He is a short man with a blink and you miss persona. When he speaks, he doesn’t quite make the edifice around hi crumble. But in the last week, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar-albeit for absolutely vested political reasons – has sung the ‘zero tolerance to corruption’ mantra, louder than his predecessor Manohar Parrikar ever sang.
With the Crime Branch given a free hand, this investigation arm of the Goa police is on an absolute overdrive, on the JICA bribery scam probe. There can be no argument, even a political one, that the investigation into the JICA bribery scam, needs to be tough and incisive. However the only caution here is that at no point of time should it be seen as politically vindictive, while sparing no one who it finds culpable in the crime of either taking bribes or abetting and facilitating the process of bribe giving and taking. The only other grey area where there are a lot of unanswered questions is why is there no one from the Louis Berger company or its ex-officials in the Crime Branch net. Are bribe givers lesser criminals than bribe takers?
But this apart, Parsekar has positioned himself and his politics around the JICA scam to perfection. He has easily take the high moral ground that on the first serious issue of corruption which he had to deal with, he can claim to have delivered, showing more purpose than Manohar Parrikar ever has.
This will have another ramification within the BJP. Starting off under the shadows of Mr Parrikar, the JICA case will help Mr Parsekar emerge largely from the shadows within the party. Even if the Defence Minister is on the same page as the Goa Chief Minister regarding the manner in which the government should deal with the JICA bribery case, it is clear that it is Parsekar who is not just the de jure man in charge but the de facto one as well.
The targets of the Crime Branch have also helped Parsekar immensely. Churchill Alemao, Digambar Kamat and it is now learnt that another high- profile political opponent will be cornered on this issue, thereby stymieing the opposition upswing. The extent to which the JICA probe has managed to take the heat away from issues on which the government could have been on the mat, is unimaginable. At the same time from the party point of view, this has given fresh oxygen to the BJP cadre, whose flagging morale was causing a serious worry to the party leadership. They are now on the streets or will be hoping to turn the heat again on the Congress’ corruption, an issue which was on the back burner in the wake of the BJP’s abject non performance in its three and a half years of rule. This new energy will go beyond the immediate case or probe.
For the Congress, the JICA bribery scandal has come as a body blow, a kick in the solar plexus when they were almost ready to do their stretch exercises before the 2017 political marathon. It is in a complete daze. The Leader of the Opposition displayed this confusion when he said on the floor of the House that he has no idea of this JICA issue and he should be informed.
A week is indeed a long time in politics. But it’s an even longer time for political fortunes to turn. For Laxmikant Parsekar, it has indeed turned, to match the brightness of his flashy kurtas.
