In less than 12 hours, the discussion on which minister gets what department will become meaningless because the deed will be done. But it’s important for all of us to know that what should have been a routine exercise with all ministers of the Parrikar cabinet retaining their portfolios, the deputy chief minister getting the health portfolio from Mr Parsekar, and Mr Parsekar taking over Manohar Parrikar’s portfolios; became a messy affair with nights of long knives.
A quick decision could have been taken on Mickky Pacheco’s portfolio and that would have been it. What did happen was a messy collective lunge at the “meaty” departments that suddenly looked fleshy with Parrikar not being around.
Ministers made a dash for the cash cow departments like dairy farmers going out of business. Yes, there was a scramble for PWD, town and country planning, tourism and captain of ports, notwithstanding that there were ministers ensconced in these departments. But none of the existing minsters wanted to get rid of their portfolios either. With Manohar Parrikar gone and with Parsekar promising a free run to all ministers without interference, some departments seemed to have got a fresh makeover, like the look one gets after a prolonged visit to a beauty parlour.
The desire was simple. No one wanted to give up but all wanted to get some more. Former Industries Minister Mahadev Naik wanted PWD at any cost while Dilip Parulekar wanted to add the Captain of Ports department to his kitty. Mickky Pacheco would have liked tourism but he was so thrilled to be in the cabinet that he has pretty much accepted whatever he has got. Being a minister is rehabilitation enough. While Avertano Furtado was handed out the promise of the sports department, Ramesh Tawadkar would have none of it.
The romantic explanation for this, filled with a heavy dose of utopia would be that our minsters are up and ready to go to work and take more responsibility for the service of their motherland. But such notions are all but fleeting- if at all- when you learn that not a single minister asked for the health department or the education department. And if health and education of its people are not the principle force drivers of a healthy society, then what is? How do you explain the “deep love” for town and country planning department? Surely not for giving Goa a proper, legal Regional Plan because the department’s claim to fame during the Parrikar term was giving a wink and nudge to all lucrative projects by taking shelter under an expired plan of 2001, artificially brought alive, and a suspended plan of 2021, suspended permanently in the guise of this being a stop gap measure.
The PWD- though it has lost its sheen to the GSIDC now headed by Mr Parrikar’s blue eyed lad Dr Pramod Sawant- is still in business with the minister in charge of dishing out at least some contracts. Do you think the new minister angling for the PWD portfolio, has a five year vision of transforming Goa’s connectivity network to make Goa look like Shanghai?
This portfolio exercise is-and not surprisingly- one of juggling a few pieces, trimming the powers of the MGP (portfolio’s allotted to Sudin and Deepak Dhavlikar on Saturday will reveal if that was managed or not) and having something to play with in Salcette. In fact if the majority of the BJP MLAs under team Parsekar had their way, Mickky Pacheco and Avertano Furtado wouldn’t have made it to the cabinet at all. It was Manohar Parrikar who had to state clearly at the start of the meeting of BJP MLAs “No more BJP MLA’s will be inducted into the cabinet. We have to give Salcete representation”. Only a man, like Parrikar who has won and lost knows what the loss of the Salcete voter in spirit means. Salcete was as much his win as his loss and the induction of Avertano Furtado and Mickky Pacheco is Mr Parrikar’s last ditch attempt to retain some of the positive flavours of 2012.
It will be business as usual with ministers taking charge of their departments next week, some on a high and others on a bitter low. The people of Goa, though, will be struggling to see a single high point in this exercise which has been all about balancing political equations.
