In the days of yore, what was a little birthday between friends? Politicians had their birthdays, there were celebrations at home or in hotels, party men rubbed shoulders with opposition leaders and journalists and all was well. Manohar Parrikar hardly ever thought that his sixtieth birthday would generate so much of excitement, either way, at par if not more than his sixteenth or when he “came of age” at 18.
But nature intervened and the already frequently asked questions doubled when Chennai went under in its worst ever flood hit disaster. The narrative changed rapidly towards abject shock at how the Defence Minister of the country could be allowing such huge spends on his birthday, through whatever source. While many of these questions have been asked by Herald – the only paper doing so – and the narrative has been maintained, it will be unwise to miss the larger motive and game plan that went into planning and executing this birthday bash.
Sources within the organization beyond Goa, have reiterated what is known to those who have followed Parrikar. There is nothing spontaneous or simple about any action of his. If he has allowed such a large scale celebration to take place on his birthday and hasn’t blinked in the wake of mounting criticism that he, the Defence Minister, and no longer the MLA of Panjim, will celebrate when Chennai is struggling to get above water, he has a reason. In fact senior voices emanating from within the party confines indicate that the birthday celebration plan was actually his. In a manner typical of the way he works, the message was conveyed and his loyal foot soldiers like the Panjim MLA Siddharth Kunkalienkar got to work, directing the pitch towards how the people of Goa would like to give thanks to their benefactor for showering government welfare schemes on them and to congratulate him for his grand achievement of becoming Defence Minister.
For those who care to see, the political muscle flexing is obvious. Mr Parrikar, for long, ran this government by proxy, till Laxmikant Parsekar managed to remove himself from the stranglehold of his former CM and start taking his own decisions. While this may not have been translated into better governance, what it has done is that Parsekar has become an independent power centre, and not just a mouthpiece for Parrikar. This is a power shift the former Chief Minister had not bargained for.
The idea of this grand rally is nothing but Mr Parrikar sounding the bugle of his continued involvement in all things local, preparing the stage for a grand comeback in 2017. His casual remark at a rally in Mapusa a couple of weeks ago, that if the Goa government was not on track, there was “no need to worry” since he would put it on track, wasn’t casual at all. He perhaps let slip a little more than what he would have liked to.
Not very long since he moved to Delhi, Parrikar quickly realised the difference between Goa and Delhi. In Goa, it was his stage, he chose the actors and their parts, he wrote the script and set it to tune. In Delhi he is playing a part on Narendra Modi’s stage, acting the script written by him and directed by his Prime Minister. Parrikar, by nature cannot perform on someone else’s stage. He needs his very own.
The decision to have a grand birthday rally was therefore taken to a) test the waters, b) reassure himself that this is his stage and he has that unique political space, no other BJP leader can or will be allowed to have and c) send a political signal to his voters that he should very much be in their scheme of things.
Sunday’s birthday celebrations will therefore be more than he cutting a cake, but re-carving out his political space which was not really lost, but a trifle crowded. By the end of Sunday, Parrikar hopes to convey to his host, the ‘Chairman of his birthday celebration committee’ and CM Parsekar that if there is anyone in the BJP who can have his political cake and eat it to, it is only Manohar Prabhu Parrikar.
