Even as the Opposition in Goa was flaying the government for the Chief Minister’s absence, the Chief Minister’ Office released photographs of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar inspecting the under-construction Mandovi bridge, giving it a deadline of January 12 to be completed. A few weeks ago there had been demands from the Opposition to release a video of the Chief Minister, and while the government never did respond to that demand, the pictures of the Chief Minister did bridge that trust deficit that had settled in the State due to the prolonged absence of the Chief Minister from the office and from public view.
The Chief Minister’s appearance in a public place, inspecting a bridge under construction is significant as it quells any rebellion that may have been brewing in the government due to his absence. MGP for instance has softened its stand on the issue. It had given the government a December 15 deadline to solve the mining crisis, threatening to take an appropriate decision if there is no firm decision by that date. The deadline has been crossed and MGP has extended it to December 31, asserting that it had not threatened to pull out from the government. Besides that, the election results in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, that went the Congress way, had increased confidence levels of the opposition party in Goa.
But the response to the release of photographs has drawn admiration for the Chief Minister as well as some amount of censure. Local politics has played out on this too, with BJP flaying the Congress for its criticism on administration collapse and stating that the CM’s appearance on the bridges has proved the Opposition wrong. The Congress, on the other hand, appreciating the gesture of the CM, has called on him to unfurl the National Flag on Goa Liberation Day, and stated that it is not be delegated to the Speaker who is not a representative of the government. Outside Goa, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted that Parrikar should be allowed to deal with his illness without pressure and ‘tamasha’ (spectacle).
With the Chief Minister back on his feet, Goa needs to get back on its and from the slow crawl of the past few months start running. So, can the State now return to the business of government and governance, and put aside the politics that has created hurdle on the track of development. Governance is a marathon, not a sprint, but having slowed down in the past months, the State would need to increase its speed a few notches to keep up with the missed deadlines of the past months. Keep in mind that Goa has once again extended the deadline to make the State open defecation free. It missed the October 2 and the December 19 dates and now it’s been extended to the end of the financial year. It’s the only State in the country that, boasting of high economic indicators and literacy, has not achieved even 10 per cent ODF success.
Considering that the State has had just 16 days of Assembly sittings this year, that the last cabinet meeting was in October and the one previous to that in July, there are a lot of pending tasks that will have to be taken up and sorted. The government has a number of issues to sort out, targets to be met and policies to be drafted and released. Let not the Chief Minister’s public appearance be merely a photo opportunity but lead to a much-needed spurt in governance. It is when this happens that the Opposition will remain silent and the party in government can truly claim that there is no administration collapse.
