The party’s quietly resurging internal democracy for the first time is meeting the real world of strong Congress leaders both within and outside and the picture that emerges is more confusing than ever.
Last month, in the run-up to the Block Committee and Congress Legislature Party meeting, the party was back at the crossroads of 2012. The Congress rank and cadre that is still smarting from the drubbing of Assembly Elections 2012 and has witnessed their party disappearing from the public mindscape were expecting their formidable leaders, especially former ministers and current MLAs, to rise up to take the reins of a party trying to regroup. What they witnessed instead was media shadowboxing. The rift between the Party Blocks and the Congress Legislature is coming to the fore.
Whilst former Congress General Secretary turned Goa Forward Convenor Vijai Sardesai was the first one to push for the idea of a Grand Pre-Poll Alliance to rake on the ‘communal’ incumbent BJP, the in-house Congress brigade gunning for the coalition ranged from Vishwajeet Rane to Reginaldo Lourenco to the Monserrates to Digambar Kamat amongst others. Interestingly, the seniors of the Party Pratapsingh Rane, Ravi Naik, Ramakant Khalap have been discreet and quiet about the whole idea. Matters came to a head when in the July 18th meeting Block after Block, almost 37 of the 40, made a “Grand Rejection of the Grand Alliance”. While this emphatic rejection has left the self-assumed leaders of the Congress who championed the coalition theory – stunned; it also marks the arrival of brave new thought of the Congress ranks – that of the Blocks finding their own voice.
History of Horsing around or Horse Trading?
Congress’ tryst with doing whatever it takes to be in power is not alone and exclusive to it. From Churchill Alemao leading the Progressive Democratic Front in 1990 to Dr Wilfred de Souza forming the Goa Rajeev Congress Party government in 1998 to Francisco Sardinha’s Goa People’s Congress Party decimating a Congress full house to run his Government, Goan politician, especially the ever ambitious Congress ones seeking a ministry or a chief ministership, have always been around. Last Assembly elections, things came to a head as one Congress Supremo after other demanded their own pound of flesh. Vishwajeet Rane demanded more than seven seats in the North while Babush Monserrate demanded more than three in Tiswadi, Churchill Alemao wanted four of his own whilst Ravi Naik wanted three of his.
Every ‘formidable’ leader wanted a large chunk of seats more to plant a rubber stamp MLA of his choice rather than give the respective blocks a leader that they could relate to. What clearly emerged was that it wasn’t the party that had to win but small individual satraps managed by powerful leaders that would eventually run the state in the rotation. An idea that was rejected vehemently by the electorate as the Rane and Monserrate could only protect their family turf whilst the Alemao and Naik family were wiped out.
Clearly, Goa does not believe in family raj and that is what was punished. The handful of the leaders who survived, however, didn’t learn. For them, the feudal mindset of Babas and Babush remained.
What is playing in this forthcoming election, however, is a different script. With a very powerful BJP at the Centre, the MLAs demanding coalition knows that their traditional steel-like grip over their electorate stands loosened. The emergence of new leadership within the Congress further affects their claim to being in control of the Congress Party. A Party President like Luizinho Faleiro who shows no signs of contesting or governance ambition leading the revival of the block after block across the State is adding to their woes as they see their traditional unchallenged almost feudal turf slipping away. Till this report is being filed, Babush Monserrate wants five seats, Vishwajeet Rane five seats and Digambar Kamat desires five seats from outside reserved.
The lessons of last elections have been forgotten as Messrs Kamat and Rane rub their hands in anticipation in an anti-incumbency atmosphere where Kamat wants to be the CM again and junior Rane a Deputy CM. It’s an old conniving, conspiring and selfish Congress trying to resist the new organised, outspoken and strongly individualistic from taking over. The central idea of coalition is about having to avoid new contenders for Ministers, Chief Ministers, and Corporation Chairman posts. It is about avoiding competitive politics and not letting the Congress of the future grow. Question is whether the Blocks will accept the same old faces deciding their fate? Ironically it was the same coalition that spoke against party getting old that wants to have a coalition to avoid the new leaders coming up.
Leaders’ Block versus Block-ed Leaders
Uninterrupted power can be the bane of party politics. Ask Francisco Nunes, President, Dabolim Block Congress Committee. “It took me three months to constitute the Congress Block because most of the party workers weren’t sure whether the party members still had their affiliations intact”, recollects Nunes. Dabolim is currently being represented by Congress MLA Mauvin Godinho who is from the good old days of Congress where the block was synonymous with the local MLA but has now gone against the Party. “So we had Churchill Block and not Benaulim Block or Mauvin’s Block not Dabolim Block or Babush’s Block not Taleigao just like the kingdoms of the past.
