Goa and "Aam Aadmi"

The Chief Minister of Goa Mr Digambar Kamat has been in the saddle for more than a year and during his early days in office, advocated the concept of the "Aam Aadmi" to the masses in Goa. The media lapped up that one phrase and coined a lot of prose to push him into a corner along with the willing opposition brigade. For a long time the "Aam Aadmi" clamour filled many pages, mostly in satire.

While the Chief Minister might have had the noblest of intentions in coining that word, he obviously was referring to the " common man". However the common man in this case seem to be an endless list of people only hovering in the realm of the seemingly poor and majority migrant population. The Goan middle class seem to be out of the purview of the common man.

Aam Aadmi so far has benefited gadda owners, taxi drivers, truckers and the like. The niz Goencar is still fighting battles in the street against megaprojects, highway alignments, SEZ's, hill destructions, coastal butchery, defacement of Goa through rampant selling of land etc. The common Goencar of Goa is only trying to save Goan identity. This act is like a favour of the common Goencar on the government of Goa in saving Goa and should have been supported unstintedly by the government and all activism should have been with the active participation of the government.

Instead the real " Aam Aadmi" is fighting a battle to save his own skin.