DGP Latest Victim of Manohar Tughlaq

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 Manohar Parrikar in his imperious Mohammed Bin Tughlaq manner sacked his general just before the war can begin.
For the Sunday following the week when the plans to keep the aam aadmi busy and diverted while Gollywood went ga-ga over IFFI received a set back. For the Sunday following the week when the Congress High Command Observer for Goa Magaret Alva did some tough talking. For a Sunday following the week when Hollywood came to Margao despite Bollywood going up in flames just a couple of weeks before. For a Sunday following the week when the Special Children’s Court seemed to have been almost forgotten despite continuing offences against children.

GOA’S TUGHLAQ
 

And a few stray observations on Manohar Bin Tughlaq Parrikar’s act of sacking the general just before the war was to begin. One would have thought that with two major international events, the on-going Exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier and the International Film festival which is to commence on the 29th Manohar Parrikar would want to have a police chief of the experience and stature of Amod Kanth to continue to be at the helm. But there is no place for independent minded conscientious officers in Manohar Mohammed Bin Tughlaq’s regime. Manohar Tughlaq has no use for officers who do not bow and scrape before him like abject spineless courtiers. So on Thursday the day the renovated Kala Academy was opened with great fanfare Manohar Tughlaq issued an order relieving Amod Kanth the DGP of his charge as the head of the police force in Goa.
 

To add insult to injury Amod Kanth was directed to relinquish his office with immediate effect. At the time of writing there had been no communication from the Home ministry which is the appointing authority in the case of officers of the IAS and IPS cadre. But being a practical man Amod Kanth is painfully aware that he cannot fight an autocratic political despot for whom his personal ego is more important than the safety and the security of the citizen. Or even the safety and security of the high profile pilgrims and the stars of tinsel town who will be descending in Goa for the International film festival of India. The arbitrary and absurd decision relieved Amod Kanth of his position as DGP means that the state will be at the mercy of an incompetent buffoon like Muktesh Chander. Who has the dubious distinction of turning a blind eye to act of goondagiri and vandalism and even poll rigging by the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates. There is a law in economics called the Greshem’s law which says that bad money will drive good money out of circulation. The moral of the sacking of the DGP is that the one-eyed man is the king in the kingdom of the blind.
 

And a few stray thoughts on how the Chief Minister’s plans to appease the locals and tourists for all the inconvenience they will be put to because of the film festival ran into a major road block. Since the locals leave alone the tourists are not likely to be able to see any of the festival films the Parrikar government had set up a side show for them. A side show which in fact would rival or even overshadow the International Film Festival itself. The Entertainment Society of Goa to which everything is a Carnival whether it is IFFI or a serious business convention of non-resident Goans had planned to convert the Miramar Beach into a huge mela for the duration of the film festival. It has been planning not only to screen popular Hindi and English potboilers on the Miramar Beach on giant screens but also put up 60 or more food stalls on the beach. In clear violation of standing High Court orders and a solemn undertaking given by the then Director of Tourism, Suryanarayan, way back in 2001, that the government had taken a policy decision not to allow any food festival to be organised anywhere on the beaches, nor permit any other activities which tend to make them dirty. Subsequently, a blanket ban was imposed on holding any food festivals on the beaches.
Subsequent to this decision the annual food festival was shifted to the National Water Sports Complex at Caranzalem. Even when the food festival was shifted to Colva last year at the insistence of the then Tourism Minister, Micky Pacheco, only he stage was put up on the beach while the food stalls were on the parking lot in front of the beach. Consistent with his pattern of bending and breaking every law for making a success of IFFI in a jiffy apparently Manohar the Great has overruled the competent authority, the Director of Tourism, and has granted permission for putting up as many as 60 food stalls on the beach. Which will only go to enrich the event organizer and the Times of India subsidiary which has been awarded the contract for event management during IFFI.

FOODSTALLS
 

The permission granted for food stalls which are already in the process of coming up on Miramar Beach is a clear violation of the undertaking given to the High Court on behalf of the government. Citizens groups in Panjim have served an ultimatum to review its decision. If the government fails to cancel the decision to permit food stalls on the beach the citizens groups are likely to move a contempt petition against the government in the High Court and demand a stay. A stay which the High Court will be compelled to give as it has already ruled that no food festivals should be held on the beaches.
 

