Opposition unity in Goa has collapsed, leaving a Govt unchallenged, sans checks & balances

The historical character Chanakya has been resurrected and his qualities attributed to the president of the BJP Amit Shah in a manner which beatifies him among his legion of supporters.

But Chanakya was a teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor, whose treatise Arthashastra on state craft and military strategy is still relevant today. Amit Shah, though he possesses none of those attributes, has earned that sobriquet or almost a nom de plume, (if he was a writer). However, the title doesn’t fit in the broad sense of who Chanakya was. Where it does obliquely is the way Shah practises his political craft, which he assumes to be State craft. There is a difference though, and it doesn’t perhaps matter. State craft is for the benefit of the State or the kingdom whereas political craft, in the narrow sense is the wily knack of breaking down political opponents through stealth and guile for the benefit of self and party.

After successfully practising this version of ‘Statecraft’, the modern day political claimant to the Chanakya title got stopped in his tracks in Maharashtra because the DNA of his Statecraft got altered. The axis of opposition unity turned on its head with Shiv Sena, a new opponent, aligning with the old opponents Congress and NCP to form a government, after BJP’s initial Raj Bhavan backed misadventure at dawn to swear in a BJP-led government.

When Chanakaya got chastened in Maharashtra, remember what the man who stopped Amit Shah in his tracks, the Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar said “We are not Manipur or Goa”. While Pawar obviously referred to the manner in which the popular mandate of 2017 was hijacked in Goa, this also holds true of the manner in which the major chunk of 10 Congress MLAs in Goa went like lambs and switched to the BJP for power and likely insurance against possible investigations, something which Ajit Pawar got, in Maharashtra, within minutes of becoming the Deputy CM to Devendra Fadnavis with all cases against his getting closed within minutes.

The Maharashtra model can prima facie be allowed in Goa, but the ground realities are different. Firstly, there is an absolutely weakened Congress and an absence of a predominantly strong regional force with MLAs needed to make a serious political dent. Secondly, there is continuous sabre rattling between the non-BJP opposition, who seem to be opposing each other more than the BJP. There are two such instances. The Congress and BJP joining hands in the Margao Municipal Council elections and Churchill Alemao of NCP saying he will never support the Goa Forward Party.

The BJP in Goa has an open field because the axis of opposition is so skewed in its favour, with the non-BJP opposition, especially the Congress ceding ground with each passing day. Inspite of inherent contradictions in the new Maharashtra model of governance, the coming together of disparate non-BJP parties was circumstantial, with the objective of chastening Chanakya Shah. The circumstantial approach has been done away within Goa. While the Congress sailed on that boat in Maharashtra, it has junked the same boat in Goa and therefore it is sailing in Maharashtra and sinking in Goa.

Perhaps its logic of building the organisation and not tying with anyone in Goa, may have had some positive resonance if the 2017 mandate the Congress got, resulted in further strengthening of the party, both within the organisation and in the Assembly. Both got weakened, especially in the assembly with Congress MLAs leaving like rats did, following the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Through this, a cardinal principle of politics which both Sharad Pawar and the Shiv Sena, backed by Congress, in Maharashtra followed, was discarded by the national party in Goa   never shut a door that can be left ajar. In Goa, door shutting has been turned into a fine art by the Congress in the guise of strengthening its own grassroots and cadre. The facts speak for themselves. It has one MLA among the North Goa assembly segments, Pratap Singh Rane. It’s wiped out in a majority dominated belt of Pernem, Mandrem, Bicholim, Valpoi, Sankhlim, Priol, Tivim, Cumbharjua and Taleigao. In South Goa beyond Salcete, it’s non-existent in Quepem, Sanguem, Sanvordem, Curchorem and Canacona. Post 2017, even after failing to form a government, it was the natural opposition. To be the natural opposition now, it has to be in the forefront of opposition unity because on its own it doesn’t have the numbers to call itself the clear leading opposition party. 

What would any party do in this situation, even taking a leaf out of what its own organisation did in Maharashtra? Simply, increase the decibel levels of opposition noise. This fundamentally means not directing attacks against other opposition parties, or toning them down, to focus on larger acts of omission and commission of the leading party. Chanakya would have advised that if an enemy’s enemy is doing the work for you on some issues, allow that noise to rise.

 Here’s an example of how the opposite happened. Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte raised some serious questions on the rates the Goa government was paying for its coal block in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, for power generation in Goa and the ensuing power tariffs to be paid. Khaunte also demanded to know the rate fixed to buy the coal block. He said the last time Rs 42 crore was paid to the consultant and that money was wasted.

Even before the Government could respond to this, the Congress questioned Khaunte’s locus standi in raising these issues. Interestingly, in 2014 then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had said the State vigilance department would investigate the alleged irregularities in the agreement entered into by the previous Congress government with a private firm for generation of electricity using the coal from a mine in Chhattisgarh.

This is a clear case of the current BJP government’s own actions with regard to the latest Singrauli coal block coming into question because of the emergence of the very same private firm, this time around too, under the radar.

Then, when the Congress had a clear chance to raise the decibel levels on the current rage   the Citizen’s Amendment bill, here’s how the opportunity was squandered due to sheer lack of preparation and confusing the issue. In a press conference addressed by the Congress, its spokesperson irrelevantly linked the Citizens Amendments Bill, passed by Parliament to the Goa Ports Minister Michael Lobo’s outburst against Goans with OCI cards, stating that Lobo was aware of the CAB and hence decided to attack Goan OCI holders, who would purportedly have no voice or standing. While Lobo’s statement lambasting Goan OCIs and those settled abroad asking them to be concerned about “London or Portugal and not Goa” is a cause for independent criticism, which the Congress did not do, it chose to link his statements to the CAB, when the OCIs have absolutely nothing to do with the CAB, since no OCI is seeking an Indian passport and Goans abroad with Indian passports already have citizenship. The CAB is specific to citizenship to be given to persecuted people who come to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, mainly Hindus, while effectively omitting countries where there are persecuted Muslims, like Myanmar and Sri Lanka. That is the crux of the criticism of the CAB, which the Congress failed to do. It completely missed the wood for the trees and espoused a narrative linked to a local statement on a different subject (OCIs taking a stand on Goan issues) which completely confused the issue.

This shows the party as ill prepared. A party may be liked or disliked but when it appears ill prepared, it opens itself to ridicule and the press conference on CAB, certainly did so.

The Congress needs to have forceful legislative engagement with other opposition parties and independents, it needs to send out a strong narrative that it could lead a government in waiting if people vote against the current ruling party and it needs to have a robust organisational restructuring.

But above all, the lesson learnt from Maharashtra just cannot be ignored. In Maharashtra, the Congress joined the Sena and the NCP in bucking the trend, defeating what was thought to be obvious, i.e. the BJP would usurp power, and at the very least, it presented an alternative. Goa, for the sake of democracy, cannot be a State which is running out of alternatives. This is a smoking gun which is visible only to a few and it won’t take long for this gun to explode, leaving Goa with no checks and balances to a one party rule.