Team Herald
PANJIM: On Tuesday night, as the clock ticked the minutes and it appeared that the Goan seafarers on board ships anchored off Mumbai would sail to Europe the next day, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant tweeted that the Union Home Ministry had released the standard operating procedure for seafarers to sign in and sign off. Minutes later Sawant went live on social media to announce that the seafarers would soon be disembarking and returning to Goa.
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In the space of a few minutes, Sawant who had been buffeted by protests from families of seafarers and stung by the opposition for ignoring the plight of the seafarers, had turned their rescuer. The silence from the opposition that night said it all.
In the 13 months that he has been Chief Minster, taking over after the demise of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, Sawant has had his potential put to test more than that of any other chief minister of the State.
When he took over the reins of the State he had his task cut out. However, he emerged out of the mess every time with flying colours. Be it the COVID-19 crisis, the seafarer issue, Nu Shi Nalini or mining resumption and others, the Chief Minister has shown that the ‘accidental’ chief minister can also deliver.
BJP State unit president Sadanand Shet Tanawade says Sawant in the last one year has emerged as a strong leader for the BJP. “More importantly, he has done justice to the chair of the chief minister. He has handled issues related to Goans really well and given them justice be it mining, COVID or seafarers,” Tanawade says.
Resolving the seafarers’ issue, has to be Sawant’s biggest achievement till date. Former South Goa MP and NRI Commissioner Narendra Sawaikar says the CM needs to be congratulated for the way he has led the State from the front.
“He took over at a difficult time. He had several challenges like the financial crisis, Mhadei, and he has steered the State through all these testing times really well,” Sawaikar says.
On his birthday on Friday, Sawant will possibly have the satisfaction of welcoming the first batch of seafarers returning to the State amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
It is actually the COVID-19 pandemic that could have undermined his leadership a little. Initially, he did falter, especially with his decision to go ahead with the Zilla Parishad elections despite the growing number of cases in the country, but thereafter, once the Centre laid down the lockdown guideline, Sawant, with support from his cabinet colleagues, brought Goa from seven positive cases to zero active cases, turning it into a green zone.
He did this despite getting no support, whatsoever, from the opposition that was just waiting to pounce on his smallest mistake.
Tanawade says that despite his good work, the CM has to face criticism from the opposition every day. “The opposition has just one point agenda – malign the CM and the BJP, nothing else,” Tanawade said.
After Parrikar’s demise, BJP appeared to be struggling with finding a leader, but a year later Sawant appears to have become the party face in Goa having taken some tough decisions, which changed the perception people had about him.
Tanawade says there cannot be any comparison between Parrikar and Sawant. “Both have their own pluses and minuses and everyone has a different style of working. So you cannot compare one with another,” he said.