And talking of keeping locals and tourists visiting Goa occupied and entertained to make up for not being able to participate in the main event, the government is pulling out all the stops. According t the schedule of events which are going to be organised by The Entertainment Society of Goa there will be acrobats and jugglers and fire eaters and plays in Hindi, Marathi and Konkani, and nataks and tamashas unlimited. The sideshow which threatens to overshadow the main event is being conceived as a combination of the carnival, the Shigmo and the annual food festival. There are going to be stages not just on the Miramar beach but all along the pavement from the Panjim ferry point right up to Miramar beach. Indeed, two temporary stages are already in the process of being put up opposite the old GMC complex and Dempo House. In keeping with the principle that if you can’t give the people bread and water and uninterrupted power you can divert them by offering them circuses instead, the government intends permitting all government employees to leave work at 4 p.m. or is it 3 p.m. for the duration of the film festival. This was when it had been decided to close down the entire stretch of road from the Panjim ferry point to Miramar beach from 5 p.m. onwards.
But now that the government ostensibly for security reasons has decided to keep the stretch of the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg from the ferry point to Miramar beach closed 24 hours a day for 10 days may be all government servants will be given a 10-day holiday. And since there a number of business and commercial establishment along this stretch of the Campal the government may even bully private parties to close down their offices. And presumably will shift the entire Panjim market along with the fish market to the Patto complex for the duration of the film festival. Panjimites are not amused. And those living on Campal are livid and are threatening to approach the court.
 

The police are fully aware that the alternate roads via St. Inez are much too narrow and cannot take the traffic load. But who cares as long as all the stars from Hollywood and Bollywood can have a great time. The celebrities of course will not even know how much discomfort their presence is causing the ordinary citizen. Because all the VVIPs will be ferried from the Taj in speedboats directly to the special jetty built for their benefit at the Kala Academy complex. But apparently even in respect of this there is a minor hitch. While constructing the jetty the government apparently did not take into account the kind of boats that could work there. And those who ordered the boats were not consulted when the jetty was being built. So either there will have to be a new jetty or new boats. But duplication of time, money and effort, has been the name of the game in all the IFFI infrastructural work. Who cares? It is just public money. And apparently the public is happy if they get a few days off and they get some free entertainment and see familiar looking structures like the swimming pool or even the roads and the buildings in Panjim looking more colourful and decked up.

CONGRESS SHAKE-UP
 

AND A FEW stray observations on all the churning going on within the Congress in Goa. Sonia Gandhi apparently is extremely annoyed with the leadership of the Congress in Goa. First they managed to secure only one of the two seats in the Parliamentary elections. And then they compounded the felony by gifting away the Poinguinim seat to the BJP. Margaret Alva, General Secretary in charge of Goa and Maharashtra, apparently wants to chop off all the heads of the Congress top brass in the State. She apparently made it clear to the Executive Committee of the Congress and the Congress Legislative Party that all the senior leaders who had ruined and destroyed the Congress party in the State by their in-fighting and their self-centredness would have to go. Margaret Alva reportedly has threatened a complete shake-up of the top leadership of the Congress on the lines of the Kerala model where all the warring factions were divested of positions both in the organisation and in the Legislative Party. Both the Congress leadership in Delhi and the Congress rank and file in Goa have long since been convinced that the biggest liability to the party is the Legislative party chief Pratapsing Rane.
 

The Leader of the Opposition (LOO) has been consistently behaving as though he is a member of the ruling BJP rather than the leader of the Opposition . For instance despite the Congress in the State strongly condemning the manner in which IFFI was rushed through Pratapsing Raoji Rane has been actively colluding and collaborating with Manohar Parrikar. He was present at a press conference to highlight the transformation the Kala Academy from a Centre for the Performing Arts into a mini-Inox. He was also present and behaved like the father of the bride at the inauguration of the tarted up Kala Academy. He has been party to the cold-blooded slaughter of the few trees at the Kala Academy complex. Instead of the green verdant grass carpet which was the main attraction of Darya Sangam the open space behind the Kala Academy adjacent to the river now there is a huge paved plaza going all the way to the VVIP jetty. Parrikar has already hinted that Kala Academy may cease to be a centre for the performing arts and instead become a cinema house.
 

