'VIPER OF TALEIGAO'
D E F A N G E D

The Income Tax raid found the Town & Country Planning Minister, Babush Monserrate, well prepared as he had been forewarned of it by the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Luizinho Faleiro. But the Congress game plan to ensnare Babush in its conspiracy to topple the Parrikar government has come unstuck. Babush is bitter that Luizinho did not either stall the IT raids or come to his rescue when he repeatedly sought the GPCC chief’s help on Tuesday. RAJAN NARAYAN recaptures the raid drama.

I DO NOT KNOW IF Luizinho Faleiro, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President, instigated the Income Tax raids against the Town and Country Planning Minister Babush Monserrate and the former Poingunim MLA Isidore Fernandes or not. But I am inclined to believe that it was Luizinho Faleiro who tipped off Babush Monserrate and Isidore Fernandes about the imminent raids. Luizinho Faleiro tipped off Babush Monserrate not out of any sense of compassion or charity or even the premise that there should be honour among chors. He is alleged to have tipped off Babush Monserrate of the imminent IT raids in pursuit of his obsession to return to the chief minister's kodel.

Cover story . . . (Goan Observer, September 4-10, 2004).

Babush Monserrate is historically known to keep large amounts of cash in his office and his residence to shower on his constituents and close collaborators. However when the Income Tax team from Bangalore headed by the Director Intelligence N K Singh reached the residence of Babush Monserrate and his office on Tuesday morning they found the cupboards and the safes as bare as old mother Hubbard's cupboard. Senior Income Tax officials confirmed to the Goan Observer that contrary to all the rumours that Rs 8 crores in cash was discovered during the raids, there were just a few thousands. The IT department has seized a lot of papers relating to property transactions which were still being scrutinised at the time of going to the Press.

It obviously requires a very cunning snake charmer to tame and entice as vicious a viper as Babush Monserrate into the Congress basket. And who better fits the bill than the black widow spider from Navelim. The GPCC Chief Luizinho Faleiro in his desperate bid to re-occupy the chief minister's kodel has been wooing Babush Monserrate for sometime now. Luizinho is aware that he does not enjoy much support within his own party and that he can achieve his ambition of toppling the Parrikar government and capturing the chief minister chair only with the help of mercenaries. Luizinho Faleiro is playing the same game that he did when he was the chief minister in 2000-01 before he was toppled by Francisco Sardinha. It will be recalled that though the Congress had secured a clearer majority in the 2000 elections, Luizinho Faleiro went about systematically inducing splits and defections from the Maharashtra-wadi Gomantak Party and the United Goans Democratic Party to strengthen his own position and safeguard his kodel from rebels within his own party.

Babush Monserrate, on his part, has been feeling very insecure ever since Micky Pacheco was summarily dropped from the Parrikar cabinet. There has been a rift between the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and his Town and Country Planning Minister, Babush Monserrate, ever since the North Goa PDA was bifurcated and the Panaji Planning and Development Authority (PPDA) was constituted. It will be recalled that the PPDA was formed at the insistence of Babush Monserrate who promptly had his personal secretary John Fernandes appointed as Chairman of the Planning and Development body.

The Viper from Taleigao has been on a loot and plunder spree ever since he acquired control of the PPDA and the Taleigao panchayat. Quite apart from refusing to share any of his loot either with the Chief Minister or the BJP Babush Monserrate has not spared even builders reportedly close to the BJP like the Navelcars and the Tarcars. There has been increasing resentment against Babush Monserrate within the BJP on two counts. Senior BJP leaders have been pointing out to the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar that Monserrate’s unabashed looting and plundering has greatly affected the image of the party. Presumably it has actually been a case of the grapes being sour with the saffron brigade upset that it has been denied its share of the loot.

ACTION ZONE: The bungalow of Babush Monserrate that was raided by the IT officials.

