Laxmikant Parsekar, was forced to go to Delhi and get party President Amit Shah to green-light the absolutely untenable and disastrous middle path of giving grants to Church backed schools without bringing in the promised legislation to give grants to all English schools. But Chief Minister Parsekar has managed his immediate crisis of shifting the attack on his government by the RSS for not withdrawing the grants altogether, by getting BJP President Amit Shah to endorse the plan of giving grants without legislation. While this indicates that the BJP at the Centre is not willing to alienate minority populations in Goa and the North East, in Goa, it’s far too late to please all.
However, the divide between the BJP and the RSS in Goa will only increase because the RSS and the BBSM moved beyond cancelling grants to English schools to preparing to participate and/or influence electoral politics in 2017.
The RSS in Goa is hardly going to let the BJP off the hook even though the Chief Minister had attempted and temporarily managed a central endorsement. The ‘parivar’ wants a Chief Minister who will work according the needs, designs and diktats of the ‘parivar’. For them Rajendra Arlekar or even a Shripad Naik will be far more compliant as Chief Ministers. Hence the open divide between the RSS and the BBSM on one side and the government on the other, with the former stopping nothing short of a complete withdrawal of grants to English primary schools, is unlikely to be bridged, with no quarter willing to be conceded by the RSS/BBSM. The long term game plan of Goa’s radicalisation by a transformation to a sang parivar centric Goa, is beyond the MoI issue.
Are we seeing the beginning of serious divide even within the BJP as fault lines get clearer? Panchayat Minister Rajendra Arkerlar’s open expression of displeasure during the Chief Minister’s meeting of all MLAs to convey the centre’s decision on grants, should be worrisome. If a minister as senior as Mr Arlekar becomes the face of a movement which could polarize the BJP itself, it will have serious consequences in the elections. The possibility of this faction fielding rebel candidates against the BJP, especially in North Goa talukas, cannot be ruled out.
Meanwhile St Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh, who wears rebellion his sleeves has said that he will attend the BBSM rally in his constituency and speak if he is invited to. Similar sentiments are likely to emerge as the Assembly elections draw close.
The recent developments have led to a very significant fallout. Larger issues which expected to dominate the political landscape such as Goa’s economy, the restart of mining and even the Regional Plan have been taken over by the MoI divide. This has hit the BJP hard. From a position where it was feasting on a divided opposition, it has been forced to pull back and rein themselves in to keep its own house in order without much success. It faces a divide in its own so called disciplined ranks it has seldom witnessed before and this is something that its cadres are unused to. The MoI jinx is threatening to seriously spoil BJP’s plans in 2017.
