The Leader of the Opposition’s open support to the Mopa airport, calling the project “his baby”, has for good reason, raised the hackles of the Congress in South Goa. This goes against the resolution taken by the Congress Legislature Party which Rane heads, that the party’s stand would be “go slow” on Mopa. However politics is all about timing and the Congress in Goa has mastered the art of timing. Wrong timing that is. And the GPCC president John Fernandes, who is on a fast track mission to eradicate whatever remains of the Congress before his term is over, is sure to fish in these waters by taking potshots at Rane. He will do it in the next twenty four hours.
The point is that there is no one in the GPCC who is thinking strategy. That’s why these reactions are knee jerk. An excited Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco sees this as a grand opportunity to establish his anti-Mopa credentials even at the cost of attacking his CLP leader and others in the party have joined hands.
For someone like Manohar Parrikar, it’s a perfect situation. He has the principal opposition leader backing his pet project by calling it his baby, which in turn has sparked off anti-Rane protests within the Congress.
The GPCC has clearly floundered. With Parrikar pushing the Regional Plan into further cold storage by announcing a House committee to study the Plan and going on the back foot on the issue of reserving a portion of the SEZ plots for its promoters, the Congress should have focused all its energies on taking this to the people.
Both the Regional Plan and the return of land illegally allotted to SEZ promoters are extremely emotive issues in Salcete. The Chief Minister announced in the House that the government was planning to reserve 30% of the land allotted to SEZ promoters for them to set up industry, even thought the policy has been scrapped and the allocation declared void. After intense media scrutiny of his announcement, led by Herald; he is reportedly now taking a stand among officers and his cabinet that this was no decision but only a plan or a suggestion. Even as it failed to do in the House, the Congress should have held a press conference, to take on Parrikar on both counts- sending the Regional Plan to a House committee and the SEZ announcement/ plan on giving plots back to SEZ promoters “discredited” by the High Court.
Its relative silence on the SEZ issue is significant, considering the fact that Mr Rane, as Chief Minister had made a noting on the file on one of the promoters stating, “please help these people”. Though Mr Rane has claimed that he was not involved in the decision making process of allotting SEZ plots, his closeness to some of the promoters is beyond doubt. But unlike Ranes comment on Mopa, the Congress should have pressed the attack button on SEZ’s by taking on Parrikar’s move to reserve plots for promoters, rather than take on their own CLP leader on Mopa. If anything Parrikar should be their target of attack on Mopa, especially since the Chief Minister made a remark in the assembly that the BJP had won the South Goa seat inspite of backing the Mopa airport project.
The Goa Congress in any case has no priorities. And yet when it ultimately decides to take up an issue, it is against its own CLP leader, who in any case is being attacked personally by the party’s state president.
If anyone is desperate for black comedy, visit the Goa Congress.
