Two men, one with Filipino links – Richard Hirsch and other an American James McClung, may have paid their dues and suffered their punishments. But neither of the two executives of Louis Berger International (LBI) will ever realise the impact of their actions in the politics of Goa – a federal province in the centre of west India – as Goa is described in the documents of LBI.
For them Goa is nothing more than a tiny stretch of golden sands whose ministers strike gold when contracts are handed out. For a certain Mr Luizinho Faleiro, handling the bribery charge deftly could decide if his revival plan for the party will bear fruit or get nipped in the bud.
The BJP has smelt blood. Two former Congress heavyweights, ex-CM Digambar Kamat and ex-PWD Minister Churchill Alemao who are in the eye of the storm, are from Salcete. The BJP has treated both with kid gloves in the past due to political exigencies, going to the extent of funding Curchill Alemao to set up his Save Goa Party to split Congress votes in the 2007 elections. (By the way, let Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco not forget that he too was elected on a Save Goa Party ticket). It will now conveniently turn the heat on them to try and stymie the wave of Congress attacks on the BJP’s lack of energy in probing corruption cases.
The Goa Congress must act cleverly to deflect the BJP’s charges. While Alemao is not with the party, the Congress cannot get technical about this. It needs a discussion and counterattack plan which is drafted and then the spokespersons briefed to speak in sync. Thus far, it is only Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai who has made some effective counter points such as a) Louis Berger are in the shortlist of consultants on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet smart city project b) They were retained for the Mopa project consultants through a group company (Amman and Whitney) c) Manohar Parrikar as Chief Minister took no action which could be seen as scrutinising them or questioning their dealings with the previous Congress regime.
Mr Churchill Alemao on Tuesday, repeated the Vijai Sardesai line. What the Congress needs to do now is have the GPCC president and the Leader of the Opposition Pratapsingh Rane to sit together and address a joint press conference to display that the party and the legislature party are in sync. With the assembly session next week, the BJP will be on the upswing throwing punches at the Congress. The Congress needs to turn this around and establish that if the Congress is guilty of accepting kickbacks from Louis Berger, the BJP continued to do business with them. The Congress’ best card therefore is to use the Hindi proverb (which their High Command can interpret well)- ‘Hammam mein sab nange hain” ( Everyone is naked in the bath house. Hammams were ancient public bath houses in Turkey).
The Congress therefore needs to bring the BJP into the ambit of inquiry and demand the questioning of Manohar Parrikar by the Crime Branch first. It is this kind of pressure which will help the Congress counter the political fallout of this scam.
At the same time Herald, under no circumstances condones the role that Churchill Alemao and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat may have played in the Louis Berger affair. The excuse that this company has won over every state government where their projects are being implemented does not hold. Each must justify his own actions. If we forget the extent of corruption in the PWD and Town Planning Department, to name just two, during the Congress government, we will do great disservice to Goa The failure of the BJP to root out corruption cannot offset the need to punish those guilty of looting our money during the Congress regime. Our added emphasis, simply, is not to allow the BJP to get away untainted, while we put the erstwhile Congress government in the dock and demand punishment for the guilty.
