The Goa government appears to be in a state of confusion as to what it wants from the musical chair game with Sports Authority of Goa and the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs. It removed V.M.Prabhudessai from the SAG for his alleged failure to make preparations for the Lusofonia Games. But in about a month, he is posted as the Director of Sports and Youth Affairs, thus relieving Dr.Susan. The press was being fed stories that the Minister of Sports was not happy with the performance of Dr. Susan and that she is on her way out. Then we see the tamasha of her being posted as the Joint Secretary for Sports at the Secretariat. In management parlance, there is a phrase “kicking upstairs.” Is this what is being done to Dr.Susan?
It looks as though any farce is okay, as long as one’s pet boy is ablen to occupy the chair he wants.
What was the logic of the BJP Government in bringing back Prabhudessai as the Director of Sports and Youth Affairs when just about a month back he was removed from the post earlier held by him for his abject failure in making any headway in preparations for the Lusofonia games? This action reflects the confusion in the administration.
Is this muddle the kind of governance which Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar promised on election eve? It now appears that the removal of Prabhudessai from SAG was only a ruse to scuttle the holding of the Lusofonia Games in Goa. If that is the Government policy, it would be better to speak it out instead of playing subtle games.
It is surprising that the IITian chief minister could stoop so low just to please his coterie. No other chief minister could have permitted such a volte-face -- reversing a decision which was initiated in the first place to “send a strong message” that incompetency would not be tolerated.
Sources claim that even when he was removed as the director of SAG recently, the BJP coterie was working overtime to stall his removal. Subsequently, despite being stripped of the post and being shunted as OSD to Sports Minister, he refused to join as deputy director.
By bringing Prabhudessai back, the BJP is enacting the practices of the predecessor – the Digambar Kamat led government -- where officers dictated terms to the government.
Is the BJP Government is reverting to the governance of 2002, when officers from the minority community were tormented and sidelined?
With Dr Ruanda D’Sa being sidelined for the post of Director of Health Services, is the BJP committing a breach of trust on the minorities which supported him at the hustings?
Though the government wants to project Susan’s transfer as some promotion, nobody should be fooled, because the only work assigned to the post of Joint Secretary is predominantly to process files. Given the expertise of Susan in sports, specially since she holds a PhD, the Government would have benefitted tremendously by her contribution to the development of sport.
This is more than a coincidence and appears to be a part of a underlying larger agenda, which was seen in the past when Parrikar had bifurcated the department into two -- Sports and Youth Affairs, with Susan being sidelined by being allotted Youth Affairs, while the blue eyed boy Prabhudessai was rewarded by heading the Sports department.
Readers must not forget that another prime casualty of the erstwhile BJP government was Education Director Dr. Celsa Pinto, who was also removed and had to approach the court to get reinstated. Both, these women were more than qualified for their respective posts, specially given the fact that the Education Department had Directors for over two decades appointed on ad hoc basis, specially because the incumbents were under qualified.
If competent and deserving officers are sidelined as part of a larger agenda, specially by sidelining minorities, BJP’s claims ofgood governance, transparency, and a model state sounds hollow.
