Kala Academy’s iconic architecture has been the centre of attraction not only for the art lovers but for domestic and foreign tourists as well. The government had already received tremendous backlash for giving the contract for the Academy’s renovation without floating a legal tender. The collapse of the open auditorium stage roof slab has only enraged the public further.
Since the incident took place one day before the beginning of Goa Assembly Monsoon Session, it was expected that its rumblings would be heard in the legislature. However, the lack of unity among the opposition members over the subject must have been tracked by the ruling party. The opposition had issued the notice of adjournment motion to discuss the respective matter while it was known that the ruling party would not accept it. Although the Assembly Speaker dismissed the motion of adjournment as expected, the opposition’s failure to corner the government over the issue was felt prominently. Motion of adjournment is a weapon in democracy that allows discussion over a crucial matter by keeping aside the Assembly’s regular proceedings. The Assembly’s work begins with a Question Hour followed by a Zero Hour. Hence, the Opposition demanded for a discussion over inquiry into the collapse of Kala Academy’s open auditorium’s roof by keeping aside the question hour. The lack of enough punch in the respective demand came to the fore in just a few minutes. It is expected for the opposition to seek answers from the government to the questions faced by the State. In fact, that is their very role.
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Despite Congress, Goa Forward, Revolutionary Goans and AAP parties being in opposition against the ruling BJP, they failed to keep the government on its toes over the issue of Kala Academy as they lacked coordination among themselves. The people of Goa voted 27% and 25% for Congress, respectively. Despite 10 Congress MLAs defecting to BJP during the last Assembly without giving their resignation, people had still shown faith in the party. Now too, 8 Congress MLAs have defected in the same fashion and time has come for the party to retain their confidence which was shown by the voters. That being said, the Congress’s remaining reputation is in danger due to the way they handled the Kala Academy’s issue in the Assembly.
The strength of opposition in the House is a minor issue. What really matters is how much unanimity the opposition MLAs hold. The lack of the same was on display on Tuesday in the Assembly. The matter was simple and it was about the opposition taking on an aggressive stance over the dismissal of motion of adjournment so that the discussion over Kala Academy could still be held. The MLAs seemed confused even over whether to go to the well of the House before the Speaker to uphold their demand or not. Amidst this chaos, Quepem MLA Altone D’costa stood up to ask his first question after Speaker announced the beginning of question hour. D’Costa’s fellow party member and leader of opposition Yuri Alemao was standing in front of the Speaker that time. Therefore, the difference of opinion within Congress members was noticeable over whether to allow Assembly proceedings or not.
On the one hand the leader of opposition was demanding to halt the question hour while on the other hand the opposition party’s own MLA D’Costa was asking the question. Such was the irony in the Assembly. Later on LoP Yuri Alemao kept demanding for the government to answer D’Costa’s question and so, that’d make one wonder whether Congress genuinely wanted to have a discussion over inquiry into Kala Academy’s collapse or not. The Assembly’s monsoon session is 18-day long and on the very first day the lack of unanimity amongst the opposition has been noticeable. Therefore, it’s a matter of curiosity to see how the scattered opposition will tackle the government.
When the proceedings of the Assembly resumed, the Congress had almost forgotten the demand of the inquiry into the Kala Academy fiasco as their MLAs did not take the aggressive stance over the issue. When the Speaker announced the question number 3, MLA of Revolutionary Goans Viresh Borkar asked about the felling of trees to build illegal roads on the land owned by the Housing Board.
Borkar approached the issue aggressively and Kala Academy’s matter naturally fell behind. The opposition’s surprising stance raises a question of who will truly ask the government the questions which matter. The ruling party has already weakened the voice of the opposition by encouraging them to defect and all Goans must be wishing right now is to at least raise that weakened voice collectively. Congress as an opposition party should see that the reach of the voice shouldn’t be limited due to lack of unity. For that, coordination, unanimity and unity amongst opposition is necessary. The opposition that is scattered will not be able to strongly raise the questions of Goans in the Assembly. What else would the ruling BJP want?
