The politics of statues will move from battleground Margao to the hallowed precincts of the Assembly with the Congress having decided to move a resolution signed by all 16 MLAs for installing Dr Jack de Sequeira’s statue in the Assembly complex, on the first day of the budget session of the Assembly starting next week.
The Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao will also move a resolution while Deputy Speaker and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and some BJP MLAs are likely to back it, in case a whip is not issued.
While an Assembly resolution, if allowed and passed adds weight to the issue and makes it imperative for the government to respect the sentiment of the House, it is not binding on the government. Moreover there will be no time frame unless specifically specified to adhere to the resolution. It may be recalled that the Goa Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution in support of Special Status to Goa. Circumstances and politics changed the approach to the issue, so much so that it has almost fallen off the radar of debate and discussion.
It remains to be seen how far the issue of installation of Dr Jack de Sequeira’s statue is sustained by the Goa Forward and a section of the BJP led by Michael Lobo. The Congress, though it is moving a resolution, doesn’t quite have the political strength to effectively front the cause both inside and outside the House. While not admitting, the Congress is actually looking forward to and dependent on support from a section of the treasury benches for the resolution to go through, and use this to go to its constituencies in South Goa. The party was actually found wanting when Goa Forward upped the ante for the statue cause and took it to its peak on Opinion Poll day. The ruling BJP then effectively managed to keep it on a slow burner by adopting its own party resolution against it.
The contours of this battle are clearly etched. Goa Forward needs to use an emotive handle which screams Goenkarponn in capital letters. The Congress doesn’t want to be left behind, while the BJP has pressure from its cadres not to accept and back an issue from which Goa Forward gets to benefit, while it pushes issues of waste management, health and infrastructure as the main needs of Goa.
What the BJP does need to manage, it is the stringent approach of Michael Lobo and the minority MLAs who spoke in favour of installing the state of the Father of the Opinion Poll. If at all, the BJP wouldn’t like to be seen at odds with or even at loggerheads with its own MLAs. This is something the party will address, the results of which will only be seen on the floor of the House.
It is clear that statue politics is a branch of identity politics which in turn is a branch of the tree of emotive politics. The politics of regionalism practiced by a regional party as opposed to the pan national politics of a national party will also be played out during this debate over the installation of Dr Jack de Sequeira’s statue.
The bottom line is, that emotive, regional and identity politics continues to remain an active political cheque which is valid and not beyond its expiry date.
