The exit of John Fernandes as the GPCC Chief was always a matter of when and not if. For the past two months he was hanging on a precipice, knowing the fall was imminent and before he left he struck a few hard blows to clean out some veterans in the party, in order to go down fighting.
Fernandes was a man in a hurry, and the Congress, like many institutions in India, is never prepared for solo acts of sword swishing, even if the purpose is ostensibly noble. But politics isn’t quite about black and white when it is all about the grey. Fifty shades of grey if you please. Fernandes had none. He saw the Goa Congress through one specific tunnel vision. The old order had to change (barring him) yielding place to new, in the John dispensation. But to take the lines of Tennyson further (“The old order changeth yielding place to new… lest one good custom should corrupt the world”), the old custom in the Congress never really changes. And in the state that the party is in, it has no patience to take the long road of revival by giving birth to new leaders. Hence John became a misfit.
But in this inter play of black and white, Fernandes made one terribly wrong move and in his hubris, showed no repentance for it. Inviting a man who called himself a mine owner, and also convicted for illegalities to the Congress house, to accuse the leader of the opposition Mr Pratap Singh Rane for taking bribes to clear his mining lease; left John with no room for any sympathy. In one stroke he united the old order against him.
To some, John Fernandes will be a minor footnote in the history of the Goa Congress, but to others, especially younger lot of newcomers like Durgadas Kamat and Pratima Coutinho, who signed suspension orders of leaders like Alexio Sequeira, Fernandes gave them a hope of a future in the Congress. And to discount that wouldn’t be doing justice to a neutral assessment of the man.
The choice of the Luizinho Faleiro as the party president again, actually re-emphasises the reasons why Fernandes had to be moved or – to put it more correctly- replaced. It formally announces the jettisoning of the clean Congress project- the Swachh Congress project- if you please. This is to be replaced with the tried and tested project, one which causes no ripples and works with the single minded objective of getting the party to be more politically relevant. This template works on vote accumulation, not necessarily leadership development, it works on political equation management and not people connect. A Congress losing relevance is reaching out to a battle veteran to win back some seats or set up equations with current or future fringe outfits. Luzinho Faleiro, according to well firmed sources in the inner coterie, understands this. He may have a personal belief that an absolute bottom up revival is needed for the Congress, but he never looks a gift horse in the mouth. He will never let a political opportunity go by, inspite of putting up a practiced front of an ever reluctant groom.
He signifies the return of the old order. He is a direct appointee of the Congress president and has her actual hand phone number on speed dial. A good question to ask is will be inspire the confidence of the people. A practical answer is that the Congress may not be looking for one who will, just someone who can organize the party.
This isn’t the time to castigate or raise a toast. The outgoing PCC Chief had made himself untenable by the manner in which he dealt with his own party men. His problem lay within. The party therefore took a decision and made a choice on his replacement. It has made it clear to its own organization which way it wants to head. The people of Goa will take decisions at the right time, which will prove whether these choices were prudent or not.
