The GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro, may have invoked the greatest bond in the world to perhaps win back an old friend who was forced out of the party, Vijay Sardesai. The two were in the middle of a function where they shared a platform. As the Independent MLA from Fatorda went on a rampage against the state of the Congress, Faleiro, in a bid to calm him, said “He is speaking from his heart because Congress blood runs in Vijai’s veins”.
The hard boiled Sardesai, incidentally took an actual pre-decided blood test the following morning and quickly tweeted, tongue firmly in cheek “I have checked my blood. It is completely independent”. While this is harmless banter, it nevertheless underlined the teething web of complex problems – mainly personality driven, which will make it tough for a much needed grand Goa Opposition Alliance, with an acronym GOA, mooted by Sardesai. The idea has been hanging in the air, but has been given official expression by the Fatorda MLA. He surely has his own political ambition to get some return on his investment of shouldering the burden of opposition responsibility, through research, debate and argument in the assembly and outside. But the Congress too is in no real position to discount and dismiss this move, because its own ineptitude has reduced its position to that of a hapless bystander in the assembly. Its MLAs have lost voice. Further they have lost prestige. And in session after session, they have been losing dignity. Remember how Pandurang Madkaikar got to ask the government about a pending police outpost. The then Chief Minister retaliated by saying that the land was under dispute and that he would initiate an inquiry against Madkaikar for alleged land grab of the same property where the police outpost was supposed to come up. That was the end of any “opposition” by the Cumbharjua MLA. Of the 9 MLAs the Congress has Pandurang Madkaikar, Babush and Jennifer Monseratte, Babu Kavlekar and of the BJP’s in-house Congress poster boy Mauvin Godinho are neutralized and are no opposition.
It is in this contest that that one must see the effort to reclaim the opposition space, through a collective exercise rather than hope and pray that the Congress revival project will kick start. Even if it does, the results may be visible only around 2016-2017. So what happens to the party’s role as an opposition till then?
In the fitness of things, the Congress should be open to explore the smallest of steps towards a opposition coalition. It could begin by talking to Vijay Sardsesai and Naresh Sawal, the other independent MLA who has attacked the ruling party in no uncertain terms, accusing it of false promises and U turns.
This would however, hit the Congress where it hurts – its ego. The stalwarts, who wear their faded crowns, bereft of any regalia to cover their political nakedness, will not – and cannot – accept a Vijay Sardessai or Sawal fronting the opposition attack. The painful reality is that internally the Congress knows that it can’t front its own role as the “leading” opposition party.
A post mortem meeting was called by Mr Faleiro, on Tuesday, to assess the “Chintan Shibir” of the party on December 13-14, which led to the “Dona Paula declaration”. While this was an honest effort at introspection, many believe that it ends with that. For instance point 14 of the Dona Paula declaration states “TheCongress Party is also seized with the issue of individual leaders reducing the focus on the party”. Isn’t it worrisome that close to three years after it suffered its worst ever rout in the assembly elections, it uses the phrase “seized of”, to describe its response to individual leaders treating the party as their private enterprise? What has it done, after being “seized of” the issue is a question that is not asked.
In Tuesday’s post mortem meeting, veteran Babu Azgaonkar, echoed this when he told the gathering, in which AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh was present, “Once MLAs get elected, they think that the party belongs to them, not the other way around”. Another young leader from the minorities said “party workers are used and dumped in the Congress”.
It’s clear that the Congress has a lot of work to do. It needs to apply balm to a lot of pain and hurt felt by upset Congressmen and women and it needs to revive frontal organizations as well as restore non functioning block committees, like that of Panjim (of all places). It therefore has no time to be an effective opposition as well as restructure its party.
The anti BJP space therefore has to be widened and could even at some stage include the MGP in its umbrella. If the PDP can do business with the BJP in Kashmir, why should the MGP (inspite of all its past baggage) be a pariah in the Goa of 2015. This may be loud thinking, but unless the Congress joins this chorus, it might as well take a hike on the long road to redundancy and irrelevance.
