Before the last Lok Sabha elections, when the mood was upbeat and then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had promised 2 seats from Goa to Prime Minister Modi, there was only one niggle which became a persistent cause of worry for the South Goa BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar. He did not quite know how to face the Mopa question. A veteran organisation leader of the party, part of the original brigade sent by RSS to manage the parivar in Goa, told Herald “Narendra did raise this and we deliberated on this seriously, in many meetings. We decided to keep it as much on the back burner as possible and focus on the Modi wave alone. And yes, I admit the Mopa airport commitment is there in the manifesto and there’s no going away from it. We will have to see how best we can address this in 2017”
The BJP, internally admits that even in the Lok Sabha elections, it was behind the Congress in all but one Salcete constituency. It is therefore working out its strategy around this, factoring the Salcete dent.
On the face of it, the BJP is pushing the issue back hoping other factors will arrest this sentiment. Said South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, “It isn’t such a big issue. We have time, we will sit down and work this out”. It’s easy for Sawaikar because he has the rest of South Goa to get votes from. The ones who are walking a very taut tight rope, are the independent MLAs of Salcete who were propped by the BJP because it couldn’t dare to field their own. But these trump cards are now liabilities and are struggling to stay relevant by making their constituents believe that they are flying the Dabolim first flag. But none of them have dared to carry the anti Mopa flag. And none of them – yes not one- travelled from South Goa to Mopa to attend the public hearing on the Mopa airport EIA last Sunday and speak out against the project. In fact this has actually given a square inch to former PWD minister Churchill Alemao to move around politically on the single issue which will allow him some voter connect.
What may have given the ministers and MLAs from Salcete a breathing space during the last three years was that the ongoing anti-Mopa agitation had never reached their doorsteps coupled with the fact that the BJP-led government does not bank on their support for their survival. Secondly, and importantly, the opposition Congress has not been vocal in taking on the ruling MLAs, aware that its own party leaders and government were party to the Land acquisition process.
RDA Minister, Mickky Pacheco says the airport issue is not something new to the people of Nuvem. “People of Nuvem constituency know my stand. I will fight it out to retain Dabolim as Goa’s international airport. I don’t think Mopa issue will affect me in any way politically”, Mickky said, while pointing accusing fingers at the previous Congress regime for initiating the land acquisition.
Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado was frank in admitting that people of his constituency are opposed to Mopa. ‘I have time and again conveyed my stand to the government on the airport issue. We have been given assurances that Dabolim will not be closed down”, Avertano said.
Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva and his Velim counterpart Benjamin Silva have been forthright in their stand on the airport issue. “We are with the people in opposing the Mopa airport. But, one should understand that the government ‘s survival is not dependent on us. Will it have any bearing on the government if we withdraw support to the government”, they asked.
Caitu, in particular, represents Salcete’s coastal belt spanning from Cavelossim, the hub of starred resorts and Majorda, which has been the heartland of the anti-Mopa agitation from day one. “I am not for Mopa. I am opposed to the proposed airport. Tourist taxi operators, shack owners and water sports operators from Benaulim constituency know my commitment to their cause. They know me better than these people who claim to be fighting against Mopa, but have an agenda to ensure the revival of some defeated politicians”, Caitu said. His reference to Churchill Alemao and his daughter Valanka who he defeated to win the Benaulim seat, was obvious.
The lone BJP MLA from Salcete, Cuncolim MLA Rajan Naik has time and again toed the party line of supporting the two airport theory. Politically, taking a pro-Mopa stand can prove counterproductive for the BJP in Cuncolim, but the ruling party as well as the opposition are aware of the fact that the BJP had opened its account in Cuncolim due to a vertical split in the Congress vote in the light of the strong anti-Congress wave.
Brave words these form each of these MLAs. But as more land gets acquired and the project proponents are finalised and the airport construction stops, their words will be find it difficult to pass the test of trust. Will the BJP then leave them to their fate of becoming sacrificial lambs, to the BJP cause? The Mopa airport issue is the biggest albatross around their necks.
