This was the most naïve week in Goa’s political history. A week that should remind each one of our MLAs, their opinion leading deputies, their supporters and those who elect them that they are fooling their own selves and people of Goa do not get swayed by their public posturing anymore. And for a change, our elected representatives looked like role-playing games that children play.
A junior partner in the government flashes a business as usual picture of a depleted Cabinet with the head of the Cabinet missing and the surviving Cabinet members smiling gleefully as if nothing has happened. Their smiles and purpose – a macabre display of insensitivity to the State’s state of affairs. The fact that every month Goa is selling a government bond upwards of Rs 100+ crores to run itself did not seem visible in the picture. What definitely Goa understood was that in the ailing Chief Minister’s absence, his junior Cabinet colleagues were keen to usurp his chair – at least figuratively. So the head of the table had two chairs and a minister each occupying the CM’s position, a testimony to the fact there was more than one contender to the throne. The picture said a thousand words more than what the Cabinet would want us to understand.
In the Goa Assembly Elections of 2000 when Indian National Congress’ then-President Sonia Gandhi had come to address party workers at Campal, at a certain point of time the dais had six former Chief Ministers Pratapsingh Rane, Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik, Churchill Alemao, Francisco Sardinha and Dr Wilfred D’Souza on stage. The buzz that day was not about how many seats would Congress win but instead, it was about who will amongst the six pull down others to usurp the Chief Minister’s chair. The joke has stuck on. The photo-op of an all is well scenario of the current government sans a full-time Chief Minister, taken and circulated, was no different.
But then the naiveté of the current ruling dispensation goes far beyond that and the list of defences that the ruling MLAs have for holding on to this senseless and insensitive government is laughable and an absolute charade. Sample this. Janita Madkaikar, the Old Goa Sarpanch, wife of Cumbarjua MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, says that “He (BJP State President Vinay Tendulkar) assured them that Madkaikar would be made a minister again on Parrikar’s return. He added that he will be given a chairmanship for now”. A CM whose health condition is unknown, assuring his MLA who too has an unknown ailment of a ministership when he returns. Though Tendulkar quickly debunked the ‘Chairmanship’ offer, one wonders that how many ministerships can a CM who does not vacate his own chair offer – once he resumes office normally?
Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo has a point when he talks about people from his constituency wanted him to be a minister in order “to get their work done”. But then is that why anybody wants to be Minister, to get the work done of his own constituency? Does that mean that if you are not a Minister then none of your constituency work gets done? A fear that even BJP President Tendulkar confirmed when he said that Madkaikar’s supporters told him that. “The worker spoke to me about their worries. They were worried that now that their MLA is not a minister how their works will get done,” he said. Isn’t that a genuine worry then? As BJP and its coalition partners slug it out to show who is leading the government on a well-positioned photo frame, isn’t it important to assure the people and the MLAs that you don’t have to be a Minister to get your work done?
But Glen Ticlo’s pitch for Bardez is a larger fear than what probably BJP’s leadership realises. Ticlo knows very well that this government since 2017 has not been able to instill enough confidence in the people having to constantly balance a government where coalition partners and Congress imports into BJP got ministerial berths while the loyalists were sidelined. In the current round of reshuffle, BJP has given away two ministerships to South Goa to save its seat there. In the bargain, not only has North been neglected but all the three MLAs – Francis D’Souza (the Catholic loyalist of 20 years), Michael Lobo (the man who brought the Goa Forward into the coalition fold) and Glen Ticlo (the loyalist who never demanded just delivered to his CM) have been treated like kids and their supporters being forced to consider whether their MLA is indeed being treated fairly by their party?
These are difficult times for Goa. The mining economy has shut down, the tourism economy seems to be going in circles, the investments are not coming and the people’s purchasing power isn’t increasing either. With no jobs, no monies; being wedded to MLAs whose Chief Minister and Ministers make pompous claims of schemes under media arch-lights but sell government bonds to run the economy demands a heavy dose of loyalty of the voters and supporters. Question is will Goans give their shallow leaders another chance to mislead them with another basketful of failed promises?
The government crisis isn’t over as yet howsoever photo-ops it’s desperate-to-hold-on-to-the-chair ministers may try to project. The threat by Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar’s supporters that water supply shall be cut off from Selaulim Dam if their MLA does not become a Minister is yet another example of how the CM was distributing so many candies around to his supporting MLAs that he did not realise when his government developed so many caries of greed and ambition. The fine art of appeasement has but a small lifespan. However, it would be more interesting to see if Prasad, who quit the chair to work for his people in the constituency will now restore the traditional access to the Mahamaya Temple in Netravali that has been encroached upon to usurp land for an eco-resort. However, the very thought that the water supply to rest of the Goa will be stopped for a week for a ministerial berth is not just scary but bullying of a horrible kind.
If Prasad’s men want to cut off your water supply, Lobo’s men, some 20,000 taxis want to paralyse taxi operations in Goa till their patrao is made a minister. The threat coming days before Goa officially begins the next charter tourist season. Do any of these MLAs’ supporters, their party leaders or even the MLAs themselves realise that these kinds of threats do not show Goa in the best of lights?
Mind you, from those Ministers flashing smiles in the Cabinet meeting room to the MLAs demanding representation and still others demanding their pound of flesh – all are a part of the same headless ruling dispensation that rules Goa. This is the same government that sells the State’s bonds (which you shall pay back with 7.5% interest after ten years) to run its show and claim that it is in control and holding fort in the CM’s absence. Aren’t we then living a lie in the name of governance?
