He got it from his Richie-rich brother mine -owners. He knew to
deal with defaulters -- he knew how they under-invoiced ore exports,
which foreign accounts they stashed away the difference, and how they
abused impex incentives to smuggle in gold. But corruption (as we know
it today, for personal enrichment) was anathema in that era.
The first signs of the malaise surfaced after his daughter,
Shashikaka Kakodkar, took over. There were published reports that
Gurudatt, her husband, abused position to black market commodities then
in severe shortage. Opposition leaders like Dr. Jack Sequeira, Madhav
Bir and Babu Naik screamed "corruption, nepotism!" In fairness,
corruption but in a few places then, was not a whisper of what it turned
out to be in the post-1980 Congress regime. It galloped,
horizontally.
Corruption zoomed vertically, at the turn of the century,
after the BJP assumed power (even if, it must be said, Parrikar kept
corruption at the bureaucratic level in some semblance of control.)
Parrikar and his boys (not all from his party, some were from coalition
partners) gave corruption a new dimension, a new sophistry. Gone were
days when Congress ministers accepted small change for a bribe. The
lowest denomination was half-million, a crore in bigger swindles.
Routine kickbacks on government spending skyrocketed to a new high of
eight/ten percent.
Corruption today has wriggled into a vicious circle. Thanks to we, the
people. Unless the elected politician makes pots of money, he cannot
hope to win the next election. To win, he must bribe the voter. And,
once elected, recover it and make more. ("I didn’t win on your vote,
I won on my money," a minister told his constituent grudging to
pay.) Whether the politician corrupted the voter or whether the voter
corrupted the politician will remain a dilemma like which came first,
the chicken or the egg.
Politicians have minted scores of crores. They will deploy them to
perpetuate a corrupt electoral system. The vicious circle will be
broken only if Goans turn smart enough to partake of the loot but
vote with their conscience. But then, the politician is prepared for a
Goan reformation: in several constituencies, migrants bring up half the
electoral roll, or at least in sufficient numbers to sway the verdict.
History lessons for politicians would be water over a duck’s back.
History tells us that when corruption peaked in the polity of the time,
our once proud capital, the ‘Cidade de Goa,’ was devastated. The capital
had to be shifted to Panjim. But before another plague wiped out the
Adil Shah palace, our thugs had bolted to Porvorim.
History, in this case, will not repeat itself.
It will have to chart out an entirely new course.
Valmiki Faleiro
September 30,
2006
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