In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Satya Pal Malik appears to have turned the heat on Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant with regards to controlling the spread of the novel coronavirus. In short, the Governor’s message in an interview to a local television channel was clear – perform or perish. Interestingly, this is for the first time in Goa that the Governor has criticised his own government. For decades we have only seen the Governor reading out the speech written by the State government, wherein he/she would paint a rosy picture of the government’s functioning. But Satya Pal Malik is a no-nonsense man and those who know him closely will vouch for this.
The Governor, in the interview, gave a sense that he has been closely following the developments viz-a-viz the COVID-19 management by the State. He knew what the people want, their struggles, and appeared quite upset with the handling of the issues. All the issues that were brought out by the media – shortage of ambulances, ventilators, shortage of food supplies in the containment zones – were covered by His Excellency. Except for admitting that Goa was doing well in testing, he had no word of praise for the Sawant-led government in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. His only positive mention was that he was happy with the remedial actions suggested by the Health Minister and the Health Secretary.
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The Governor’s message to the CM was clear “listen to the people’s voices and their demands” when he said that the “lockdown in Vasco should have come long ago when people demanded”. So what does this mean for Sawant, who blamed the media for the spreading wrong news on COVID-19? A Governor addressing the media to denounce the “Chief Minister’s statement” is unprecedented anywhere in the country. An exception would be when the State government is from a party other than the one at the Centre. Many questions have been raised. Is this the end of the road for Sawant? Will there be a change of guard in the midst of the pandemic? Or will the Governor force the government to act and bring the situation under control?
The phrase “judgemental error” by the Governor speaks volumes and if one reads between the lines, there lies the answer for all these questions. Clearly, the ‘bhivpachi garaz na’, swag, which has become a subject of memes, appears to have done no good for Goa. In fact it has caused more damage to the CM’s reputation rather than benefiting him for motivating the people. By blaming the media for spreading “wrong news” it appears as if the CM is attempting to wash his hands off the entire episode and it is like saying “I am always right”. The Governor has understood it right, the CM has an excuse for everything. He regularly claims the COVID-19 deaths are due to co-morbidities. But it did not work with the Governor, who said “so why not treat the co-morbidities”.
The Governor refuting the claims of CM, saying he never blamed the media, was a major setback to the latter. Nonetheless, the Chief Minister and his government have many lessons to learn by the interaction with the Governor. Sawant must realise that when you have an intelligent Governor like Satya Pal Malik “excuses won’t work”. Taking a cue from this episode, he now needs to concentrate more on controlling the disease. Whatever “judgemental error” has occurred cannot be corrected but it can be controlled. States like Delhi, which have 10 times more population than Goa have been able to bring the virus under control. So why not Goa?
