Is the Congress in Goa, a part of the mokaso property of the Ranes?

Khashe Pratapsingh Rane has lived a life of entitlement, leisure and supreme control of his subjects over his kingdom which encompasses all the Mokaso lands in Satari and Bicholim talukas. His political clout by virtue of being Chief Minister and having held positions which have given him official status, red beacon cars et al, extended his virtual control to larger parts of Goa, especially in North Goa.

With these privileges as a part of his life, Mr Rane has perhaps assumed that this entitlement extends to everything he surveys. He sees the domain of the Congress party as a part of his mokaso lands, the territory of which expands according to his imagination.

The spirit of entitlement is not quite directly proportional to what you deserve. So even if Senior Rane, with utmost humility and respect he demands, as opposed to commands, did not quite take part in either accounting for the debacle of 2012, or rebuilding the party or growing a second line of leadership even in Poriem and Valpoi, he still feels entitled to decide on who will contest on Congress tickets in north Goa. The party is his mokaso land after all, or so he thinks.

Before we go on, it is in the fitness of this discussion to know the relationship between the Ranes and mokaso lands, as sourced:

Mokaso lands were granted to Ranes in Sattari and Bicholim in return for maintaining peace with the Portuguese Colonial State. Large tracks of lands belonging to Gawdas were legally transferred in the name of Ranes in Advai, Khadki and Saleli in Sattari Taluka, and Sankhelim and Maulingem in Bicholim Taluka. The cultivators, the members of the Gawda tribe who created these fertile lands, were nowhere in the picture legally but they continued to work on these lands and the hegemony of Ranes got consolidated in Sattari and Bicholim talukas during the Portuguese rule. Fear amongst Gawdas and introduction of feudal ethos led to a transformation towards more exploitative situation for these tribes. When liberation happened, for the Ranes it meant liberation from Portuguese obstacle to establish its own kingdom in Sattari and Bicholim talukas. But the tribes of Goa have not been liberated. (Source: Bharat Mukti Morcha blog: Land Mining and adivasis Oct 13, 2012)

But what happens to the party and its processes, when the Congress is treated as a part of the Rane kingdom and the carefully developed formula or grass root leadership to be identified, nurtured and kept battle ready is discarded. But these questions cannot be asked of the King. If the Ranes had kept out of the battle and focused only on their official Kingdom of two seats, the rest of the Congress would have been spared. That would have been fine actually. The problem is that at the very last moment when the candidate selection process appeared to be going on relatively smoothly, the King entered and demanded that he be given charge of his perceived mokaso land - the Congress, and use his “seniority” and his son’s guile and perceived of being the patriarchs of virtually all ticket holders across Pernem, parts of Bardez, Satari of course, and Bicholim.

Take the case of Santosh Sawant, the likely Congress candidate from Mayem. He owns a shop in Mapusa and was seen in these parts as a hardcore MGP and BBSM sympathiser. His name was not on the list of shortlisted candidates of the Mayem block who forwarded the names of Sunil Kawthankar (Congress spokesperson), Anand Naik and Sandeep Mayenkar. When these names went to the district, the name of Pravin Zantye, who was not even a party member, was added by the Congress North Goa chief, again a Rane acolyte, Amarnath Panjikar. And who is the candidate from Aldona? No marks for guessing, it’s Amarnath Panjikar. And please note Santosh Sawant’s name was not even added at this stage. At the central election meeting in Delhi when these names were discussed, the GPCC President Mr Luizinho Faleiro (according to an insider close to him) expressed surprise at Sawant’s name, saying he had not even heard of him. Faleiro’s pick was Sunil Kawthankar and he had even asked the Congress youth leader who has come from the ranks to start campaigning. Today, a dejected Kawthankar’s woes have hit the family. Hs mother, bitterly upset at the way his son who has devoted himself to the Congress, has been treated, fell unconscious and is currently in the ICU at GMC with a suspected heart condition. Kawthankar, who would have been in Mayem campaigning, is pacing up and down in front of the ICU.

