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 contrary to rumours floating around, Isidore Fernandes was all set to formally join the BJP. For a Sunday following the week when the Congress was equally busy trying to finalise or at least shortlist its candidate for the bye-elections to the Poinguinim Assembly seat. For the Sunday following the week when Maggiebai Alva camped at the Kesarval Hotel owned by GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro. For a Sunday following the week when a farmer in Goa was being driven to suicide by a government which claims it is committed to the revival of agriculture. For a Sunday following the week when the best schemer and plotter in the Opposition was missing from Goa.

And a few stray thoughts on the former Poinguinim MLA, Isidore Fernandes, who rocked the Congress by resigning his seat. Contrary to all the wishful thinking that Isidore may have a change of heart, he is all set to join the BJP. I understand that Isidore Fernandes will be formally inducted into the saffron brigade on Monday, September 30. Simultaneously, the Bharatiya Janata Party High Command and its Low Command in Goa are likely to confirm that Isidore will contest the bye-election on the Lotus symbol. His induction into the BJP has been delayed not because the BJP has changed its mind. I understand that all the delay has been on Isidore’s part. The former Poinguinim MLA has been waiting for his entire pound of flesh. As of now he is reportedly got only half a pound of flesh comprising of the agreed fee for resigning his seat. Part of the deal was that Isidore Fernandes would get the rest of his pound of flesh on his joining the BJP formally. It had also apparently been agreed that before Isidore formally joins the party he would be anointed as the Chairman of the newly-formed Margao Planning and Development Authority. Which may not be possible now that bye-elections have been announced and the code of conduct has come into force. But no doubt, like his good friend Babush Monserratte, Isid-ore will put a surrogate in the kodel to keep it warm for him.

Isidore is also reportedly waiting for assurances that the BJP will completely fund his election campaign. Money has always been the decisive factor in the predominantly backward class Poiguinim constituency. And with the Congress likely to make it a prestige issue, it will take a lot of money to ensure that Isidore is re-elected on the BJP ticket. All these problems are expected to be sorted out by Sunday. And Isidore will walk into the welcoming embrace of the State BJP President, Rajendra Arlekar on Monday. The matter has acquired a measure of urgency because of the announcement of the date of the poll by the Election Commission.

POINGUINIM EQUATION
AND A FEW stray observations on the Congress Party’s strategy to defeat Isidore Fernandes. The Congress Party, spurred on by the High Command, is determined to ensure that the BJP plan to secure a majority in the State Assembly through the back door does not succeed. Apparently, the GPCC chief Luizinho Faleiro has promised the High Command a repeat of the Congress performance in the Parliamentary elections. It will be recalled that, contrary to all expectations, Churchill Alemao won the South Goa Parliamentary seat with a thumping majority. Never mind that Luizinho Faleiro was himself taken by surprise, if not by Churchill’s victory, at least by the margin by which he won. Churchill won not because of the Congress efforts but despite them. It was universally acknowledged that it was the last minute intervention of the Church and Lok Shakti which swung the tide in favour of Churchill. It will not be quite so easy to repeat the South Goa Parliamentary electoral performance in Poinguinim. The Church has little or no role to play in the Poinguinim contest as Catholics account for less than 10 percent of the electorate in the constituency. It is also debatable to what extent an intervention by the Lok Shakti will help to sabotage the BJP game plan. This is because in the case of the Poinguinim constituency it is not a question of wooing the majority or minority voter but how much money is distributed.

Poinguinim is a predominantly backward class constituency.As much as 70 percent of the voters belong to the newly designated scheduled castes and tribes. This is not to suggest that the Velips are more mercenary then their upper caste counterparts. But the ground reality is that the backward class villagers in the Poinguinim constituency tend to go by the dictates of the community leader. And tend to vote en masse for whichever candidate is suggested by the community elders. Isidore has an edge in that he has nursed the constituency for a long time. He has been routinely attending the feasts of the community and even sponsoring them. But the electorate in Goa, particularly the so called backward classes, have become extremely savvy. They are painfully aware that all politicians are birds of the same feather and no one is interested in development. So they have no compunctions about auctioning their votes to the highest bidder. On the theory that a buck in hand is worth a thousand promises.

The Congress has a problem in that it does not have a strong alternative candidate. The former MLA Vasu Paik Gaonkar, a veteran backward class leader, is too old and too ill to contest. The other prospective candidates Ulhas Naik and Mario Fernandes are not considered particularly reliable and are prone to party hopping. My understanding is that the Congress Party will play safe by fielding Sanjay Bandekar of the neighbouring Cana-cona constituency. Sanjay Bandekar lost the Canacona seat to BJP’s Vijay Khot by a very narrow margin in the last elections. Though he is not from Poinguinim, he is from Canacona taluka and is familiar with the area. Sanjay has proved his vote getting ability by securing a lead for Churchill Alemao in the Canacona Assembly segment in the Parliamentary elections. The belief is that given sufficient funds and the help and co-operation of close friend Churchill Alemao, Sanjay Bandekar would be the best bet to de-rail the saffron express.

