No Mr Parrikar. This is the cry of Goans who are hurt and angry and won’t let him talk his way out of this. The man who rode to power with a massive mandate on the bulwark of accountability and transparency, has shamed Goa in the eyes of the nation. The Chief Minster’s decision to send six MLAs with no credentials to go to Brazil on the tax payers expense, to watch the World Cup, has made Goa an object of ridicule and mirth with the national media enforcing stereotypes that hurt all of us. Stereotypes that suggest that from the government to the common man, life is all about nonsensical merrymaking. This joke has gone too far. First, he sent a delegation of MLAs to three European countries to study garbage management, and now he has picked those who missed that tour to go for the ultimate carnival, the World Cup in Brazil.
Let’s break down the Chief Minister’s feeble responses on national television when the heat was tuned on “They are going to study traffic management and infrastructure”. He should now take further questions from us. Why didn’t he think of sending some MLAs for the Delhi Commonwealth Games? Because Delhi is no fun? Second, how do the six MLAs picked qualify to study infrastructure and traffic? Thirdly, from where will they receive such knowledge and training. As Arnab Goswami asked during his Newshour programme on Times Now “Will you study traffic and management sitting inside the stadium to watch the quarter-finals and semi-finals? And most importantly, what was the process used to choose this delegation? If a team had to be sent at all, why were two of Goa’s greatest footballer sons Bruno Coutinho and Brahmanand left out? Why were sports officials and coaches of clubs left out?
As Herald found out, this is nothing but an utterly distasteful political lollipop which originated from the Fisheries Minister, once a goalkeeper to watch the World Cup. He then got on board the Sports Minister Tawadkar and the Power Minister, Naik and the Vasco, Velim and Aldona MLAs making it (barring Tawadkar), a junket of independent MLAs.
Every justification is a pathetic excuse which further demeans the office of the Chief Minister and lowers the respect of the man who occupies that chair. This isn’t the mark of a man who told his MLAs that his government would discourage wasteful expenditure and not allow any useless foreign trips.
Is the Rs 89 lakhs being spent on this joy ride loose change? On June 10, his government borrowed Rs 200 crores through sale of 10-year-old government securities. This is the second borrowing the State has sought in the first quarter of this financial year. So where does it get the spare change really?
Mr Parrikar should know that absolute majority is not a license for arbitrary decisions, when our money is being spent. The State cabinet has been reduced to the CM’s personal fiefdom where there is no felt need to discuss anything before anti people decisions are taken. And this decision to send six MLAs on a junket to Brazil is not only unjust, but anti people.
If he has any respect for the people of Goa who have given him these powers, he should call off this junket or ask these MLAs to pay for their pleasures from their own pockets and not dip into ours.
