OLD GOA
Stating that his Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) wants to be voice of Goa, Goans at national level, RGP President Manoj Parab in an interview with The Goan has said his party cannot allow Goa, Goans to be finished by national parties and is confident that the RGP has a huge prospect of scuttling calculation of national parties.
THE GOAN: What is the agenda of your party at the national and state level?
MANOJ PARAB: The main agenda is to bring an end to the dictatorship of the BJP government and to protect the democratic framework of the country. Also, our aim is to oppose the policies of the Centre which are detrimental to the common man.
As for the State, RGP wants to be a voice of Goa and Goans at the national level which the national parties have failed to be. We want to protect the unique identity of Goans and want to raise Goa’s voices on issues like Mhadei, coal hub, double tracking, mining, jobs for Goans in Central agencies, etc.
TG: Why have you decided to enter the fray when your party is restricted to very localised regional sentiments/issues and there’s very little scope in terms of what you can do at the national level in Parliament?
MP: In the last LS elections, the BJP and Congress vote share was 66% but the rest of the 34% belonged to the regional forces like DMK, BRS, YSR Congress, TMC and many others.
And these parties are taking up the issues in their States at the national level. Even there are several regional parties within the NDA which are fighting for issues affecting them locally.
And that is what RGP wants to do. We cannot allow Goa and Goans to be finished by these national parties, and we want to emulate regional forces like the Southern regional parties which are fighting to protect their unique identities.
TG: Fighting and winning elections is a lot dependent on having a robust party organisation working on the ground to mobilise supporters and voters. Compared to the BJP, your party strength is no match. How do you view this reality and what measures are up your sleeves to overcome this weakness?
MP: RG is a new political party but during the Assembly elections we contested 38 seats and got a 10% vote share, which is a proof enough that our organisation is second to none.
Yes, BJP has a strong organisation but it is because they have been in politics for decades. But at the moment, RG is the only other political party in Goa which has a better organisational setup after the BJP.
We have revolutionaries in all constituencies who are working on the ground due to which today, RGP is the only party which has been able to complete 60-70% door-to-door campaign when other parties have not even begun their campaign.
In the North, the Congress is struggling to declare its candidate while in the South both the BJP and Congress are struggling, which will work in favour of the RGP.
So, we are far ahead as far as campaigning is concerned and that will work towards our advantage.
TG: What you think are your prospects?
MP: The Goans are fed up with national parties like the BJP and the Congress as they give more preference to the outsiders while sidelining Goans.
These national parties are known to promote slums, illegal businesses of migrants, providing government jobs to migrants, among other things which are detrimental to Goa and Goans.
So, a regional force like RGP has a huge prospect of scuttling the calculation of the national parties since they have never spoken on issues affecting the State in the Parliament.
And, RGP is the only party which is active on the ground fighting for the cause of Goa and Goans. So, in that context we see that RGP is going to spring surprises which are not foreseen by many.
