OPPOSITION COMMITS SUICIDE

On Saturday the Opposition had an excellent opportunity to dislodge the Manohar Parrikar government in the wake of Micky Pacheco withdrawing support. But this toppling bid, like several other toppling bids in the past, was sabotaged ironically by the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) Pratapsing Raoji Rane and the kolo from Saligao Wily Willy. RAJAN NARAYAN investigates why Congress attempts to dethrone Manoharczar have always failed.

GOA IS INDEED ajeeb (strange) as the first prime minister of the country Jawaharlal Nehru characterised it. We know of no other state in the country where senior Opposition leaders so openly and blatantly extend support to the ruling party. We know of no other state in the country where senior opposition leaders connive and collude and abet the ruling party in holding on to power.

Consider this. In the Legislative Assembly session held in February the spokesman of the Congress party and its most vocal critic moved a motion for No-Confidence against the speaker and the deputy speaker. The motion was admitted the same day and was referred to the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) to fix a day for discussion on the motion. The BAC, which includes senior Opposition leaders including the Leader of Opposition (LOO), Pratapsing Raoji Rane, and the President of the Goa chapter of the Nationalist Congress Dr Wilfred D’ Souza kept colluding with the ruling party members and the Chief Minister to postpone the debate on the no-confidence motion.

Amazing goings-on in Goa Legislative Assembly couresy (right) Pratapsing Raoji Rane and (left) Dr. Willy D'Souza.

COLLUSION
WHEN THE BAC met on Thursday to decide the schedule for the following week, the President of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) and other Congress leaders had hoped that the discussion on the no-confidence motion against the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker would be fixed for Monday, the last day of the Assembly session. Coming as the meeting did in the wake of Micky Pacheco, the deposed cabinet minister, withdrawing support to the ruling group, opposition leaders believed it was a fantastic opportunity to at least embarrass the ruling group or even topple the Parrikar government. But it did not happen because, without consulting his colleagues in the Congress Legislative Party, the LOO very readily agreed to the Chief Minister’s demand that the debate on the no-confidence motion should be postponed to the next session of the Legislative Assembly. The leader of the NCP, Dr Wilfred D’ Souza who has been increasingly critical of the Parrikar government very readily concurred with the decision of the LOO.

Events took an even more absurd turn on Monday. The Assembly session was held amidst high drama and intense speculation that the Parrikar government would be voted out of power. Incredibly the LOO and Dr Wilfred D’ Souza, the aspiring Chief Minister threatened to move a breach of privilege motion against the Gomantak Times which had exposed the conspiracy on the part of Opposition leaders. Not surprisingly the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar rose to the defence of the Gomantak Times. Presumably because he was the source of the leak of the proceedings of the BAC which was supposed to be secret.

The Congress party buoyed by the unexpected victory of its candidate in the south Goa parliamentary seat for a brief while began behaving like a genuine opposition party. The Congress party constituted a special committee under the chairmanship of the former Member of Parliament, Shantaram Naik, to probe closely into the irregularities committed by the Parrikar government with regards to IFFI related projects. The committee came out with a scathing indictment of the Parrikar government on IFFI-related issues. On the opening day of the Assembly session some leaders of the Congress notably Dayanand Narvekar demanded a discussion on IFFI. When the speaker Vishwas Satardekar turned down the demand for the suspension of the question hour to discuss the IFFI issue, all Opposition leaders rushed to the well of the house to protest. With two notable exceptions. The LOO Pratapsing Raoji Rane and the NCP chief Dr Wilfred D’Souza who remained attached to their seats held by the fevicol of treachery. The Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar sought to turn the tables on the Opposition and pointed out that three senior Congress leaders were members of the core committee and were party to all the decisions. The President of the GPCC who has been most vociferous in attacking the Parrikar regime claimed that the Congress members were not taken into confidence and were not even intimated of the meetings of the core committee. But this lie was nailed when in reply to an Assembly question planted by the Chief Minister it was revealed that the Congress nominees the LOO and Alex Sequeira the Loutolim MLA had attended 10 of the 12 meetings of the core committee. Harish Anna Zantye of course desperately hoping for some crumbs had attended all the 12 meetings.

While Dr Wilfred D’Souza had at least maintained the pretence of being an opposition leader, Pratapsing Raoji Rane has made no secret of the fact that he is an enthusiastic, if not vehement, supporter of the BJP. It was pointed out repeatedly in the run up to the parliamentary elections that it was inappropriate that Pratapsing Raoji Rane and his wife should continue to occupy chairman-ships in the Parrikar administration. Indeed even the High Command observer Gulam Nabi Azad who came down to Goa to supervise the selection of candidates for the parliamentary elections is reported to have advised Pratapsing Raoji Rane to step down form the chairmanship of the Kala Academy. But the LOO of course sticks to the Chairmanship of the Kala Academy like a limpet.

Not only has the LOO hung on to the Chairmanship of the Kala Academy he has very enthusiastically participated in every major decision related to the IFFI. Indeed as chairman of the Kala Academy, which is any case is packed with Rane nominees like the Mumbai socialite Prafulla Dhanukar, endorsed the Chief Minister’s decision to make the Kala Academy the principal venue for the IFFI. Neither the chairman nor any of the 32 members of the governing council of the Kala Academy raised any questions on why the renovation of the Kala Academy should cost Rs 24 crores. While the estimate for the construction of the temporarily permanent IFFI complex which was intended originally to come up on the ruins of the Campal football stadium was only Rs 21 crores.

