A day after the opinion poll blitzkrieg in Margao, essentially by the Goa Forward, in its attempt to fully claim the “identity” space, it’s demand to install the statue of Dr Jack Sequeira, the father of the opinion poll in the Assembly premises has hit a stumbling block.
BJP insiders are clear that giving into the Goa Forward demand would tantamount to ceding too much of political space. This is notwithstanding the Deputy Speaker and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo fully backing Goa Forward’s Vijai Sardesai’s priority demand. Sardesai has of course linked the installation of Dr Jack Sequeira’s statue with Goenkarponn. The BJP organisation internally is of the view that Dayanand Bandodkar’s statue was installed in the Assembly premises because he was the first Chief Minister. And as far as other statues are considered, the BJP organisation feels that the case for installing statues of leaders like Sashikala Kakodkar, Goa’s first and only lady Chief Minister, constitutional wizard and tribal leader Dr Kashinath Jalmi is as strong as Dr Jack Sequeira.
The mention of these two MGP leaders by BJP insiders is interesting and perhaps not all that surprising. The politics of this can well be understood. Vijai Sardesai’s attempt to reach out to the minorities in Salcete, through his orchestration of the importance of the opinion poll and its leaders, is sought to be balanced by not rejecting outright the demand to install Dr Jack Sequeira’s statue and keeping it on hold. For instance, the Chief Minister’s comment that it is the Speaker who has to decide since the installation has been sought in the Assembly, and with the Speaker refusing to comment on this; is indicative, to say the least. In politics it is all about signals and the signals are clear that the BJP is not willing to give into the demand of installing Dr Jack Sequeira’s statue anytime soon.
It will be interesting to see how this statue politics pans out. Sardesai has made an extremely strong case to the extent of casting shadows on the future of the alliance over this issue. But at this stage, this is being seen as initial posturing in order to give more traction to the issue but it’s a space that needs to be watched.
On the other hand, the Congress isn’t quite sure how to play this statue politics, Firstly, there was a distance between Dr Jack Sequeira and the Congress. But more importantly, during the long years of its rule, it did not ask for the Father of the Opinion Poll to be given pride of place through a statue in the Assembly. Secondly, with the Goa Forward fronting the Opinion Poll project this year, the Congress, as a party cannot and does not want to say “me too”.
This strategy could well work both ways but the Congress would be living in denial, if it does not realise that Sardesai and the Goa Forward are clearly looking at the minority space, which the Congress had managed to secure in Salcete in the 2017 Assembly elections. Yet again, this space is not guaranteed but an emotive subject like the opinion poll, has the potential capacity to cause political shifts.
Future development on this road will depend on how far the BJP led government wants to indulge the Goa Forward on the statue politics. The initial signals are that it does not want to at all.
