The Congress in Goa should seriously begin to assess whether it really belongs in the political space of Goa, as a party with serious intent and more importantly competence. It is a party which is fast becoming seriously incompetent, because a political party, unlike a romantic movement, needs to be an enterprise which delivers for the people.
In Goa the natural sympathy for the Congress for not being able to form the government has turned to pity as a party incapable of political management, to ridicule for having tom-tommed its plans to topple the government, and then seeing the main protagonist cock a snook at them and join the Goa Forward.
The Congress handled its dream project of toppling the Parrikar government with the immaturity and naivety of a five year old. It wanted to go on a political battlefield with toy guns. It had no planning and leadership, and as we have reported and commented, “outsourced’ the project to Babush Monseratte, when the latter was clearly trying to make his friend VIjai Sardesai the CM, with Congress’ support and had no plans to try and prop up a Congress government.
Any political party worth its salt understands the ground reality of a developing political situation. The Congress, a party which has been in power more than any party has in Goa, seemed to be totally at sea, trying to punch way above its height and assuming that governance would be gift wrapped and brought to their doorstep. Of course, it’s another story that the Babel of voices that emanated from each of the ‘senior” ex-Chief Ministers, (who were successful in ousting Luizinho Faleiro from the GPCC president’s post), wanting to become CM again, as a right of passage, irritated Babush Monseratte, who had absolutely no intention of being the architect of getting another, tried and tested ex-Congress CM back in the saddle.
For the Congress, greed overcame all else. It clouded it already non-existent knowledge of the real politic and ground reality than ever before.
The big ask now is where the Congress goes from here. The short answer to this is, it goes nowhere. It is floundering to find a candidate in Panjim to contest against Manohar Parrikar. It is likely to lose its St Cruz, Taleigao and St Andre MLAs since the likelihood of Tony Fernandes (St Cruz), Jennifer Monseratte (Taleigao) and Francis Silveira (St Andre),resigning and joining Goa Forward is in the realm of reality and not rumour and most importantly, the one man or the party on which the Congress was looking upto as their only savior, Vijai Sardesai, has actually snubbed them by saying that the Congress should merge with Goa Forward. For the Congress this must be the unkindest and cruelest cut from the days when it was in a position, or thought it was, to ask the Goa Forward to merge with the Congress.
And where is the GPCC president Shantaram Naik and what does he have to say to this, though the mess his party is in, is not strictly of his own making. From the time he took over, four Congress MLAs cross voted in favour of the BJP nominee for the President of India and then the political ‘contract’ it thought it had signed with Babush Monseratte to help the party come back to power, was disdainfully and brutally torn to pieces by Monseratte.
The Congress is in a pitiable state and it has only to blame. It is devoid of a plan and even a leadership which will devise a plan of revival. Executing the plan is another story which is only a distant dream.
