In less than a fortnight from now, the coalition government of the BJP, Goa Forward, the MGP and independents will be completing a year in office. While that will be a time to look back and assess the year gone by, this is as good a time as any to address a far greater concern that each of the members of the coalition have i.e spending the next one year in office and delivering on all its promises, which included restarting mining.
All of a sudden the state and its polity have faced two body blows. The February judgment cancelling the renewal of all mining leases, quite effectively putting paid to any effective restart of mining operations and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s “mild pancreatitis”, which has been much more prolonged than what was officially envisaged by those who are making statements on behalf of the government, which included South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane.
Both these developments, though not related, are intrinsically intertwined. Without getting into the details of the judgment and the options and the roadmap available, which has been, and will be a subject of other debates and columns, the state stares into a crevice of uncertainly and even helplessness. The MLAs of the mining belt as well as others in the Assembly and even outside realise that the ground has literally caved in beneath their feet in the mining areas. Inspite of the bravado and the will to fight this out, no honest assessment of the mining scenario can conclude that mining will commence in the next five to six months. The roadmap is still not clear. Every road taken -auction, mining by the state and allowing some of the existing mining giants to re participate and bid for leases- is subject to legal challenges.
Moreover the only person who could taken Goa close to a road map, Mr Manohar Parrikar, and without whom, there can be no expectation of a roadmap finalisation, is and may unfortunately not be in a position to work in full capacity for a while. The all party delegation going to the Centre, it appears, is seeking to get the Centre to pass an ordinance to, retrospectively, amend a 1987 Act, with the effect of extending existing mineral leases for another 20 years till 2037. But does anyone expect this not to go unchallenged since it in affect seeks to bypass all illegalities declared by the court which as has among other things termed mining as “rapacious”. (Your newspaper has and will delve into the challenges to a solution to mining in a separate column very soon).
With such a vast chunk of Goa, simply pulled out of the employment and livelihood scenario, does the current crop of MLAs and the political leadership, without Manohar Parrikar effectively there to take calls, make assurances and have a dialogue with the centre, have the wherewithal to fill in. The Congress has no space or capacity to be a solution provider and a BJP with a depleted strength may not be able to find a way out without Parrikar’s active presence.
This is as serious as for instance, salmon fishing getting stopped in Norway or the automobile industry shut down in Germany or Italy, or a farming ban in Punjab or a tourism shutdown in Kerala due to some unrest. The mining stoppage will lead to a growing social interest with no political heavy weight to offer or deliver on solutions.
But solutions or messiahs who can deliver at the darkest hour are not unknown in situations like this and we can only hope on this auspicious day of Holi with Easter not far, that hope and a solution will be resurrected. At this point of time we are staring at a blank wall of despondency, not quite knowing who will strike the first blow to bring it down.
