Laxmikant Parsekar has moved into a different planet. Whether he will continue to inhabit it, at least for the next two and a half years, is a big ask. Honestly, the position of the Goa Chief Minister, which he, or anyone else for that matter, thought was out of bounds, has come to him on a platter. Does he know how to deal with this?
It’s not enviable being Laxmikant Parsekar. For every file he signs, or a speech he makes or a decision he takes, the shadow of Parrikar will loom large. Parsekar has another problem. Having been in politics long enough, he considers himself Parrikar’s contemporary (don’t read too much into him touching Parrikar’s feet after his swearing in), and will make an attempt to step into his shoes and run the government like him. The problem is that he can’t and that will precipitate crisis after crisis.
However, there is another way out. And he can take a leaf out of the books of some great cricketers with good but limited talent who have achieved greatness beyond what was possible with their limitations. Players like Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri and even Chetan Chauhan, Gavaskar’s longest opening partner who never got an international hundred but regularly scored fifties. Mr Parsekar needs to score those fifties by not aiming anything big, but getting the bread and butter issues taken care of. The moment he plays big ticket, he will be in trouble.
For instance, rather than talking of massive garbage management plants, he could see to it that micro waste management solutions are found in every panchayat and implemented. On tourism, if he avoids getting into how many foreign tourists he hopes to get from nations as distant in miles and spirit as Burkina Faso or Azerbaijan, and cleans up the Calangute-Baga belt, delivering local infrastructure like water, power, roads, he will be hero worshipped.
On industry, even if not a single rupee of the Rs 25,000 crore investment promised in the plan, comes in, he will be toasted if he creates one factory in each district which absorbs a number of young job seekers from places close by.
Parsekar’s best bet in his innings as Chief Minister is not to be Parrikar. If he understands politics well, he should play on Parrikar’s inherent weaknesses. Parrikar didn’t suffer wise men or fools and made it clear that it was either his way or the highway. Parsekar should create openings on little roads for people to drive in. He should take many leaves from Digambar Kamat’s book by making his cell number as popular as 100, and giving as many people centric appointments as possible. Since he won’t be burdened by policy decisions, since Parrikar has set them already, he should focus on people.
While people are missing Parrikar, many who wanted to meet him, actually saw little of him. Parsekar can change all that with just three meetings with the GBA and the village groups on the Regional Plan, the anti-Mopa brigade and officers of the Town and Country Planning who tried in vain to meet their own minister (the Chief Minister) for two years.
If our new Chief Minister just sits back and listens and blames the difficult parts to decisions taken in the past, he will survive. If he acts like a man in a hurry, singing “if tomorrow never comes”, he will have disastrous reign and pull Goa into an abyss, which will make Parrikar’s reign seem golden. And as we know, that was far from it. Parsekar has to prepare for many tomorrows by taking his todays slowly.
But even as some see Parsekar’s position as unenviable, he might well turn around and surprise all of us because Goa expects so little from him. So he needs to do very little to score.