There is a consensus that Pratapsing Rane should go. But apparently Pratapsing Rane is very close to Prithvi Raj Chauhan, a minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Cabinet who enjoys the confidence not only of Manmohan Singh but even more so of Sonia Gandhi. A large section of the Congress would like to see Ravi Naik becoming the leader of the Opposition. Ravi Naik was very effective when he was Chief Minister for a brief while in the 90’s. As a senior if not undisputed leader of the Bhandari Samaj which formed the major section of the electorate in Goa Ravi Naik may be able to wean the community away from the BJP. It was during the tenure of Ravi Naik that goondagiri was dealt with firmly. It will be recalled that both Rudolph Fernandes, the Protector, and Churchill Alemao, the then Godfather General, were both arrested during Ravi Naik’s tenure as Chief Minister. But apparently the High Command has reservations because Ravi has also has the dubious distinction of having defected when he was the leader of the Congress.

LEGISLATIVE PARTY
 

Indeed, it was Ravi Naik’s defection which enabled Manohar Parrikar to capture the Chief Minister’s kodel and consolidate his position. The Congress High Command would ideally like a younger face. But the only relatively younger face available is Jitendra Deshprabhu. Who unfortunately is not acceptable to most MLAs. Apparently the Congress High Command would also like to replace Luizinho Faleiro as the President of the Pradesh Congress Committee but here again the problem is to find an acceptable alternative. But one clear message which Margaret Alva is reported to have sent across is that defectors and corrupt congressmen will not be allowed to occupy any positions in the organisation. Flush with the victory in Maharashtra where the Congress fielded 40 new candidates the High Command apparently is willing to dispense with the entire present lot of Congress legislators. Even if it means that the Congress remains in the Opposition for the next five decades. Which is all fine but whether Goa will survive another tenure of the BJP is another matter.

TWIN THEATRE FIASCO
 

AND A FEW stray thoughts on “Bollywood”. Not the Bollywood that will be invading Panjim for IFFI. But one of the twin theatres of the Madgaon multiplex. It will be recalled that a Mumbai businessman has put up a multiplex with two screens in the Osia complex adjacent to the fish market in Madgaon. Just a week before the twin theatres “Bollywood” and “Hollywood” could be inaugurated, “Hollywood” caught fire. Literally. And was destroyed. Apparently the Fire Brigade authorities had not granted permission for putting up a multiplex in what was planned as a residential and commercial building. But Kothari obviously commands a lot of clout with the de factor Deputy Chief Minister Digambar Kamat. Either the Fire Brigade had a change of mind or Kothari was permitted to go ahead and inaugurate the uncharred theatre of ‘Bollywood/. Except that there was a small problem. The Congress spokesperson and aspirant for the leadership of the Congress Legislative Party has filed a petition in High Court asking for a clear assurance that “Hollywood” and “Bollywood” were safe for viewers. May be this is what kept all the Margao political heavyweights like Digambar Kamat, Damu Naik and Babu Azgaonkar away from the inauguration. Apparently, the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who had promised to do the honours also backed out. The original plan was that some of the festival films would be shown at the multiplex at Madgaon. But in the light of the fire Director of Film Festivals, Neelam Kapoor, vetoed the idea. A desperate Kothari could only find a former Chief Minister and that too one who had been Chief Minister for less than three months to inaugurate his multiplex. Like a latter-day Lazarus, Proto Barboza, who has a dubious distinction of being the only Speaker who defected to topple the Congress government inaugurated the multiplex. Keeping him company was another political has been, Mama Cardoz.
 

AND A LAST stray thought for yet another Sunday. Manohar Parrikar takes pride in the fact that the multiplex was put up in exactly 180 days. The renovation of the Kala Academy was also completed in record time. Surely a government and a CEO who can get things done not just on schedule but even before schedule would have been able to get the Special Children’s Court ready in time. The Children’s Court for which space had been allotted in the Patto Complex was to be ready two months ago. But the man who can facilitate or intimidate government machinery to create an entire infrastructure for IFFI in record time has not been able to even complete the simple task of furnishing the Special Children’s Court for six long months. Surely this is the most dramatic example of the warped priorities of the Parrikar government. Who cares if more and more children get molested and paedophiles have a field day in Goa.


 

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