SUBHASH, ZANTYE AND ISIDORE ALL SET TO JUMP SHIP

By RAJAN NARAYAN

AND A FEW MORE stray thoughts and a few more observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when politics in Goa took a new turn with rumours that two senior Congress legislators, Subhash Shirodkar and Isidore Fernandes, would quit their seats and contest by-elections on the BJP ticket. For a Sunday following the week when there were renewed doubts on whether the International Film Festival would be held in Goa this year. For a Sunday following the week when both the RSS-run Vidya Prabodhini School and the electronic media acted in an unethical and wholly contemptible manner in relation to the alleged act of paedophilia in the L.D. Samant Memorial School. For a Sunday following the week when there was further proof of the complicity of the President of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Luizinho Faleiro with the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

And a few stray thoughts on the new storm brewing in political circles. Following Micky’s revolt and his no holds barred denouncement of the Parrikar government, the BJP has become even more jittery. The BJP is aware that it cannot rely upon the continued loyalty of either Sudhin Dhavlikar or Filipe Neri Rodrigues. The BJP’s worries have been compounded by the fears that the disqualification petition moved by Jose Phillip against Rajendra Arlekar, the BJP chief, and Chandrakant Chodankar against Dayanand Mandrekar, may succeed. This would result in the strength of the party in the Legislative Assembly falling dramatically from 19 to 17 and would make it even more vulnerable to toppling bids. The BJP apparently has decided to play its trump card to ensure that the government completes its full term. There have been persistent rumours that some Congress legislators like Subhash Shirodkar and Harish Anna Zantye would be willing to quit the Congress party and attempt to get re-elected on the BJP symbol to strengthen the party and make it topple-proof. The senior Congress leader Subhash Shirodkar is vulnerable to blackmail because of the infamous pipe scandal. When Shirodkar was the PWD minister in the Sardinha ministry which was toppled by Manohar Parrikar he had allegedly placed orders for crores worth of cement pipes for the Assanora water project. The orders were placed even before the project was formally approved without calling for any tenders.

Pipe scam
It was subsequently discovered that the pipes were sub-standard. It is widely rumouredthat Subhash Shirodkar funded the educational complex he has set up in Shiroda with the ill-gotten gains of the pipe scam. While Manohar Parrikar has filed cases against several corrupt Congress MLAs and threatened to file cases against many more he has been extremely indulgent towards Subhash Shirodkar. There has been increasing evidence that Isidore Fern-andes, the Panjim resident who is the Poingunim MLA has been moving closer to the saffron brigade. Isidore like several others has been quite bitter with the Congress party because he felt that it has not given him his due and has been used and abused. Isidore campaigned actively for Babush Mon-serrate during the Taleigao Panchayat elections. In the Parliamentary elections Isidore tacitly supported the BJP candidate Ramakant Angle. While the Congress candidate Churchill Alemao secured a significant lead in Canacona which is represented by a BJP MLA he did not get sufficient votes in Poinguinim though Isidore is ostensibly a Congress supporter. I understand that both Subhash Shirodkar and Isidore Fernandes have agreed or have been coerced intooffering to resign from their seats in the Legislature.

The game plan is that in the by-elections that will be forced by their resignation they would contest on the BJP ticket and if they are elected it would strengthen the BJP party. Amongst the other names of Congressmen who are likely to emulate the example of Subhash and Isidore are Anna Harish Zantye and Pratapsing Raoji Rane, the leader of the Opposition. Harish Zantye reportedly is willing to do anything to ensure that he gets a share of the film festival pie. Parrikar has yet to deliver on his promise that he would provide an interest-free loan and entertainment tax exemption to Ashok and Samrat the theatres owned by Harish Zantye. In fact the earlier plan to make Ashok and Samrat venues of the international film festival seems to have been dropped. But during the just concluded Assembly session Parrikar again dangled the carrot of loans and entertainment duty exemption before Harish Zantye. The LOO of course is neck deep in the saffron pond and has been colluding and collaborating with the Parrikar regime ever since the BJP came to power in the state. But Pratapsing Raoji Rane is a cautious man and has always hedged his bets. The story goes that Rane is more concerned with the political future of his son rather than his own future. Rane’s deal with Parrikar apparently is that his son Vishwajeet Rane would be given the BJP ticket for the Valpoi assembly constituency in the next elections whenever they’re held. But there can be many a slip between cup and lip.

With a Congress-led coalition in power in the Centre and a staunch Congressman as Governor of the State there is every possibility that the Assembly may be dissolved and presidential rule imposed if Subhash Shirodkar and Isidore Fernandes agree to quit the Congress and the Legislative Assembly. Moreover there is no guarantee that by-elections which would enable them to return the assembly in saffron colours would be held promptly. The by-elections may be delayed by as long as six months because the rule is that vacant seats need to be filled up only within six months. And of course there is no guarantee that Isidore and Subhash will get elected back to the Legislative Assembly if they contest on the BJP ticket. As the experience of the South Goa Parliamentary elections dramatizes there is every possibility and even the probability that they may not get re-elected on the lotus symbol. Parrikar is obviously banking on the fact that given the selfishness and self-centeredness of Congress leaders they will never come together.

