The MGP’s power hungry politics was never quite hidden. But its fully in the open now with Deepak Dhavalikar, the MGP president saying that they will attempt to form a government of regional parties even if the MGP gets eight seats.
Deepak Dhavalikar and his party need to do a reality check and learn some hard truths.
The MGP under the Dhavalikar brothers, have had just one interest in mind in determining all their politics. And that is power.
They have merrily gone to the proverbial political bed with both the Congress and the BJP, changing partners according to political needs. The MGP has left its ideology a long time back. It doesn’t even have regionalism as its ideology after being an appendage of all national parties for so long.
With nine days to go before counting day, MGP president Deepak Dhavalikar says that the MGP will “take the lead to form a regional party government in Goa to protect interest of Goans and for the sake of development of Goa”.
For so many years, the only interest the MGP has protected is its own. In the garb of providing stability it propped up the Congress government. And in 2012, when the BJP had a clear majority and didn’t need MGP’s support, why did the MGP join the government, rather than stay away and work with all regional forces, as an opposition, during the term of the BJP government?
More importantly, are the other regional forces like the Goa Forward, the GVP and others willing to work with the MGP. If they do, then they need to do some serious explaining to their supporters, on what their stand will be on the Medium of Instruction, and the attempt by MGP to introduce Marathi as the second official language of Goa.
Quite clearly, there is no unified regional movement in Goa and there is no clarity on issues and beliefs which encompass all parties which call themselves regional forces. What Deepak Dhavalikar really desires is a rag tag coalition built on deals on positions and portfolios. And by the way, the MGP is ever ready to join hands with the BJP again. Will Deepak Dhavalikar and his brother Sudin dare to address a joint press conference where they both clearly state and promise that under no circumstances, will the MGP be in a government with the BJP? Let that happen first before we even start taking Dhavalikar’s promises of forming a regional government seriously.
Let the results be out on March 11 and we shall then see if – and a big if – a party like the GSM gets seats, will it support the BJP or a regional force. Its supremo Subhash Velingkar, has shocked many by actually declaring that he wants to merge with the parent RSS, after breaking away from it and bad mouthing it.
In the reality of the morning sun of March 11, when it beats down on Goa’s politics and leaders, many stated positions will change. So will loyalties and ideologies. Power will be the only magnet. Power will be the only attraction and power will be the only ideology.
The MGP should be the last political force speaking for the interest of Goa and Goans, when its entire campaign has been fought in the hope that there will be a fractured mandate, paving the way for instability and deal making. The irony is that their hopes and many of Goan’s fears, that a power driven rag tag coalition government, might actually take shape, will fructify. But that won’t be either in the interest of regionalism, or in the interest of Goa.
