PANJIM: Digambar Kamat or Diggubab – once the most powerful politician in Goa – is currently facing his worst-ever crisis. His anticipatory bail plea will be heard by the North Goa Sessions Court in the Louis Berger case on Wednesday. So on Tuesday, Kamat did what he has done in the past when faced with a crisis – he made a round of the temples.
In the past too, Kamat, when faced with critical situations, be it political bids to overthrow his government from 2007 to 2012 or his alleged involvement in the mining scam, he has come out victorious – thanks to his blind faith in all godmen from Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Jain saints and the Partagal baba.
Blind faith and a little luck. In his 20-year political journey, people in Margao say it is his wife Asha who has been the lucky mascot for the seasoned politician and who has helped him weather the political storms.
This time, Kamat will need all the blessings he can get. The case against him gets stronger with former JICA project director Anand Wachasundar and Louis Berger officials testifying that he took bribes, he inevitably faces arrest.
Though Congress has assured to back him, the Margao bigwig, finds himself isolated and is looking rather shaky for the first time in his long political career.
From being a MMC councillor to Number 2 in the BJP government and then Chief Minister of a Congress government to now an accused in the Louis Berger case and his name figuring in the mining scam – Diggubab has been through it all.
His tenure as CM was controversial, with the RP 2011 running into rough weather and then the multi-million mining scam.
Yet, the versatile and shrewd politician, managed to survive and overcome the volatility in his political edifice and hold on to his seat for a full term. Before him, Chief Ministers in Goa had not survived or lasted, more than a few months; some not even a week or two. The last CM to have a full term was Pratapsingh Rane in 1989. Even, Manohar Parrikar, who was more popular than Kamat, has not had a full term as chief minister.
Initially, he was allotted the Mines portfolio by Parrikar in the BJP government. He retained it when he became chief minister and also kept with him another lucrative department – TCP.
Kamat quit Congress in 1994 and joined the BJP after being denied the ticket in that election. In 2005, he left the BJP and returned to the Congress, following the 2007 elections, he was made Chief Minister of the State despite heavyweights like Pratapsingh Rane and Ravi Naik in the Congress ranks.
Less than two months later, on July 25, 2007, Kamat’s government faced its first crisis, as it appeared to have lost its majority after resignations of ministers and the alliance breaking up. However, he came out of that crisis and two other similar attempts and went on to govern Goa for five years up to 2012, when in the election the Congress lost badly.
“Over the years we have watched in awe, his genius manipulative orchestrations, be it to safeguard his chair or his credibility and also to put unhealthy and disgruntled elements from his own coalition or outside it, in their place and that, he did with aplomb. It’s indeed a real pity that a man of his calibre, with such a wealth of ingenuity, has come up a cropper, in fair and effective governance and indulged in corrupt practices. It is such a waste of talent, if only it was used for constructive purposes,” says a political expert from Margao, who did not want to be named.
