If you don’t fight for what you want,
Don’t cry for what you’ve lost—Lord Krishna, Bhagwad Gita
If justice delayed is justice denied, the blame for the delay in getting ‘justice’, for the mandate the Congress got, must lie on the feet of the AICC general Secretary Digvijay Singh and no one else. The delay was a political equivalent of a criminal act, which at one level “denied” Congress, ‘justice’, but this begs the question- do those who procrastinate because of a delusional sense of power coming to them, deserve justice.
Cornered by his own party men on taking the call to delay sending a letter to the Governor of Goa on the night of March 11, the AICC general secretary took to twitter, with a line of argument that appears to – pain and simple – strange. His defence of delaying going to the Governor – which he doesn’t think is a delay by the way, since he as simply getting his house in order – is that in Punjab, the CLP leader was not decided till the 13th while in UP, the BJP is yet to decide on its leader. Before we comment on this, let’s run the tweets of Digvijaya Singh from his handle @digvijaya_28
1) Congress – Punjab decided it’s CLP Leader on 13th. Manipur and Goa on 12th. Manipur and Goa on 12th.
2) Congress was blamed for being late in deciding its Leader. BJP yet to decide leader in UP and Uttarakhand. Results came on 11th evening
3) She (Governor of Goa Mridula SInha) didn’t even meet the single largest party elected by people of Goa before calling Parrikar to take oath. Is it justice?
4) We have been requesting Hon Governor Goa for appointment since 12th night but were not given.
These tweets, taken individually or collectively, spell out the abject failure to seize governance lying on their doorstep and pushing it towards the BJP. Let’s deal with them one by one
a) Congress- Punjab decided it’s CLP Leader on 13th. Manipur and Goa on 12th. Manipur and Goa on 12th
The Congress is Punjab had 77 seats in a 177- member House above the majority mark. It doesn’t even need to look for allies within miles. There was no chance of even Vishwajit Rane type MLA’s flirting with the opposition because no one else had a chance to form a government. In Punjab, the Congress could afford to go through the motions, conduct as many secret ballots to elect its CLP leader, and yet take a couple of afternoons to rest and relax and still form the government. In Goa every second was precious and every move had to be watched.
b) Congress was blamed for being late in deciding its Leader. BJP yet to decide leader in UP and Uttarakhand. Results came on 11th evening
A party with 17 seats in Goa, which cannot even keep all its flock intact and loses 1 on the first day of the Assembly session, can ill afford to comment on the delay of the BJP not electing is legislature party leader in UP where it has won 312 out of 403 seats. A leader of Digvijay Singh’s stature ought to think of other reasons for not making the first move on the night of March 11th when the BJP had got its first indication of commitment from Goa Forward subject to ratification
c) She (Governor of Goa Mridula SInha) didn’t even meet the single largest party elected by people of Goa before calling Parrikar to take oath. Is it justice?
Digvijay Singh appears to be having strange notions of Justice. It is he as the head of the Congress should have moved with alacrity instead of spending languid afternoons at the stately Mandovi hotel, ostensibly to stitch up an alliance. Former Union Law Minister and senior Goa Congress Leader Ramakant Khalap gave him the best piece of advice on March 11 night asking him to send a simply letter to the Governor informing her that the Congress has 17 MLAs and is the single largest party. Singh thought it was the bounden duty of the Governor to invite the Congress, and it had time till then to elect its CLP leader, then send the name to Sonia or Rahul Gandhi, wait for them to clear it and then announce it to the world and to Raj Bhavan.
d) We have been requesting Hon Governor Goa for appointment since 12th night but were not given.
By 12th night, it was all done and dusted. The shame lies here. The AICC General Secretary says he has been requesting for an appointment “since” 12th night, by which time the BJP had already formed a coalition with Goa Forward and MGP and the Independents and reached Raj Bhavan with letters of support
All this comes with a caveat: This does not endorse the manner in which the BJP overturned the mandate on moral grounds.
But politics is all about and forming a government. And the Congress had the responsibility to form the Goa government this time. It has failed in its responsibility by adopting very poor strategy. What was called for was leadership and not whining, because no race is won by coming close to the finishing the line, but by crossing it.
