PANJIM: The Congress party in Goa is again in the news related to defection. The party has got itself into a political crisis and is on the verge of splitting. Although the defection did not finally happen, the party has moved a disqualification notice against senior party leaders Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo for their “anti-party activities
The question arises, why is the Congress party so often in the eye of the storm and the sword of defection always hanging over the heads of its MLAs?
Most importantly has defection become a part of the DNA of Congress?
Tulio de Souza, spokesperson of the Congress party said that what happened was very simple.
“We have been seeing the BJP government in Delhi at work in all the states. Recently Maharashtra was in the eye of the storm as a change in the government happened. In other states where Congress has been in the opposition, the BJP has tried to decimate the opposition. In their logic, they want to finish any opposition of the day,” de Souza said.
Herald then pointed out “But the Congress MLA’s didn’t leave any shrine untouched to pledge before the Lord that they won’t defect. But now they’re doing exactly the opposite”
Responding to it Tulio said there are various reflections on it.
“On one hand we had a lot of confidence in the people representing us in the assembly. We had a lot of confidence in the people who were chosen. But in the wake of what has happened in the past, probably a certain amount of perception and confidence was needed to be created before the public”
He said that what has happened now is that the BJP is in “mindless pursuit of power” and decimations of opposition, primarily the Congress, with the objective of Congress mukt Bharat.
“What follows next is the use of money, muscle power, and all the other institutional mechanisms available at the disposal of the government to further this objective,” he said.
Advocate Cleofato Coutinho said that the problem with the Congress party is there is no central leadership and state leadership also is very weak.
“The MLAs, according to me, are somehow in a situation that this party can’t give them victory anymore. Most of them also must be feeling it is their own victory and not that of the party. For a long time now Congress party has not been growing, only the leaders will have been growing, the leaders are becoming rich and the party is becoming poor,” Almeida said.
He added that we are in an ecosystem where the MLAs somehow feel that they can’t function without being in power.
“There was a time when the opposition also knew how to get their work done but somehow we have come at a time where being in opposition is seen as everything is last stop even the work being done by the MLAs seemed to be of civic issues. There’s no legislative work being done, there’s no work on policy decisions,” he said.
Amit Palekar, president of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Goa adding some spice to his reaction drew Congress MLAs’ analogy with frogs during monsoon.
“What happened was supposed to happen. This is the month of July (monsoon season) when frogs jump and the Congress is known as jumping frogs. We had said before that these frogs will jump from Congress to BJP,” Palekar said.
According to him, the obvious reason they are available for sale is that there is fear of vulnerability and greed for power money, and fear of being prosecuted for the corrupt practices in which they indulged earlier.
But in this, what is the mistake of Goans here? Have they chosen the wrong people? Herald TV asked
“Yes. Congress has proven it time and again that it’s a mistake that people of Goa commit by electing the same people repeatedly,” said Palekar
Giving his input in the matter, Editor of Dainik Herald newspaper Avit Bagle said BJP politics has always been of different nature.
“BJP wants ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’. Congress is a party involved with the country’s freedom movement. It has credibility. BJP can’t move forward without erasing this credibility. So what BJP is doing is it is keeping a watch on the developments in the Congress camp and is taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of the Congressmen. They are just finishing Congress’ credibility by portraying them as defectors,” Bagle said.
He added that earlier MLAs were only responsible for overall development and raised important issues in the Assembly. Now people come to them for personal problems. For this, they need huge money. That’s why they want to be in power.
Another point raised was will it be correct to assume that because of this power struggle between Rane and CM, Lobo’s reported closeness to CM Pramod Sawant is making Rane target Lobo alone?
Almeida said Michael Lobo has been fighting a lone battle against the relentless attacks. Even his party didn’t stand by him.
Responding to the statement Congress spokesman Tulio said the ODP is a document created by Lobo when he was in BJP. It’s a BJP-authored document.
“There’s no question of defending a BJP-authored document. It’s got blatant irregularities, which was pointed out by the Congress party itself. So it cannot now give clean chit to the very document that it had punched holes in,” he said, not taking into account the fact that his party gave a ticket to the same “author” of ODP.
Amit Palekar said, “When you have picked up a robber on your bus, I don’t think you have the moral high ground to complain about it. The problem is with Congress, which is an open house.
Irrespective of all that has happened in the past, is the open split in Congress, is it the last straw for people or will they let it go considering that they will need the same MLAs to do their work?
Avit Bagle said this is not the last of its kind. It will happen again. The real concern is in another two years the Delimitation Commission of India will be reconstituting the Assembly constituencies.
