Ever since the Amendment to the Goa Preservation of Trees Act came up in the Goa Legislative Assembly, early last month, it has put the normally aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party on the defensive, following the onslaught by the independent legislators as well as the Greens.
In the Winter Session of the State Assembly, the BJP-led government of Laxmikant Parsekar ensured the passage of The Goa Preservation of Trees (Amendment) Bill which relocated the coconut tree from Section 1(a) to Section 12 (a) of the The Goa, Daman and Diu Preservation of Trees Act.
Activists and Opposition parties are alleging that the government effected the change in law because it is “only interested in facilitating big projects by massacring coconut trees in large numbers.”
Clearly, the coconut tree has rattled the BJP and it is quite visible from their knee-jerk reactions. That the issue has rattled the party came to fore for the first time in January at the function marked for induction of new block members of the party.
At this function, instead of motivating the workers for election preparation, speaker after speaker went on a rhetoric justifying the government’s move of declassifying the coconut tree. First it was Environment Minister Rajendra Arlekar, who is said to be the mastermind of the Act and spoke for almost 45 minutes on the topic – only defending the move. Thereafter, it was Dy CM Francis D’Souza, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and finally Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. They all had one issue to talk about – coconuts.
At every function after this, the BJP leaders have spoken on the coconut and how the amendment was required for the poor farmers. The Environment Minister himself has addressed several press conferences on the issue. Then came the carnival, the time for Goans to enjoy – but not for the BJP.
The Margao Municipality came out with “Save Coconut Tree theme” and this time too, the BJP buckled under the pressure issuing a diktat that those criticising the government policy would not second part of grants, which amounts to Rs 25 lakh. Meanwhile, in Panjim a float designed around the issue of the declassification of the coconut was disallowed. Seriously, these looked like acts of desperation.
The final nail in BJP’s coffin was hit by the Parliamentary Standing Committee which called the act as a joke. So why is the normally well-organised BJP on the back foot? It is even shocking that the BJP is not even in a position to defend itself against some “false” allegations made by the opponents.
Seriously, neither the party nor the government has called the coconut tree a grass but the party is unable to convey it to the people. Not only the opponents, but people within the party – like Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, have criticised the move to declassify the coconut tree. And with elections within a span of 10 months, it seems like the coconut tree could spell doom for the ruling BJP governmen
