RADHARAO GRACIAS
The Congress, having ruled the country and the States for most years since Independence, seems unable to play its role in the opposition. Conse quently the government has had a field day with little real opposition; corruption has gained ground in the face of an abject lack of coordinated opposition. The Congress is laborious ly awakening out of its slum ber only because elections are around the corner. The Party has had four years to gather forces, strategise and charge full blast at the gov ernment.
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But the Congress is Congress; as usual most of the interregnum has been wasted. Only now is a steady stream of Congressmen flow ing into Goa from Delhi but only to douse the flames lit by its thoughtless act to re place Amit Patkar with the High Command’s favourite son Girish Chodankar. The issue is not the removal of Amit Patkar but the retro grade step of bringing in Girish Chodankar who pre sided over the Congress’s rout in the earlier Assembly elections, acknowledged his failure and submitted his resignation. Congressmen, instead of fighting the BJP are in volved in internecine war fare among themselves ever since the new president was appointed. Social media is full of one Congressman ex posing another. The BJP is laughing its way to the EVMs.
There is no need for them to campaign; the Congress looks determined to hand victory to them once again. The Congress never learns. The cadre created in the last four years is being ignored; the same old game is being replayed. Every day, some disgruntled person unlikely to get a ticket from the BJP or elsewhere joins the Congress with the promise of a ticket, to the chagrin of the cad re. The outcome may be the same as last time: get elect ed and defect post-elections. Pratima Coutinho, Mariano Rodrigues, Nonu Naik, Amit Palekar—the entry has be gun with the exit also writ ten in the script, gauged from previous conduct.
The AICC had earlier ap pointed MLAs Carlos Alvares Ferreira, Altone D’Costa and MK Shaikh as working Presi dents of GPCC to which Sunil Kawthankar has been added. Are we to assume Girish is a non-working President? Otherwise, what is the need to appoint four working Presidents for Goa when far bigger States do not have half as many? Congress General Secre tary Manisha Usgaonkar and party Social Media coordina tor Sharmila Siddiqui have been suspended. Both have been strong and effective voices of the party. Orville Dourado Rodri gues, the powerful voice of the Congress in Cortalim Constituency has resigned and I hear quite a few more all over Goa are set to fol low in his footsteps. The Congress instead of gain ing support is visibly losing it. Francisco Sardinha has been appointed as coordina tor. Viral audios and videos show he was co-ordinating with the BJP to defeat the of ficial Congress candidate in the last Lok Sabha elections. Now he is Congress coordi nator. Can you guess what he is coordinating? Pratima Coutinho is back in the Congress which she had deserted earlier to con test on an AAP ticket. Girish, evidently, is on a mission to recall old Congress persons back into the party.
There are many more on the list. Will all ‘defectors’ be tak en back or only a select few willing to meet the demands or in a position to blackmail? If Pratima and Mariano, why not Reginaldo Lourenco or Wilfred de Sa? Will Pratima continue in the Congress if neither she nor her husband Savio Coutinho is given a ticket or will she rebel? The BJP has been ruling for nearly fifteen years and maladministration is blow ing in the wind. The BJP won last time with the support of less than 34% of the voters; the failure of the Opposition parties (Congress-AAP-GFP) to unite is the reason why the BJP is still in power. The ac tivists are now in the process of talking with other activists to form a forum to be called ‘Unite or Perish,’ the purpose of which will be to prevail upon opposition parties to publicly unite by a specific date; failing that, agitations will begin against these par ties and their leaders. Shockingly, Congress lead ers are seen jockeying for the post of Chief Minister in visibly indecorous conduct. Among the contenders is Yuri Alemao who sees him self as the natural choice for the post being the Leader of Opposition. Carlos Alvares, a former Advocate General, is also in the fray.
And then, the newly appointed presi dent Girish Chodankar has learnt from the lesson taught to his friend and Congress observer Venugopal when he sought to usurp the post of CM in Kerala, without having been an MLA. Thus, Girish has shortlisted the Cumbar jua constituency to contest, as it is home to his wife. It may be bye, bye Samir Vol voikar! I had expected Girish would concentrate on win ning a majority in Goa and then ride the wave to the Ra jya Sabha! But then that can only happen if the Congress gets a majority. Is it possible under his leadership? Add ed to this is Vijai Sardesai the most senior Opposition MLA and former Deputy CM whose failure to get into the Congress—perhaps because the others do not want com petition—may be his undo ing! Seeking to be a CM even before MLAs are elected is worse than counting chick ens before they are hatched. Here, it sounds like count ing chickens even before the eggs are laid! Dissatisfied Congressmen have moved the Election Commission to register the Goa Congress Party (GCP) which may emerge by July end.
Nothing is being done by the Congress to bring the rebels in. The only rea son for the rebellion is the reappointment of Girish Chodankar as President. Why is the grievance not be ing addressed? Is an individ ual more important than the Party? The flipside could be that local leaders who fail to figure in the Congress list of candidates may easily find a ready platform to contest with the GCP. Is the Congress preparing to remain in the opposition for another term? (Radharao F Gracias is a senior Trial Court Advo cate, a former Independent MLA, a political activist, with a reputation for oratory and interests in history and ornithology.)
