So the Honourable Minister for — pardon us for forgetting — Museum, Science and Technology and Rural Development, Alina Saldanha, now says that she was “naïve” when she said she would resign if Special Status was not conferred to her beloved state of Goa, a status her late husband Matanhy Saldanha died fighting for.
This statement is baffling for several reasons and it is only Mrs Saldanha, who will be able to explain what she really meant, since some serious questions arise by her statement, which should be reproduced in toto, for everyone to conjure up their own interpretations. So here is the statement. Asked why had she stated that she would resign if Special Status was not conferred to Goa, she said, “At that point of time, I was still naive. Out of my own conviction, specifically and precisely because a unanimous resolution was passed by the ruling and opposition that special status has to be granted, I feel the issue will be taken forward. I was sure that this is going to happen and still believe the same.”
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The questions that arise from this statement are as follows:
1) What does Alina Saldanha mean by saying, that she, as a minister in the BJP government, was naive? Does she mean that at that point of time she was naive in believing that an unanimous resolution passed in the Assembly would be honoured, and now, after she has become more of a “seasoned” politician, she has realised that even Assembly resolutions, can be discarded?
2) However, if she still feels that Special Status will happen what is the basis for such a feeling, when the party and the Goa Chief Minister has been categorical in their position that Special Status is not practical. Where does that leave Alina Saldanha?
3) In one sense, she is right that she was convinced that the issue would be taken forward because both the ruling party and the opposition had unanimously passed a resolution. Hence when she now knows that the resolution has not been acted upon and will not be acted upon, why can’t she make good her promise of resigning from the cabinet, even if it amounts to a token gesture?
Now let us look at Alina Saldanha’s second statement at the same press conference on Monday, reported by Herald on the front page of its Tuesday (November 15 edition) “Until Special Status is taken to Parliament and until there is debate and voting on it, I will not stop pursuing it. For me the issue has not come to an end, it is still an ongoing issue, because it has not reached Parliament.”
The questions that arise from this statement are as follows:
1) Once the State government and the Chief Minister have said that the issue is closed, what is the basis of her hope or confidence that the issue will be taken up in parliament? After all she is a Minister in the government and not an ordinary MLA or opposition leader. If her view is not in consonance with her government’s view, does she have right to continue in this government?
2) If she is keen on “pursuing it” will she move a motion in the House, asking for a special debate on the issue on whether the earlier resolution should be withdrawn or not?
While we wait for the Minister’s responses to these questions, which we doubt she will indeed respond to, it is clear that she is really caught in a cleft stick. There is a fair bit of discontent within her party that she sticking out like a sore thumb. At the same time she has not earned any brownie points among her constituents who feel that she has only paid lip service to the cause of pushing for Goa’s special status. Moreover her unfulfilled promise of stepping down from the cabinet if the demand for special status is not given to Goa, has given the impression that, unlike Matanhy, Alina finds her chair more important than her cause. She cannot continue to imagine that Special Status for Goa will be a reality.
She continues to do lip service to the cause in the face of her party clearly burying the issue. If she has any credibility left, as the protector of Matanhy’s legacy, she should resign as minister immediately and then pursue the cause. She cannot have the loaves and fishes of office and also claim to be fighting for people’s cause.
