The decision might well be that of Prime Minister Modi and cooked, stirred, sampled and tasted by the likes of local partymen Satish Dhond, Sanjiv Desai and Dattaprasad Kholkar who chalked out the local transfer of power, but it has left a majority of right thinking Goans feeling terribly let down.
Dhond, Desai, Kholkar and even Mr Parrikar may have no illusions about where the power that controls the levers in the BJP lies – the RSS – but it matters very little to the average Goan who voted the Congress out with their hearts and voted Mr Parrikar in with their minds. The feeling today, though few will say this, is of being terribly let down.
However, this feeling of sinking into a crater doesn’t stem from missing or losing out on a magnificent reign which was destined to end in a blaze of glory but does so from the feeling of being cheated. Cheated of the promises made, promises core to why Parrikar got the mandate in the first place, cheated of the hope that was placed in Parrikar to turn Goa around in five years and put it on the highway of growth, progress and development, and above all cheated of the belief that Goa would be free from being ruled by weak spineless leaders who lived and let live just to keep their seats warm.
Parrikar’s exit will take Goa back to the days when puppets ruled on a string because of which different power centers and regional satraps emerged, each in his own universe. Does anyone actually believe that a Arlekar, Parsekar, Francis D’Souza or for that matter any of the MLAs will work together as a cohesive unit in a manner they did when Parrikar was Chief Minister?
But the biggest losers will be the people of Salcete, who fought with their own reflections in their bathroom windows to vote out the Congress for a party always considered as the “other”. That vote was for Manohar Parrikar and not for the BJP, and Parrikar’s mid-term exit has been the biggest betrayal of not just the voters of Salcete and South Goa but pretty much large swathes of Goa. They did not vote the Congress out and get the BJP in to see Rajendra Arlekar or Laxmikant Parsekar or even Francis D’Souza as Chief Minister. With no offence meant to any of them, they are here because Goa wanted Parrikar to be the Chief Minister.
The hurt is greater because even the promise of a greater Goa was belied by Manohar Parrikar, partly because of the debilitating circumstances following the closure of mining but more so because of the Chief Minister’s complete neglect of the Regional Plan which has been consigned to the bin even as he leaves the state and most importantly thrusting the Mopa airport on the likes of South Goa, something he had cleverly kept out of the manifesto of both the Vidhan Sabha and the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr Parrikar did shed tears on Thursday night, but he has left Goa in tears. Sadly, they are not of joy but of sorrow and a touch of anger of facing a parting when the deal is half done, or not even slightly done.
