The Goa Government is trying its best to save Mhadei’s water from getting diverted but it is a question whether those efforts are enough. In fact, more questions are come to the fore from whatever the government is doing. Currently the storm of debates have erupted all over the State as the Centre granted approval to Karnataka Government’s DPR and as expected, the neighbouring State has been at the receiving end from Goans. However, care is required to be taken in the sense that the flames cannot be doused if the fire tender is trying to extinguish it at the wrong place. One has to keep in mind that each and every State will look after their own interests.
Karnataka has come up with the DPR but it is the Central Government’s responsibility to see whether the project is legal or not before granting it approval. That does not seem to be the case here. As per the claims made by Goa, it is illegal to divert Mhadei river’s water by building the project and the Goa Government has shown readiness to challenge it. However,
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How did the Centre grant approval to it in the first place then? The State Government has been talking about submitting appeals but has not raised a single question to the Centre. The opposition is of the opinion that Karnataka has more power, politically,with 28 of their Lok Sabha MPs and 12 Rajya Sabha MPs while Goa’s strength in the Lok Sabha is only 2 MPs. Although that may be considered true, the Centre’s actions have not been in accordance with the laws. They acted in a way which would favour them politically. The laws in this country are made to be followed and everyone must follow them. One cannot escape without following laws just because they have more number of MPs and Centre needs to take this into consideration. Our argument in reference to Centre granting approval to Karnataka’s DPR should revolve around just that. The ruling party at the Centre and Goa is the same and so, it is expected from the Central Government to look at Goa with more empathy than shown currently. However, from the past experiences, the Centre has always sided with Karnataka. That leaves Goa with no option than to give a legal fight. The State also needs to create pressure and for that, the ruling and opposition parties must be on the same page. Everyone is of the opinion that Mhadei needs to be saved but their voices are individual.
All the voices need to be united in this case. The Goa delegation which went to meet Amit Shah included Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Sudin Dhavalikar, Subhash Shirodkar, Nilesh Cabral, Vishwajeet Rane and Speaker Ramesh Tavadkar. Is this Goa delegation or only the State Government’s delegation? And if it’s the Government’s delegation then how come the Speaker is included? The Speaker is not part of the Government. And if it is the Goa delegation then why were there no members from the opposition party? Ideally this should have been an all-party delegation if the State was to show the Centre that Goa is united over the matter of Mhadei.
As per the CM, the delegation included independent MLA Dr Chandrakant Shetye however, Shetye has declared his support to the ruling party which means he is not part of the opposition.
In response to non-inclusion of opposition party’s MLAs, the CM has said that the opposition party’s members were absent for the meeting which was called to discuss the issue which is why they were not part of the delegation. This statement of CM is not acceptable as the responsibility to strengthen Goa’s claims in front of Centre lies in the hands of the State Government. The State Government never took the opposition party into confidence. They did call an all-party meeting, however, they had already taken the meeting of ruling MLAs beforehand. Hence, at least to some extent, it is understandable as to why the opposition boycotted the meeting convened by the Chief Minister. And why should the Chief Minister behave the way he did? An all-party meeting was convened anyway so he should have waited for a little longer. The overall situation looks like a drama. The main responsibility lies on the shoulders of the State Government and they should have handled this situation better. The opposition party’s duty is to oppose and they shall do that. But when needed, the State Government should initiate taking the opposition party along with them when the demand is common. That would have been the sign of true democracy.
