If the moment of Luizinho Faleiro handing over the baton of the Goa Congress to Shantaram Naik, is captured into a freeze frame, does the image strike you of a party in revival or one which is frozen in time. It’s quite obviously the later.
Neither Mr Faleiro or Mr Naik, are rookies or fresh faces. They are both, on paper at east antithetical to the concept of new faces leading the party to new heights. But it was Faleiro who did have the courage to stick his neck out and call for an overhaul in the selection of candidates and infusing the party with new members. Luizinho’s formula could not quite see full fruition because he was bravely attempting a new engine on a very rickety old foundation which crumbled under the weight of its own contradictions.
This weight belonged for a club of other ex-chief ministers as well as hopefuls, who spent every waking moment, after its failure to form the government, either blaming Faleiro or plotting to topple the Parrikar-led government.
The drafting in of Shantaram Naik, has more to do with the club of ex-CM’s continuing with its plotting operation, which with each passing day, instead of gathering steam, is emitting hot air. Naik is expected to be pliant and allow the biggies to maintain their fiefdoms and play their power games.
But it remains to be seen of each of the 40 Congress blocks, each representing a constituency accepts Shantaram Naik. He is by no stretch of imagination a consensus candidate. His name was not suggested by any of the block units. Nor was this discussed at the organisational level.
Most of the defunct blocks and frontal organisations which were revived during Faleiro’s time will not be willing to work under Naik. Of course it is also completely true that it was Faleiro who finally threw in the towel and moved away forcing Shantaram Naik as a replacement. But then he had no choice under the barrage of hostility unleashed by leaders like Digambar Kamat, Ravi Naik Babu Kavalekar and even Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Naik, in not deserving to be GPCC president. But what it does here is that after Luizinho’s departure, the high command did not trust anyone from the current leaders, who are either MLA’s or organisation men to hand over the party and have opted for Shantaram to hold fort.
But this step is retrograde and amove backward, because the grass root worker will not accept this. With two month to go before organisational elections, Luizinho Faleiro could have been asked to hold on for two months when the organisational elections were going to take place anyway. Faleiro should have been told that not with-standing his own desire to relinquish his post, he should have been asked to carry on for the sake of the party.
Therefore the decision of the High Command to actually buckle is a worrying sign and doesn’t give any confidence that Shantaram Naik has been brought in with the sole purpose of party building.
The lobby of Congress leaders who wanted Faleiro out must realise, that right now they are behaving like a bunch of children who missed out on the big prize and haven’t got gotten over it. But it was also shocking to see AICC secretary Girish Chodankar behaving in the same manner. It is unbecoming of him to address press conferences to display his party’s desperation to topple the government, knowing they do not have the numbers to form another. These are irresponsible remarks and lessen the gravity of any future serious effort at government formation. Chodankar’s remarks had to be contradicted by Leader of Opposition Babu Kavalekar who said that the Congress is not trying to topple the government.
As Shantaram Naik enters this mess, it remains to be seen if he can actually rise above it and then dig deep to start where Luizinho Faleiro left off, building the party. Frankly, he doesn’t inspire confidence.
