There were some old familiar faces in the Congress office on Tuesday. Not too long ago, in the very same office, there was a President and his non Congress ‘friend’ who told the media that the party’s senior most leader Pratapsing Rane had taken bribes to clear mining leases. Not too long ago, Mr Rane had declared that he would never step in the GPCC office till a certain Mr John Fernandes was there. Not too long ago, a certain Mr Alexio Sequeira, was suspended from the party, his suspension order signed by a young Ms Pratima Coutinho. Not too long ago, a ‘disciplinary committee’ had recommended the expulsion of Fransisco Sardinha. And not too long ago, show cause notices were sent to Ravi Naik, Subhash Phaldesai and Joaquim Alemao for the usual, ‘anti party activities’.
They were all there at the Congress office on Tuesday to welcome and herald in, not change, but the old order. There was déjà vu written all over, the feeling of having been there and done that. The scene was like a flashback with sepia undertones and that frame of the same familiar faces, garlanding Luizinho Faleiro, was from a time capsule of the late nineties.
There was so much history on the dais on Tuesday morning. Three ex-Chief Ministers within a feet of each other — Faleiro, Rane and Sardinha, and of course many ex-ministers. This is where the old raj and the family raj met, to make a new beginning.
It’s a massive challenge. Reviving the party from its nadir, with basically the same faces of yester years is an art which has not been mastered by the best. Therefore Faleiro will have to look for that X factor which will make this old mix delicious, much like that twist mummy gives to food in the fridge which no one touches. A dash of ghee, some butter and a bit of salt to add zing and colour.
Faleiro may not get all these ingredients in the existing larder in the kitchen. While the old guard can be kept together for comfort, warmth and solace, the new GPCC president needs to build a new building block on the same foundation. But build he must, not restructure. Then old guard is the foundation of a building that has really crumbled but they may not be the brick and mortar to put it back.
The Congress needs to take all sections together, a cliché alright, but important. We reported on how the consolidation of the bahujan samaj is important in the new president’s scheme of things, but that is a part of the tale told. The larger picture is that the Congress was a party for all, the Saraswats, the Catholics and the Muslims. It’s upper caste base got eroded and then it started losing the Catholics. That is when the Congress should have realised that the ailment lay elsewhere. It ceased to be a party for everyone, taking up their struggles and causes. The people of Goa need a strong medium to voice its anger on promises unkempt, of so many kinds that naming them again would be mere repetition. Faleiro needs to keep things simple. He should get into areas like reviving economy, create jobs and infrastructure but not make it the visible center piece of his revival plan. Revival can happen only on emotive issues like giving Goa Special Status or opposition to the Mopa airport (though this is South Goa centric, but so has the Congress been).
If he wants people to believe that the Congress may still be in a position to be a replacement in 2017, he has to tug at emotional chords and not economic ones. At the same time, he should use the wisdom of the men who were on the dais when he took charge to be mentors in their areas and shed personal ambition by nurturing new leadership. The baton must pass and the old guard must learn to hand over to the new.
There is one thing in Luizinho Faleiro’s favour that very few in the Congress have had. He has nothing to lose.
