Laxmikant Parsekar, Goa’s replacement Chief Minister has completed six months, a relatively long time in the context of his truncated term. He is still a man coming to terms with the status and the importance of the chair he sits on and is struggling to even understand basic social graces that come with the job. Parsekar is still the village headmaster who may have travelled from his Pernem taluka to the Secretariat in Porvorim but hasn’t come to terms with the gravitas needed to be Chief Minister.
Even on the day he completed six months, he told reporters that he had asked environment minister Alina Saldanha to “shut her mouth” on the issue of her stand on having marinas in Goa. But there is no point getting shocked, appalled and dismayed that the Chief Minister of the state can insult and ridicule his own lady cabinet colleague and a widow of man who would have always put ecology over economics and opposed the Sancoale marina project. Which Chief minister in a civilized state (which is not yet officially a banana republic) says that he has asked his minister to shut her mouth?.
But our Chief Minister does say. This shouldn’t surprise anyone because he is the same man who told striking nurses that standing for hours under the sun would make their skins dark and spoil their chances of getting a groom. If this was supposed to be humour, then someone should tell Parsekar that no one, including audiences in the imaginary Arambol Laughter Club, in his home village of Arambol, would laugh at this.
However it must be said that between putting his foot in the mouth and crisscrossing the state visiting temples to pay obeisance the entire pantheon of Hindu Gods, the Chief Minister has done some hard reality checks and made utterances that have not gone down well with the people of Goa, simply because of their deviation from the stand of Mr Parrikar on the same issue
And while some believe that his brutal honesty needs to be commended, it also brings into sharp focus the halo of untruths, half truths and meaningless truths uttered during the Parrikar tenure. Shortly after assuming power, the Chief Minister said that the bubble of 50,000 jobs and Rs 25,000 crore investment potential in Goa in the next five years, (included in the Parrikar vetted Industrial policy) was just that, a bubble. He then controversially said that moving Casinos out of the Mandovi waters needed to be taken after a lot of thought since Casino owners had invested in the state. While the casino industry rejoiced at this jackpot CM’s remarks, this was widely seen as a sell out to the powerful casino lobby that not just moves boats but also governments. Parrikar on the other hand, unequivocally wanted Casinos out of the Mandovi waters
On mining, he can claim credit for applying pressure on the MOEF to get the suspensions of EC’s of mines revoked and then finally renewing leases, albeit in a completely fraudulent manner, which will be set aside by law (as exposed by Herald in its lead story on May 8). But what he has done is extended olive trees to major ore exporters but this will hardly restart mining since he hasn’t focused on getting Goan ore to be sold in the country, which is the need of the hour.
Parsekar was never expected to do wonders. And the criticism he faces and should face on that chair is due to the baggage he has been carrying. But when he decides to resurrect a flawed Regional Plan of 2021, kept in abeyance by the Parrikar government, without taking it to the people, it is clear that he is batting for the lobby that wants to control Goa’s spaces through big money. Increasing ODP areas and reducing areas that come under the Regional Plan, is an extension of this mindset.
But above all, these six months have led to more insecurity and fear in the minds of all those who value a humane, secure and inclusive Goa. And this includes those who have been to convent schools and detest Minister Deepak Dhavlikar supporting his wife remarks that those who go to convent schools do not have the right values and know about Indian culture. The failure of Mr Parsekar to strive for a more secular, inclusive will cost the BJP more than his other non-achievements, which are the failure of the government across the tenures of both Chief Ministers.