MAGGIEBAI IN GOA
AND A FEW stray thoughts on the long sojourn of Maggiebai Alva, the Congress General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra and Goa. Maggiebai has been camping at the Kesarval Hotel owned by GPCC President Luizinho Faleiro since Tuesday night. The curious part of Maggibai’s visit to Goa is that instead of letting her choose the Congress candidate for the Poingui-nim bye-election, the GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro was summoned to Delhi. Apparently New Delhi does not have too much confidence in Maggiebai’s judgement and her recommend-ments. Which is perhaps not surprising as most of the candidates recommended by her during the Assembly polls in the neighbouring Karwar district failed to win. I understand that Maggiebai’s real brief was to persuade Congress MLAs to accept the High Command suggestion that all party legislators should resign en masse. But camping at the Kesarval Hotel, owned by GPCC President Luizinho Faleiro, is not exactly the best way to go about persuading Congressmen to fall in line with the High Command’s wishes.

Margaret Alva ought to know that Luizinho is not very popular amongst his party colleagues. In fact, a large section of the Congress party believes that Luizinho Faleiro is responsible for the decline and near demise of the party in Goa. Many Congress MLAs also suspect that Luizinho is a collaborator of Manohar Parrikar. Though Luizinho had sufficient advance warning of Isidore’s impending defection to the saffron brigade, he would not or could not take any preventive action. It was all a question of money. Isidore could perhaps have been persuaded to stay back in the Congress if the party had been willing to make a counter offer. A counter offer was made but it was merely an act of tokenism. Which Isidore is reported to have contemptuously rejected as chickenfeed. Senior Congress leaders like Luizinho Faleiro, Pratapsing Raoji Rane and Dayanand Narvekar among others are alleged to have amassed huge fortunes. But have never been willing to dip in their deep pockets to help their less fortunate party brethren. A senior leader of the Congress party who shall remain unnamed insists that Luizinho and Rane continue to play Parrikar’s game even while pretending to be vehement opponents of the saffron regime.

AND A FEW stray observations on the government’s blatant hypocrisy on reviving the agricultural sector. Both the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Chief Secretary D.S. Negi have been spewing a lot of rhetoric about restoring agriculture to a primary position in the Goan economy. In an act of putting the cart before the horse, hundreds of krishighars have been set up all over the State. Never mind that in the absence of enough local produce the krishighars are selling vegetables brought from Bel-gaum. One would have expected that a government which claims to be committed to agriculture would be supportive of farmers. The bitter ground reality is that, like his counterparts in other states, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is driving at least one farmer in Quepem to suicide. Balakrishna Raut Desai belongs to a farming family. For three generations his family has been cultivating over two lakh sq. km. of land in Quepem. The land falls within the Selaulim Dam command area. Desai and his family have worked very hard to develop the land and harvest nature’s bounty.

FARMER HARASSED
The family has also invested a great deal of money in building irrigation canals. The family has taken loans from financial institutions and had a marketing arrangement with Sanjivani Sugar Factory for purchase of sugarcane and with Godrej for the development of palm plantations. Besides paddy, the family has also invested heavily in horticulture. Balakrishna is considered a model farmer and a source of inspiration to many others in the taluka. And how does the government of Manohar Parrikar reward such an exemplary farmer? By attempting to acquire the flourishing farm built on sweat, toil and labour, for a proposed Shilpa Ghar ‘artisans village’. The Raut Desai family has approached every official and politician in the State from the CM downwards to the Chief Secretary to the Zonal Agricultural Officer protesting the threatened acquisition. Very reasonably, Raut Desai has pointed out that there was an equivalent if not larger piece of barren land adjacent to his property which the government could acquire for the shilpaghar. But the government is apparently hell bent on acquiring the fertile, flourishing, agricultural lands of the Raut Desai family. The provocation being that Raut Desais have been Congress supporters and worked against the BJP candidate in the last Assembly elections. Though the family has petitioned several Congress leaders including the Rajya Sabha MP Edward Faleiro and the GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro, nobody has come to their help.

MISSING LINK
AND A last stray thought on the vital missing link in the Opposition strategy to contain the saffron plague. The shrewdest plotter and schemer and toppler in the Opposition ranks is undoubtedly the Nationalist Congress Party President Dr. Wilfred D’Souza. At a time when his wiliness was greatly needed, the good doctor is away holidaying in London. I understand that the son-in-law Tulio and his better half are also in London. Though it is not clear whether they went independently or along with Dr. Willy. Willy’s presence would have definitely helped in formulating a strategy to halt the saffron express. For one thing it was Willy who was following up the disqualification petitions against the BJP MLAs Rajendra Arlekar and Pandurang Madkaikar which are scheduled to come up for hearing on Monday, September 30. Willy is also known to be very close to Margaret Alva and would have been able to better guide her on how to go about managing the chronically warring Congress MLAs in the State. Indeed, questions are being raised whether Willy’s absence in Delhi is further confirmation of his covert collusion with the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

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