None of the members of the governing council including the LOO even questioned the exclusion of Charles Correia the original architect of the Kala Academy from the renovation prog-ramme. Or why Uttam Jain Associates, the Mumbai architectectural firm, is being paid not only a whopping commission of over Rs 5 crores but is being given even a cut on equipment like air-conditioners and cone projectors. The inescapable conclusion is that the LOO as the Chairman of the Kala Academy and other members of the governing council will get a share of the loot.

The most compelling and conclusive evidence of the fact that Pratapsing Raoji Rane is the full fledged chadiwalla is his involvement in the Chintan Baithak of the BJP. Pratapsing Raoji Rane, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Directors, of the International Centre handed over the complex for four days to the BJP. Four days during which, forget the general public, even life members of the centre were denied access to the International Centre.

We have confirmed that Pratapsing Raoji Rane did not even have the courtesy to consult his fellow directors on the board of the International Centre before handing it over lock stock and barrel to the saffron hordes. The takeover of the International Centre by the saffron hordes not only scandalised members of the centre but even ordinary residents of Dona Paula. Not just ordinary residents but students at the Goa University. Because the arterial road between Dona Paula and the Goa Medical College was blocked. In the wake of bitter complaints from residents including members of the minority community who had to go to Panjim to attend mass, the Chief Minister concocted the story of a terrorist attack and made the security even more stringent. Never mind that Muktesh Chandra the DIG CID gave the game away by innocently admitting that the Goa police had no information about any increased security threat.

On Saturday when Micky Pacheco formally announced the withdrawal of support to the BJP government there was panic. Micky’s claims that two other legislators Philip Neri and Sudin Dhavlikar were also with him and would also withdraw support to the Parrikar government gave rise to frantic rumours that the government had fallen. The situation was compounded by the fact that two national TV channel ZEE TV and NDTV jumped the gun and announced the demise of the Parrikar government. The presence of Margaret Alva the general secretary of the Congress in-charge of Maharashtra and Goa only reinforced the belief that the government had either been already toppled or was on the verge of being toppled. I recall receiving a call from senior Congress activist insisting that Micky along with Sudin Dhavlikar and Philip Neri had met the governor and informed him that they had withdrawn support to the Parrikar government. Except that the governor was not even in town. And Manohar Parrikar in the kind of damage control exercise that he specialises in had the police escort Philip Neri and Sudin Dhavlikar to the International Centre to parade them before the BJP high command to convince them that he was still very much in charge.

Another MLA about whom there was intense speculation was Mathany Saldanha who was offered the carrot of a ministerial berth after Micky was dropped. In the wake of Micky withdrawing support the GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro had talks or rather negotiations with Mathany Saldanha at the Kesarval garden retreat all of Sunday. But at the end of the day, Mathany apparently decided that a bird in hand was better than all the birds in the bush. Such is the distrust of Mathany Saldanha in the Congress party and so great are the persuasive powers of Manohar Parrikar that Goan Observer’s ‘Mouse of the Year’ appeared on the Parrikar owned and subsidised local television channel Goa 365 to pledge his continued loyalty to the Parrikar government. During his staged carefully orchestrated interview on the Goa 365 channel Mathany insisted that the Parrikar regime had done a much better job than predecessor Congress regimes. And taking a dig at Micky Pacheco who has suddenly discovered that the Sangh Parivar has been persecuting the Christian minority in Goa, Mathany very pompously declared that he was equally opposed both to Hindu communalism and Catholic communalism. So the conversion of Mathany is now complete.

TOPPLING GAMES
NOT THAT THE Parrikar government is not topplable. There have been occasion in the past when there has been a revolt in the Parrikar government not just from parties and MLAs extending support to the government but even from pseudo BJP MLAs. There has been continuing speculation that the defacto deputy minister for instance Digamber Kamat is willing, waiting and anxious to jump over the fence. Dr Wilfred d’ Souza, Pratapsing Raoji Rane, Luizinho Faleiro, Francisco Sardinha and Ravi Naik are all equally keen to topple the Parrikar government. Perhaps in the case of Pratapsing Raoji Rane he is more likely to join the BJP government or even perhaps secretly nurtures hopes that the BJP may replace Parrikar and make him the chief minister of the BJP led government.

The issue is not the lack of willingness on the part of Congress leaders to topple the Parrikar government. Not just Philip Neri, Sudin Dhavlikar but several others within the BJP could easily be persuaded to switch sides. The major stumbling block is that every one of the Congress leaders want to become the chief minister. And would rather keep the Parrikar government alive and even strengthen it rather permit a rival within the party to become the chief minister. If Willy is proposed for the chief ministership of a non BJP government the LOO and Luizinho Faleiro are bound to object. If Luizinho is sought to be imposed by the High Command as the chief minister we would not be surprised if two thirds of the Congress party decides to defect to the BJP.

And it is not only senior opposition leaders like Dr Wilfred D’ Souza and Pratapsing Raoji Rane who are propping up the Parrikar government. There are several other Congress MLAs like for instance Karl Vaz in Vasco and even Joaquim Alemao who are reportedly very close to Manohar Parrikar and are being accused of carrying tales to the chief minister.

The former GPCC president is a favourite of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and a section of the Congress High Command. Unfortunately she is seen more as a Manmohan Singh than a Sonia Gandhi. Nirmala who has always been close to Dr Wilfred D’ Souza believes that Willy is the best option for chief ministership. Except she is in the minority of one and nobody agrees with her. But she also has the interesting formula to resolve all the infighting and the back stabbing within the Congress party. She has reportedly suggested to the Congress president that she should summon all the six former chief ministers and ask them to choose a leader among themselves. Or alternatively dump them all and choose a young leader from the Bhaujan Samaj to head the Congress and revive its fortunes in the state. In the meanwhile all those who have been wiring the obituaries of Manohar Parrikar will have to wait for awhile.

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