Goan’s recently celebrated the season of Lent which culminated with the celebration of Easter Sunday. One of the most important event’s of this season is the celebration of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday which has roots in the Jewish feast of the Passover in commemoration of their liberation by God from slavery in ancient Egypt. The Lord asked that the Israelite’s mark the door-frames of their homes with lamb’s blood so that his angel would recognize and “pass over” each Jewish household and avoid the slaying of every firstborn son.
The BJP goverment in Goa as a measure of appeasement to the Catholic minority in Goa has decided to come up with their own version of the Passover. The Party is very soon going to go around from house to house starting April 6th requesting it’s supporters to affix a BJP party sticker on the door of the house thereby displaying their loyalty to the party.
Who ever came up with such an idea? and why? And why is there not even a murmur of protest against this blatant disregard of the basic constitutional provision of the voter’s right to secret ballot in order to ensure political privacy. Why should I be coerced or forced to display my colours unless I want to? and what happens to those who refuse to display the stickers? Are they to be counted and made note of so that the BJP can run an effective pogrom as was done against minorities in Gujarat in 2002.
What will happen if tomorrow non supporters are slowly denied their rights, or jobs, or amenities? This looks to be nothing but an attempt to intimidate the local populace into toeing the line and pushing them to accept the nefarious acts being carried out by the BJP.
With the Goa Congress Party in complete disarray and filled with wolves in sheep’s clothing, there seems to be no one to oppose this tendentious act. Not one representative of the Congress party has given a statement objecting or questioning the thought process that went into this scheme by the Parrikar led Government. Are we to understand that they are in agreement with this or are they to scared to oppose him given that they have lost the trust of the people by their own misdeeds? We can expect nothing from the state Congress members but may only hope that the members at the Centre will pay some heed and maybe work to disable this nefarious plan.
Till then who will stand up and fight for the right of the free citizen? We need a ‘Moses’ who will extract us from the Saffron Sea that we seem to have gotten ourselves into. 