PANJIM: Even as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s health is showing signs of improvement, the health of the State Cabinet appears to be deteriorating.
At the last few cabinet meetings there have been arguments between several ministers. On Thursday, a verbal duel between PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar and Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude took the fight to another level.
Gaude allegedly used unparliamentary language when speaking to Dhavalikar. Everyone in the Cabinet room was taken aback by Gaude’s outbursts, who allegedly showed scant respect to the presence of the Chief Minister in the room. It was only when TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai intervened and changed the topic, that the issue was diverted.
Sources revealed that what triggered off Gaude were some works in his constituency which he claimed were deliberately blocked by the PWD minister to settle scores. Gaude had defeated Sudin Dhavalikar’s brother Pandurang (Dipak) Dhavalikar in Priol in 2017.
More importantly, Parrikar was a mute spectator to the entire drama. A minister present for the meeting said, “This is not the way well-cultured men behave. Whatever happened was not good.”
While Gaude was unavailable for comments, Dhavalikar said what happened was unfortunate and could have been avoided. “Tears came to my eyes hearing such cuss words and I do not want to say anything more,” Dhavalikar said adding, “Actually I am not supposed to reveal anything what happens at the Cabinet.”
This is not the first such case, just couple of days earlier there was a verbal spat between Sardesai and Sudin Dhavalikar over the Margao bus stand issue. Before this at a Cabinet meeting at the CM’s private residence there was a major argument between RDA Minister Jayesh Salgaocar and Power Minister Nilesh Cabral over recruitments. Sources revealed that Salgaocar was upset that Cabral had recruited a large number of junior engineers from his constituency.
Another argument happened at the cabinet meeting held in December when MGP’s Manohar (Babu) Azgaonkar took on his senior party colleague Sudin Dhavalikar for failure to take up development works in his Pernem constituency.
One minister, who seems to be out of controversies for now, says this is happening every time. “Every minister is trying to settle scores with another. This is when the ailing Chief Minister is present,” the minister said.
A senior BJP functionary said that the fights do not augur well for the government. “This is an alliance government and every party have to respect each other. There are differences between everyone but that does not mean bad words can be used and that too at the State Cabinet,” he said.