IFFI UPDATE
AND A FEW stray observations on the international film festival. There are serious doubts whether the Centre will go ahead with its commitment to make Goa the permanent venue for the international film festival (IFFI) or even permit it to hold IFFI in the State this year. Not withstanding the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the Goa government has signed with the Union Ministry of Information and the Directorate of Film Festivals there are still doubts whether the event will take place as scheduled in November. The MoU makes it clear that the holding of the festival in Goa will be contingent on all the arrangements being in place at least by October-end. There is a specific provision in the MoU which gives the Union Information Ministry and the Directorate of Film Festivals the right to call off the festival if they are not satisfied that the infrastructure is in place. Though the Chief Minister has been claiming that 70 percent of the work on the infrastructure is already completed a visit to the principal venues like the Kala Academy and the site of the multiplex at the old GMC belies his claims. The multiplex is far from being ready. The final plans for the renovation of the Kala Academy are apparently not yet ready and work is proceeding on an ad hoc basis.

The President of the Goa Chamber of Commerce, Nitin Kunkolikar has virtually confirmed that the Union Information Ministry and the Directorate of Film Festivals will shift the venue back to Delhi. In his editorial in the July issue of the Chamber’s bulletin Nitin Kunkoliekar laments the fact that the State government and the Directorate of Film Festivals seem to be on a collision course. Nitin has drawn pointed attention to an advertisement released by the government. He points out that the newly formed Entertainment Society of Goa which has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the film festival has called for tenders for an events manager to organize the film festival. The tender specifies that the event manager will be responsible for all aspects of the film festival. Which would seem to suggest that the government plans to have a film festival of its own in the apprehension that it may not be permitted to hold the India international film festival in Goa. That there can be no question of looking for an event manager since IFFI has historically been managed by the Directorate of Film Festivals. So why is the government looking for an event manager? Nitin observes that the tender for appointing an event manager refers to the Goa International Film Festival and not the International Film Festival of India. The Goa Chamber of Commerce President says, “The Information and Broadcasting minister is understood to have already taken a decision to that effect.” Implying that Delhi and not Goa will be the venue for the IFFI.

MOLESTATION CASES
AND A FEW stray thoughts on the callousness and unethical conduct of the RSS-run Vidya Prabodhini Society school in Porvorim and the private television channel Goa Plus. We are not particularly surprised about the unethical and criminally callous response of the RSS-run Vidya Prabodhini Society to the charge of molestation of a student by one of the teachers in the school run by it. The Society at its press conference handed out a press note which in violation of all norms identified the victim. The Society also instigated the Penha da France Panchayat, which is controlled by the BJP, to lead a morcha demanding the reinstatement of the teacher guilty of allegedly molesting the student. As we have pointed out in our lead story, the Society has not suspended the accused teacher but merely asked him to go on leave. The Society has also been targeting the parents and claiming that the parents concocted the charge of molestation because the mother of the victim was sacked for her arrogance and because there were complaints from parents about her. The mother was employed as a teacher in the primary section of the school in which the incident is allegedly to have happened but was sacked within 14 days.

But contrary to the claim that the mother of the victim was arrogant and incompetent, Fatima De Sa, the Principal of the Holy Family School in which the victim’s mother worked for seven years before joining the Vidya Prabhodini unequivocally asserts that she was a very good and conscientious teacher. There were no complaints about her while she worked at the Holy Family School and she left only to do her teacher’s training course. In fact, the child victim was also a student of the Holy Family School and teachers affirm that she was a very well-behaved child and not given to wild allegations or concocting stories as the RSS claims she has done. I can understand the RSS trying to discredit the parents of the victim. The RSS and the Vidya Prabodhini are obviously hell bent on protecting the accused teacher not only because Damodar Joshi has been in the school for 15 years but also because he is a badji (priest). What we are shocked about is the conduct of Goa Plus which identified the child and even showed the house in which the family stays. Worse still on Wednesday the Goa Newsline carried interviewswith the children studying in the same class as the victim. The children, in obviously rehearsed speeches, spoke glowingly of the school and exonerated the accused teacher. Surely one does not expect the electronic to stoop to the level of using the children in such a shameful manner to cover up the incidence.

Above the law
Perhaps the children were pressurized into staging a command performance to pre-empt the police who had planned to record the statements of the classmates of the victim who were present when the alleged incident took place. The Vidya Prabodhini incident also makes it clear that the RSS is a law unto itself in Goa and that the Chief Minister has no hold over the RSS. There have been persistent rumours that the RSS in the State has virtually disowned the Chief Minister and made it clear that it will not brook any interference in its affairs. Apparently it is Rajendra Arlekar, the President of the RSS, who now calls all the shots.

And a last stray thought for yet another Sunday. The South Goa revenue officials accompanied by the police invaded the Zug Mobor island last week. The island is best known for the fact that the former Chief Minister and the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Luizinho Faleiro and his family own a large part of it. In fact there is a case pending against Luizinho Faleiro or rather his family for violation of the CRZ rules. The raiding party comprising of officials of the collectorate, police and labour, demolished some structures put up by the original owner of the property who had retained some part of the island for himself. But they did not touch the bunds that have been constructed by Luizinho Faleiro ostensibly for the purposes of pisciculture. Though the intention and the mandate of the raiding party was to demolish the bunds also. The fact that they did not do so deepens the suspicion that Luizinho Faleiro, not withstanding all the noises he has been making recently, is still very close to the Chief Minister.

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