Let’s cut back to September–October 2016. Pravin Zantye, held a meeting in Bicholim, outside Mayem constituency which was addressed by Vishwajit Rane who said that he didn’t care about candidates shortlisted by the Congress blocks and that he would decide on candidates. And then in October Vishwajit Rane and Pandurang Madkaikar stayed away from the party’s coordination committee meeting in AICC general Secretary’s Digvijay Singh’s presence, the same meeting where the Congress declared that candidates would be announced early to allow them to campaign.

The farce is now complete with Pravin Zantye contesting from Mayem on the BJP ticket, while loyal Congressman Sunil Kawthankar left totally in the lurch, and Zantye in the BJP with the front runner for the Congress ticket, being the BBSM reject, Santosh Sawant who went and met Pratapsingh Rane who assured him of a Congress ticket.

In Sanquelim Pratap Gauns, the brother of the late Gurudas Gauns, has reason to feel let down by their party. Ask any party insider and they will tell you why Pratap Gauns lost in 2012. Pratap Gauns himself has openly charged Sunita Verenkar, (at a party meeting at the Mandovi Hotel in Panjim in front of AICC General secretary Digvijay Singh) who heads the Goa Mahila Congress, another Senior Rane supporter, of sabotaging his campaign to help the BJP, in the 2012 election. This time the Ranes have handpicked Dharmesh Saglani, the Chairperson of the Sanquelim Municipal Council, who heads the private shack owners association as the Congress candidate from Sanquelim. Not surprisingly, Gauns is not getting into this campaign.

But the Rane writ has spread out of Satari and Bicholim on to Pernem. Junior Rane got Dayanand Sobte out of the BJP in 2012 and made him contest on the Congress ticket, and he lost. He soon left the Congress after falling out with Vishwajit Rane, only to return when the current Congress leadership said it would treat him with honour. While Sobte has indeed got the ticket, much to the chagrin of the Viscount of neighbouring Pernem Jitendra Deshprabhu who wanted a say in the Mandrem ticket. The Ranes too did not want Sobte, in 2017, the same man they brought into the party in 2012. But thought the Mandrem seat has not gone as per the wishes of the Ranes they are unlikely to help the Congress win in Mandrem. It needs to be closely watched, whether Sangita Parab and her son Sachin back Sobte in this election. Sangita Parab, continues to be more than influenced in her political decisions by senior Rane and since Dayanand Sobte will not be a Pratapsingh Rane supporter in the Chief Ministerial stakes, the Ranes will have little interest in a Sobte win in Mandrem.

In neighbouring Pernem, the ticket again has gone to a Jitendra Deshprabhu man Vikesh Hasotikar. Though the politics behind this is less murky than in other seats, the basis of the choice has been to placate Deshprabhu in Pernem which is a reserved seat, because his choice was not accepted in Mandrem. Deshprabhu is more Rane and Digambar Kamat leaning than Luizinho leaning.

But the reality of caste equations needs to be taken into account here. Hasotikar belongs to the chamar caste. There are 1500 chamars in Pernem, whose votes will split between the main candidates Rajendra Arlekar and Babu Azgaonkar. It would have been far more prudent to listen to the feedback from the party workers to field Subhash Kerker, a loyal Congressman from the Mahar community with 4500 Mahar votes, because the caste factor is often the tipping point in places like Pernem.

There are Congressmen, feeling lost and desolate, who are asking this. Is the Congress interested in winning at all? They ask if the Ranes are interested in anything else besides their own two seats and a few others is they come their way, as long as they back senior Rane for Chief Ministership. Vishwajit Rane, after making a clear attempt to back the BJP through the Satari Yuva Manch, back-tracked because his father refused to play the game (for which credit is due)

The abject desolation comes not from the conduct of these senior leaders but the fact the grand old party, and the wise men and women sitting in Delhi, have allowed the party to be hijacked by forces whose selfish interests overpower party interests. Mr Luizinho Faleiro, sent here due to the dividends he paid to the party vide excellent poll results in the North East, has been cornered by the this so-called senior lobby who are out to finish the Congress.

Clearly the days of the mokaso raj aren’t over.