Today, even Ram can't win elections without money, says Subhash Velingkar

PANAJI: Former chief of the Goa RSS unit, Subhash Velingkar, has said it was difficult for "respectable people like lord Ram" to win elections and those who distributed money were victorious. Drawing an analogy between the epic Ramayana and elections, Velingkar said: "If demon king Ravan distributes money during elections, he will win. But a respectable person like Ram, even if he has good intentions, cannot get elected in this type of democracy."
Velingkar said it took "10 years" for Manohar Parrikar and Shripad Naik, both of whom had joined politics and were mentored by him, to win elections as they were pitted against money power.

"If you want to get elected then distribute money and lure the youth because they have the strength to do campaign work," he told a youth convention of the Goa Suraksha Manch here on Wednesday .

"It took us 10 years to get them elected," he told a youth convention of the Goa Suraksha Manch here on Wednesday .

showing that there was a time when it was possible to contest elections without the backing of money.

However, the GSM mentor said, without money even Lord Ram would not be able to win an election today. "This is the state of democracy today - buy votes, win. There is no place for poor people like me. This has to change," Velingkar said, adding that at least Rs 2 crore is required to win an election.

Accusing the BJP of indulging in the very practice, Velingkar, who has had a ringside view of the party's growth to power in the state, said that till 2012 BJP was different in Goa. "Government with zero tolerance to corruption was the slogan of the BJP, but tell me one minister who has not taken money."

People, he said, are not interested in seeing how the person made money, they just accept what is being offered.

"My view is that there is no need of money to get elected," Velingkar said.

Velingkar had floated a political party on the eve of the 2017 assembly election, after differences emerged between Parrikar and him over the medium of instruction issue following demands by the Velingkar-supported Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch that the government withdraw aid to church-run English medium schools.