BJP-MGP- Will it be the same after May 16
This is a time when politics in Goa is going through a period of a pregnant pause. The post May 16 phase will see the birth of new political relationships in Delhi and a re-look at existing ones in Goa. As whispers in the wind talk of a cabinet shuffle and newspapers report of an imminent induction of Mauvin Godinho( a Congress MLA) and Mickky Pacheco, the GVP MLA from Nuvem, it’s important to take stock of a few ground realities and assess whether political equations, especially between BJP and MGP would change post the Lok Sabha results, as a result of this.
The nebulous equation between the BJP and the MGP isn’t really on the firm ground of ideology. The relationship is basically between the chief minister and the two Dhavlikar brothers which is based on individual and not ideological needs. The Dhavlikars owe their economic and political ascendency to the Ranes. In any likely change of equation with the BJP and the formation of any alliance– even a rag tag one– the Dhavlikar brothers will be in the mix.
But why has it come to even this. Over the last two years of Parrikar’s rule, the relationship between the two parties has been cordial and normal, though far short of extraordinary. What changed this from normal to cold, was the decision on the policy of grants to primary schools on the basis of the medium of instruction. Though the cabinet decided that the government would give grants to all minority institutions that used English as the medium of instruction along with schools that used Konkani and Marathi, the MGP was fundamentally opposed to it in sync with its support to the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch. The BBSM was in fact formed under the tutelage of Sashikala Kakodkar, former MGP chief minister and a majority of similar ideologues like Uday Bhembre, Arvind Bhatikar and others. Manohar Parrikar as leader of the opposition was clearly on the side of the BBSM and even walked with BBSM protestors and squatted in the road to overturn the policy.
In his first cabinet note on the medium of instruction, the government laid down a policy in tune with the line that the BBSM took– all importance to Konkani and Marathi and none at all to English. However this January when the policy was spelt out in detail and a decision was taken to give grants to minority institutions who taught English which essentially meant church-run institutions, the Dhavlikars fumed and angrily told their close confidants, one of whom shared this with Herald, that the government had “sold out” to the church.
Undoubtedly, the decision got the CM support from FORCE, the group which spearheaded the agitation for grants for schools teaching in English at the primary level, whose protagonists ran the church-backed diocesan schools, but upset the MGP.
Make no mistake. This had less to do with ideology than one up-manship. The Dhavlikar brothers Deepak and Sudin found it difficult to explain to people in Marcaim and Priol, how their government could allow this. So the discourse became totally political, and certainly not educational.
However, while these may have been nagging issues there was one consistent nagging issue which has reached a flashpoint- the very functionality of the PWD department which to put it as delicately as possible is “lucrative”. Dhavlikar, to put it mildly doesn’t have the same autonomy over the PWD as Churchill Alemao had. The new PWD is the GSIDC, which executes most infrastructure projects. To put this in perspective there are 125 major projects that have been given to the CM-controlled GSIDC which would have otherwise gone to the Dhavlikar-controlled PWD.
The relationship is delicately balanced and fresh points of conflict could tilt it, like the inclusion of Mauvin Godinho in the BJP and giving him the Dabolim ticket to contest the by election. The MGP has claimed Dabolim as theirs going by the seat-sharing formula by which it contested Dabolim in 2012 and lost by less than 900 votes to Mauvin Godinho. This relationship will boil down to the extent to which Parrikar wants it to continue. If he drops Deepak Dhavlikar from the cabinet to make way for Mickky Pachecho or later for Mauvin Godinho, it will be as good as calling for a separation.
For Parrikar, numbers matter. Unfortunately, the BJP MGP relationship has become just about that.
