PANJIM: For nearly 20 long years, he remained loyal to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and in the bargain sometimes even disturbed sentiments of his own religious community but yet he was never given his due by the party and the friend he loved most.
Being elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly in 1999 on the Goa Rajiv Congress ticket, Francis D’Souza switched over to BJP and was elected on the party ticket in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 from Mapusa constituency.
While he remained close to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was his childhood friend (45 years to be precise), in the last five years D’Souza had lost hope in both party as well as his mate.
He was appointed Deputy Chief Minister when BJP formed the government in 2012 under Parrikar’s leadership and remained Deputy Chief Minister when Laxmikant Parsekar became the Chief Minister.
But D’Souza wanted to go one step further and take over the reins of the State and he thought his childhood friend would help him to achieve that feat.
Yes, both D’Souza and Parrikar as young boys on the verge of adulthood and still not out of college, used to walk down the slope leading to their college, St Xavier’s in Mapusa, every afternoon. They were neighbours, their homes barely 200 meters.
Despite this, in 2014, D’Souza saw his dream and ambition of becoming chief minister slip out of his hands rapidly. D’souza found himself in an uneasy universe within the same planet of his party, a universe where Parrikar did not walk with him.
Speaking to Herald in 2014, D’Souza had said, “12 years ago Parrikar sat on the same spot where you are sitting (in his spacious living room over the green valley) and asked me to join the BJP saying he would take care of me. It was that trust that made me take a decision and it kept me going. I had no base and even my community wasn’t totally with me then. I’m a simple man but I have become the deputy chief Minister. I wanted to go one step higher, but realised that sometimes it is not even in Parrikar’s hands.”
But he did indicate that his hurt came not from being denied the coveted post but from the fact that his friend did not talk to him at length and explain what went wrong. Despite this, after an initial dissent and threat to quit, he said, “I can tell you I’ll never leave the party. I’m wedded to the ideology.” D’Souza regretted that that his buddy didn’t “take care” when it mattered the most. In July 2014, he had landed into a controversy after publicly declaring that India is a Hindu nation and he was a Christian-Hindu.
“India is a Hindu country. India is Hindustan. All Indians in Hindustan are Hindus including me. I am a Christian-Hindu. Hindu is my culture. Christianity is my religion. When I say Hindu, it means culture and not religion,” he had said then.
He seemed suffocated working as deputy to Parsekar but then swallowed the bitter pill thinking times would change.
Thereafter, D’Souza, who was highly diabetic, suffered health issues on several occasions. He also underwent a kidney transplant, in 2017, which was a turning point in his sickness as he never fully recovered post surgery. In 2018, he was detected with cancer and was flown to United States.
However, to his dismay, he was soon dropped from the Cabinet last September due to his sickness. He asked if this was his reward, for being a party loyalist for 20 years. However, after that outburst, he went into a shell but did not quit any party position.
But his long and checkered career had just one trophy missing – that of Chief Minister of Goa. Many in Goa, cutting across party lines felt, especially when Parrikar resigned to join the Narendra Modi cabinet, that he should take over as Chief Minister.
While some felt this would be a symbolic boost since D’Souza was a minority leader in the BJP, those who have followed his path and know Goa’s politics realised that D’Souza was beyond symbolism. And yet, when he was alienated, this factor played out, with many asking, if this could have played a part in him not reaching the pinnacle, in spite of walking up the long road to power.
