According to what I have noticed including at Old Goa, in my village Church and other Churches, nowhere priests advised the congregations in the Churches not to vote for Congress Party and its candidates. Nowhere in Goa, had priests advised the congregations to vote for BJP. Nowhere in Navelim constituency priests told the faithfuls in the Churches not to vote for Churchill Alemao. Neither priests told in Benaulim, Cuncolim and Sanguem to vote against Valanka, Joaquim and Yuri respectively. In their advices to the faithfuls priests never mentioned the names of any party or any candidate. What priests openly told the faithfuls congregated in the Churches was that “TO VOTE FOR THE GOOD CANDIDATES AND NOT TO THE CORRUPT ONES. Also priests told “DO NOT VOTE FOR THE SAME OLD CORRUPT FACES AND DO NOT SELL YOUR VOTES BECAUSE SELLING OF VOTES IS A SIN”.
I strongly support this move of the Goa Church in advising the faithfuls to vote rightly and not to sell their votes. Church is duty bound to advise the faithfuls what is right and what is wrong and to prevent the faithfuls from accepting bribes in exchange of votes which is a sin. I strongly support the priests in advising the people not to vote for the same old corrupt faces because these same old corrupt faces mastered the art of doing corruption and if elected they would finish Goa from this planet thru corruption. Electing corrupt persons is creating sins and thru these sins they will spread sins all over Goa. Priests’ job is to prevent the faithfuls from committing sins because committing of sins leads you to the Hell which is what priests are bound to prevent. Hence, the preaching by the priests against corrupt candidates which I fully support.
In the total fall of the mighty Alemaos there was a strong hand of the mighty God otherwise it was very difficult for their disastrous fall from the hands of the voters. As a believer in God, Churchill and other Alemaos must accept this defeat gracefully as an act of God and stop unnecessary blaming the Church and priests. Revenge and anger due to frustration will lead them to nowhere. God punish only the wrong doers and voters reject only the corrupt candidates.
As a matter of fact the grumbling and accusing defeated candidates must know that they are not born to rule infinitely like Kings. India is not a Monarchy for the same Royal family members to rule continuously. Indian democracy gives opportunity to every citizen to contest the election and come up in public life. Some of the defeated Congress candidates are prone to accuse others for their defeat. For their defeat they must accuse their own ill deeds which their voters observed and accordingly rejected them. Unfortunately the family members and relatives of some defeated candidates are guilty of accepting the ill deeds of the defeated candidates blindly instead of correcting them, if they were really good they would advise the defeated persons to stop committing crimes against Goa and Goans. But they did not do that, on the contrary they supported the ill doers till the disastrous result.
In the words of bollywood super star Amitabachan, “we must know one thing in life that we are controlled and guided by one supernatural power, for this power we must pay our obeisance otherwise we have to face the consequences as I faced". All the defeated candidates must take note of this. They faced the humiliating defeat because in their looting and corruption they feared none and cared none, neither the supernatural power nor God’s power. For such persons electoral defeat is the best medicine. Nobody should think that he or she got devince right to get elected. Nobody should take the voters for granted. Nobody should think the voters are dutybound to vote for him or her only. Voters are free to make their own choice and this time they did it rightly. The principle of Cngress of Winability with the help of money power finally gone to the dogs as people in Goa this time voted not for money but for the individuals who are not corrupt or less corrupt.
The late Dayananda Bandodkar was boasting of his power to win the elections very easily since he was loved by his MGP voters. On the strenght of their support he boasted once before his death saying "there is no power on earth to dislodge me, not even "Saddiekan" from Delhi", meaning Indira Gandhi. Finally what happened while playing Ping Pong at Gymkhana Campal Panjim? He was not only dislodged from the Goa Legislative Assembly but was totally dislodged from this planet only by one suppernatural power under the control of God. For this reason too much of pride and "dadageri" is not good. All the defeated candidates must ponder over this fearfully if they want to see their chidren and grand children coming up.
It will be very difficult for the defeated earlier kings to face the people now. Most of the time they lived the life of Maharajas by looting the poor people and sucking the blood of poor Goans. During the last so many years they lived the life of sin, arrogance and pride as Ministers and MLA’s. Now they lost their power means they are stripped of their clothes and they will be like nude creatures. They will have lot of ill-gotten wealth but it will not satisfy them. Ultimately money is not everything. Now nobody will salute them as earlier; no pilot cars with sirens; no “funkott” residential bungalows at Panjim Altinho; no bribe givers. Their status will be like that of any Ladru and Pedru. What a pitiable fall !! At least now they should learn the lesson.A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