Goan Observer understands that things reached boiling point in the run up to “Operation Isidore Fernandes abduction.” Ostensibly under the excuse of raising money to pay off Isidore’s debts and inducing him to quit his Assembly Seat and join the BJP, Monserrate and company have been allegedly running amuck and granting unwarranted and illegal favours for huge payoffs. A case in point is the Shalom building on the Dona Paula bypass road near the Science Museum put up by the Noronha Chimbulkar and Associates. Though the entire area is classified as a settlement zone in the Outline Development Plan, as recently as a fortnight ago, this particular property was reclassified from S1 to C1. Which had the effect of permitting the builder to add four more floors to the existing four-storey structure. It has been alleged that Monserrate and company must have collected illegal gratification to the extent of Rs 7 to Rs 8 crores within the last month itself, which was far beyond the amount allegedly paid to Isidore for deserting the Congress party.

Goan Observer understands that there was a major confrontation between the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Town and Country Planning Minister Babush Monserrate due to the unprecedented step up in the looting and plundering. Manohar Parrikar is reported to have threatened to divest Monserrate of the Town and Country Planning portfolio and order a vigilance enquiry into the functioning of the Panjim Planning and Development Authority. Promp-tly Babush Monserrate who like Luizinho Faleiro swears by the maxim that in politics there are no permanent friends or enemies but only permanent opportunities for making money, started sending feelers out to the GPCC chief.

It is against this backdrop that Babush Monserrate the Taleigao MLA and Pandurang Madkaikar the MGP MLA who have joined the BJP simultaneously went to the residence of veteran wheeler-dealer toppler and fixer Luizinho Faleiro on the 26 th of August, 2004. The ostensible excuse was that they wanted to greet Luizinho Faleiro on his birthday. Never mind within the legislative assembly and outside Babush Monserrate has not only been declaring his unstinted loyalty to Manohar Parrikar but also hurling the choicest abuses on Luizinho Faleiro.

At the birthday party Luizinho Faleiro is reported to have alerted Babush Monserrate of the imminent Income Tax raid. Being a seasoned and extremely devious politician Luizinho Faleiro masked his tip on the imminent raid in the form of fatherly, brotherly advise to Babush Monserrate. Those present at the birthday party revealed that Luizinho Faleiro had told Babush Monserrate that the Congress President Sonia Gandhi was very agitated about the saffron brigade buying up Isidore Fernandes and was determined to teach straying treacherous MLAs a lesson. Babush Monserrate was apparently explicitly warned that central agencies like the Income Tax Department and the CBI would be set on his trail. Talking to the media during the raids and subsequently at a late night press conference held at 10 pm at his residence in Taleigao, Babush Monserrate confirmed that Luizinho had alerted or rather threatened him with an IT raid. Presumably the alert was disguised as a threat. Luizinho however at a press conference on Wednesday vehemently denied Monserrate’s claim that he had warned him about the raids. Luizinho stated that it “was malicious, slanderous propaganda” on the part of Monserrate.

So not surprisingly when the IT team from Bangalore descended on Babush Monserrate on Tuesday morning at 8 am he was well prepared. All the cash had been transferred from the safes in his residence and his office. Incredibly enough the IT team found only Rs 13,000 odd cash at the residence of Babush Monserrate and another Rs 30,000 in his office. Babush Monserrate is known to carry several times that amount on his person and in his car. In fact some years ago on a trip to Mumbai he was allegedly caught by an IT official with Rs 20 lakhs in hard cash which he could not account for. But apparently he paid the appropriate penalty and was let off.

But Babush Monserrate is not overtly concerned over the IT raid in itself. He has been raided before and he is aware that the worst that could happen to him is that he would have to pay taxes on the undisclosed evaded income along with a stiff fine. Further proof of Babush Monserrate alleged complicity with Luizinho Faleiro is dramatised by the fact that during the raids he is reported to have called up Luizinho Faleiro atleast twice. And presumably Luizinho Faleiro assured him that everything will be taken care of provided he turned a new leaf and became more supportive of the Congress party and Luizinho Faleiro’s bid for chief ministership.

The principle worry of Babush Monserrate is that in the light of the findings of the IT raids the CBI may be asked to file a case and probe if his assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income. Though in the normal course the state government’s permission is necessary before the CBI can file a case against a resident of Goa let alone a cabinet minister there have been cases where on the orders of the courts, the CBI has been directed to take up enquiries against suspect politicians alleged to have amassed huge sums of money through bogus means. It may be recalled that both in the Gujarat riot cases and in the Telgi case the state government had no choice but to agree to a CBI enquiry.

