Mr Pratapsing Raoji Rane has just completed another glittering year in his illustrious life journey. He also continues to add new political feathers to his already loaded cap. His latest role, of 2014-15 vintage is that of a 12th man of the BJP cricket team. The role, as you would all know, is that of a stand-by, a substitute who fills in for the injured, the guy who takes out the drinks and fields when a member of the playing eleven is tired or injured.
The illustrious, ‘tallest” leader of the Congress and officially the leader of the opposition, has done yeomen service to the BJP by either mouthing what they want to hear and giving them unexpected support or putting them in a perennial comfort zone, by his stoic silence on issues of grave concern to Goa.
His silence does speak more than a thousand words. It’s a silence which spells encouragement and support to the ruling party, which should in the normal course be antithetical to any opposition MLA, leave alone the leader of the opposition.
He has virtually backed the government or at least the TCP Minister Francis D’Souza, on plans to resurrect the flawed Regional Plan 2021 by advocating that the plans of 170 plus villages should be put in motion because those panchayats, have ostensibly not raised objections. This goes completely against the very clear line taken by the Congress that the BJP should keep up to its several assurances from the office of the Chief Minister and even the Governor that the plan would be scrapped/de-notified and a new plan would be drafted. Notwithstanding the fact that it was the earlier Congress government which made deviations in the notified plan from the draft plan which was near perfect, the Congress under Luizinho Faleiro senses the opportunity of turning this around politically by castigating the BJP of going back on its promises. The GPCC, which is sensing some movement and direction under the current regime, senses a window of opportunity in going back to the people stating that the State level committee was formed and the RP 2021 was drafted under Congress rule. Just when the party was ready to further state that the gaps in RP 2021 can be addressed through a grassroot people’s involvement, in came Pratapsing Raoji Rane and played right into the BJP hands by saying that the majority of panchayats had no problems with the notified plan.
Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, who has been toeing exactly the same line, immediately grabbed at this straw and said “I agree with Mr Rane completely”, conveniently ignoring that GPCC’s official stand on this, which was spelt out after Mr Rane made his remarks, was to scrap the plan and have new one post large scale public consultation.
But this is not a first from a man who has never been without a car with a red beacon in his over three decades of presiding over the Congress in various capacities. At a time when it was vital for the Congress to reach out its core South Goa constituency, Pratapsing Rane announced from the ramparts “Mopa is my baby”. Well both the baby and the bath water, were thrown out by the people of South Goa in the last Lok Sabha elections, who do not quite believe in the seriousness, commitment and honesty of the Congress in standing with them in their opposition to the Mopa airport. It is true that whenever the Congress has tried to show its solidarity with the anti-Mopa cause, it is asked by people, ‘but Mopa is Rane’s baby, isn’t it?”
The GPCC feels the absence of its senior most leader, Pratapsing Raoji Rane when it takes up key issues against the opposition. He has not uttered a word against the BJP’s shocking and absolute U-turn on the presence of Casinos on the river Mandovi. The video clip of Manohar Parrikar leading a torch lit procession demanding that Casinos should be driven out of the river Mandovi was resurrected by Herald and its contents published for the people of Goa to know the extent of this U-turn. The leader of the opposition has not uttered a word on an issue which should have been ready ammunition for any genuine opposition leader. Mr Rane clearly is not one. And that is a huge embarrassment for the GPCC, which has no option but to forcibly bear this.
But Mr Rane’s approach also shows up the inherent weakness on the part of the Congress in not being able to weed out its geriatric leadership. Incidentally Luizinho Faleiro honestly admits that he having to return to Goa is a sign that the party has failed to create new leadership and that can happen by reviving booth, block and district committees. But to be brutally blunt, it is Pratapsing Rane and others of his ilk will be stumbling blocks in the party’s revival.
They should be handled in a manner in which Narendra Modi has handled the likes of L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. They are given sugar sweet respect and banished to a lonely and lofty world of visionaries and mentors, while on the ground battles in sync with realities and real politics are fought on fresh legs with fresh minds by people who know their job.
Pratapsing Raoji Rane surely does not know his.
