If lonely is the head that wears the crown, very lonely is also the head which is unsure of retaining the crown. When the crown of Chief Minister was placed on his head at a time when he least expected, the veteran school teacher from Mandrem, took himself by surprise before the rest of the state. But in a piquant turn around of sorts, he actually wonders in private, and is surprised ,why he is not the natural choice of continuing as Chief Minister, should the BJP make it.
The slightly out of place Laxmikant Parsekar of November 2014 when Mr Parrikar moved to Delhi giving him the chair, is not quite willing to be the Bharat who ran the kingdom by proxy during King Rama’s exile. He expects to be given the chance to continue, even when King Rama is ready to return, if the war is won. From February 4 to March 11, is a very very long time even in political terms. While nothing can happen politically till the votes of the people of Goa are not counted, Mr Parsekar is going through the motions of running a kingdom, where he is not, or may not be king.
Take for instance, the issue of former Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni, who can no longer appear for the state of Goa, in the critical arguments on the Mhadei river before the National Water Disputes Tribunal. While Mr Parsekar plans to ask the Prime Minister to reverse the decision of the law ministry and allow the now Assistant Solicitor General of India to specially appear for Goa in the Mhadei matter, he is unsure how much weight he can pull at this stage.
He has other areas of concern too. His victory in tne Mandrem seat is not at all a foregone conclusion though he himself claims his margin will only improve. For him to even remain in the mix, if Manohar Parrikar does not ultimately come back, winning the Mandrem seat is, of course, non-negotiable.
But what probably irks this retired headmaster, is that to a large extent his political future depends on decisions taken by, or planned by Manohar Parrikar. And while much of his career as minister has been spent playinh second fiddle to the Defence minister, it has now become a consistent factor in his politics and we are not sure that Mr Parsekar is completely comfortable with this, though he may publicly show no resentment.
Meanwhile there are some stark, perhaps even harsh realities. In 2012, he managed to pip Rajendra Arlekar to the CM’s post very narrowly, but the race for the top job was very limited. In 2017, the BJP may well be in a position that it is forced to make compromises or shake hands to man forces to form the government if it doesn’t get majority on its own. In that case, if Mr Parrikar, for some reason, is not released by the Prime Minister to get back to Goa, Mr Parsekar will not be the “first among equals” for the top job. He may only be one of the equals, with two or three others in the mix including some unexpected ones.
Therefore Goa’s caretaker Chief Minister, is at a lonely spot where he is looking to pass the exam of acceptance as CM by his own party, before clearing the bigger one whose results will be out on March 11. That is because party acceptance can never be measured and is totally subjective. And much, in fact possibly everything, depends on how Manohar Parrikar is feeling. In Goan politics of today, its current Chief Minister, may quite be, its caged parrot.