BROTHERS IN ARMS: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar going through some records at Babush's house after the raids.

The Town and Country Planning Minister was reportedly enraged by the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s remarks to a local new channel even while the raids were going on. When asked about the raids the Chief Minister remarked that the officers are only doing the duty and he saw no reason to interfere with them. Manohar Parrikar also went to the extent of claiming that he never interfered with the due process of law even in the criminal cases pending against his cabinet colleagues. Monserrate apparently interpreted this as a threat that the criminal case pending against him for allegedly extorting money from a Mapusa builder will begin gathering speed as happened in the case of the ousted tourism minister Micky Pacheco. It will be recalled that no sooner Micky Pacheco was dropped from the cabinet and withdrew support to the Parrikar government the Colva police started pursuing the charges of arson against him with extra vigour. The extortion case against Babush Monserrate has not come up of hearing ever since he formally joined the BJP.

An angry Babush Monserrate is reported to have vehemently protested against the Chief Minister’s remarks to the local Television channel and threatened to expose the latter’s complicity in the Isidore abduction case. To buy time, the Chief Minister Mano-har Parrikar reportedly agreed to be present at the press conference called by Babush Monserrate at his residence in Taleigao at 10 pm on Tuesday night. With a view to pacifying Babush Monserrate the Chief Minister is reported to have accused central agencies of victimising his party colleagues and threatened to give the CBI its marching orders from the state. There is a precedent for this and the CBI was given its marching orders by a former Congress government which was annoyed with the agency for probing closely into dubious deals of members of the then cabinet.

The Congress or rather Luizinho Faleiro’s game plan is clear. Luizinho Faleiro is reportedly in the process of striking a deal with Babush Monserrate and his fellow neo-saffron minister Pandurang Madkaikar. The Goan Observer understands that both Babush Monserrate and Pandurang Madkaikar who is also likely to be targeted by central agencies would be assured immunity in exchange for their willingness to resign from the BJP. This would have the immediate effect to turning the tables on the BJP and facilitating the toppling of the Parrikar government and the induction of Congress government headed by Luizinho Faleiro.

At the moment the BJP enjoys an advantage in that it has the strength of 20 in the house inclusive of the speaker Vishwas Satardekar as against the Congress strength of 14. The Congress strength has come down to 14 following the resignation of Isidore Fernandes. Even if the Congress manages to secure the support of the five non-Congress MLAs Micky Pacheco, Phillip Neri, Sudin Dhavlikar, Mathany Saldanha and Wilfred D’Souza its numbers will only go upto 19 which is not adequate to topple the government as the Speaker can vote in favour of the ruling party in the case of a tie. But if Babush Monserrate and Pandurang Madkaikar are willing to go along with the Congress game plan and resign the strength of the BJP will stand reduced to 18 while that of the Congress and its prospective allies will be 19 strong which will be a clear majority in the house of 37. However it looks as though the game plan will not now materialise as Babush the key player is reportedly bitter that Luizinho did not stall the raids.

Babush Monserrate is conscious of the fact that he may have dug his own grave by inducing Isidore Fernandes to quit the legislative assembly. The Viper of Taleigao is also conscious of the fact that with the change in government at the centre Manohar Parrikar may not be able to protect him even if he wishes to. And there is increasing evidence that Manohar Parrikar is finished with Babush Monserrate and is all set to dump him. Apparently the BJP president Rajendra Arlekar and other hardliners have come to the conclusion that Babush is more of a liability than an asset.

CONCRETE VIOLATION: The construction licence for this project is being reclassified from settlemnet to commercial.

In contrast the Congress or rather the GPCC chief is waiting willing wanting eager and anxious to welcome Babush Monserrate into the Congress fold. The cash strapped congress desperately needs Mr moneybag to finance its own schemes for sowing discord and dissent within the BJP and instigating isidore like abductions. And Babush being a cold blooded businessman, would be willing to go wherever he gets the best deal. Particularly if it comes to a guarantee that his sins of omission and commission, past and present and future will be absolved and forgotten.Development Authority (PPDA) was constituted. It will be recalled that the PPDA was formed on the insistence of Babush Monserrate who promptly had his personal secretary John Fernandes appointed as chairman of the planning and development body.

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