from the Chief Minister’s taluka, has the potential of becoming a starting point of an issue based launch of a political missile.
And the only reason why this launch of a united anti-BJP movement is in the realm of uncertainty, not the yatra, is because the Congress is caught in a complex maze where it wants to show strength by declaring that it will contest 40 Assembly seats. As if that’s not enough, it wants the new born Goa Forward to suffer infant mortality and its founder Vijay Sardesai to take rebirth as a Congressman. But isn’t the Congress letting false bravado get the better of itself? When it can’t even put together a full panel for the Panjim Corporation elections and have people pulling out even on the last day of withdrawals, do you expect this party to field 40 genuine candidates in the Assembly elections? If it does cobble 40, they will play only one role. Split anti-BJP votes and bring BJP back to power.
At this point of time, there is only one side playing fair in pursuit of forging a serious alliance and that is Goa Forward. The Congress has debunked not just Sardesai but Regional Parties calling them opportunistic forces. It says that it wants to negotiate from a position of strength, but it’s pertinent to ask where will the strength come from if the next Assembly is handed over to the BJP. The Congress is confusing and mixing up the process of building a party and contesting the elections smartly. While its organisational strength will come from building its blocks and district units, its electoral strength will come from pragmatism. And pragmatism means coming together to ensure that the decision of a growing number of the people of Goa to have a parivartan against the BJP is respected. The Congress is insulting and betraying the mood of Goa by playing hard to get.
Whenever questioned, Luizinho Faleiro claims that it was he who made the overtures to Sardesai and offered him the post of Deputy Leader and when he announced that Sardesai has Congress blood, the Fatorda MLA went and said that he had got his blood checked and found it to be “independent blood”. Faleiro’s holding onto this statement is embarrassing for a leader of his stature. Will the future of Goa be decided on stray statements made three to four months ago? Have the standards of discourse and future planning been reduced to such a level? And if Sardesai now has independent blood, it is only because the Congress did not give him the Fatorda ticket forcing him to contest on his own and win against all odds. Luizinho Faleiro does not want an alliance. He wants complete surrender. But even if it wants this tall aspiration to be fulfilled, he still needs to negotiate, for arguments sake. This cannot happen at gunpoint and in a manner which is making the BJP smile all the way.
The next argument is that Sardesai does not have anyone with him. Let’s make this simple for Mr Faleiro. Let us accept that Sardesai has no one with him and that the MLAs who are supporting him – Rohan Khaunte and Naresh Sawal – will go either with the BJP or MGP (this is again for arguments sake only). Doesn’t the Congress realise that growing infighting in its own ranks will lead to an army of dissenters before 2017? There may be 20 who may be in a position where Sardesai was in 2012. Each of those 20 will join the Goa Forward on the eve of the election by which time the distance between the two will be so much that it will no longer be about winning but bringing the other down.
Coming back to the manner in which the Maad Yatra has handled by the GPCC is an example of how the Congress is committing a hara kiri. Sardesai has called upon all forces across party lines to participate in this yatra and former Dhargal MLA Babu Azgaonkar has agreed to do the yatra jointly with Team Sardesai. On the eve of the yatra, on Saturday evening Digambar Kamar called up Azgaonkar and told him that AICC secretary Mr Chella Kumar had called to say that the Congress should not participate in this yatra.
As if on cue State Mahila Congress chief Pramod Salgaocar sent a Whats App message on a closed Madrem Whats App group at 8.45 pm “As per instructions of our GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro, we are NOT joining Maad march tomorrow”. If any evidence is needed on who is not allowing a united anti-BJP opposition to take place, it’s clear that it’s the GPCC president.
However in another twist, Babu Azgaonkar has decided to go ahead and flag off the march with Sardesai. So much for the GPCC President’s control and command over the party.
The Congress must understand that the people of Goa are getting frustrated at the Congress-initiated rivalry with Goa Forward. This was evident when there was a chance encounter between Faleiro and Sardesai at the Zeebop restaurant at Utorda on Friday where a senior priest from Salcete was also present. He went up to Luizinho Faleiro and said, “Luizinho, what are you doing. You need to be together.”
Is anything left to be said after this?