“The block was not like the block of the present where anybody can voice their opinion. That time the only Block level meeting was during elections and that was the time when we came to know that we also have a block. The local MLA would have only his cronies populate the block committee”, remembers Altaf Badami, a lifelong Congress supporter who is back with the Vasco Block. Badami and his supporters abandoned Congress in Vasco when it gifted the seat to NCP at the altar of a coalition. He feels the emphasis with which Digvijaya Singh, AICC Goa Desk Charge, has said that Congress will contest all 40 Assembly seats is a huge boost for Congress workers’ spirit. “We now know that we too are counted”. Vasco will be fielding a Congress candidate for the first time after four consecutive Assembly polls and the mood is palpable.
The unanimity and emphasis with which 37 Congress Blocks spoke against the idea of a pre-poll coalition is an idea that maybe new to Goa’s electorate but is not very different from what happened to Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party in the last election. The Party that thrives only on focusing on few seats despite contesting on a dozen other as a part of the coalition is the best example of the Family Raj model that Messrs Rane, Reginaldo and Kamat want to emulate. Keep the party floating but weak and with enough numbers to fit into any ruling coalition. Coalition Politics may be a necessity across the country where diversity in political choice renders large national parties helpless but in a small state like Goa, the coalition seems more to be a ruse to be in the driver’s seat at the cost of the electorate.
Congress — Political Party or Politician’s Party?
Four insipid years as Opposition MLAs in Goa Legislative Assembly, earlier this week Congress MLAs and three Independent ones got their act together to move a farcical non-confidence motion against the State’s B]P Government. The knee jerk movement coming (no guesses for this!) in the wake of majority of Congress Blocks shooting down their bid for a pre-poll coalition. The MLAs clamouring for a pre-poll coalition are the same who have shamed their party counterparts outside the Assembly by providing a very timid and often non-existent opposition. New young faces such as Sunil Kawthankar, General Secretary; Adv. Yatish Naik, General Secretary; Avinash Tavares, Chairman, Congress IT-Cell and others have stepped in for the Party to raise issues and lead campaigns in the absence of the MLAs.
“The Party has been assertive more outside the Assembly than inside and the deficit between the Party’s performance inside versus outside has rallied the party workers strongly together because they are the party’s interface with the voting population. The people want to see the Party stand by them as their own voice not manipulate them for winning elections,” adds a new entrant on conditions of anonymity lest he upset the old dispensation.
From mahgai (price rise) to the campaign against casinos from fighting against DefExpo to exposing the BJP’s state sponsored attacks against the tribal community, it was the Congress Party on the streets that was speaking more of people’s mind than the one inside the august Assembly House. It’s the Party that seems to be more connected with the people than those who got elected on people’s mandate and now want to manage people’s vote with Gathbandhan and/or coalition.
Its MLAs would rather seek a convenient and non-committal political future than march the streets for their own voters or partymen. Vishwajeet Rane is not visible in any Congress Party event, Reginald Lourenco wants to be treated special without treating fellow Congress workers viewpoint with respect, Digambar Kamat, despite being the former CM, never stood up for the people of Goa on any issue and found his voice only when CID came searching at his place in JICA-Louis Berger Scam.
Should a political party then worship only their leaders and not their mandate? What is suspect is the motive of those demanding a coalition. They are the same people who have cases, investigations and allegations pending against them. With the BJP at the Centre and BJP as the incumbent in the State, won’t these MLAs be using their handpicked coalition as a bargaining chip for legal amnesty?
It’s like participating in Olympics. Track and Field Athletes from USA, gymnasts from Russia, swimmers from China, wrestlers from India will only participate alone in their respective discipline. Other nations should not participate in these disciplines.
The champions of coalition should understand that Assembly 2012 is not Assembly 2017. The chimera of Parivartan (change) that BJP had promised this state has been forgotten long time ago and BJP behaved just like the Congress and even worst. Secularism is not quite an agenda as people have seen secular Vijai Sardesai sharing stage with Hindutva ideologue Sudin Dhavalikar and RSS screaming Ghar Wapsi at their Chimbel Shivir just minutes away from St Francis Xavier’s last Exposition and nobody in the state coming out on the streets. What has been missed by the champions of coalition is the fact that Congress is now more grounded, more in touch with the grassroots and is talking the language of the people.
Over the years the MLAs forgot their Party and its structure, its organisation. It’s that which is coming around to lead the Party back into contention. The buzz in Tintos and Dandos have undergone a quiet change from the view that Congress MLAs are into match-fixing with BJP/MGP on the floor of the House to the Party that lends a voice against every wrong being done and exposes the State Government’s illegalities on a daily scale without worrying about publicity. For the champions of Gathbandhan, it would be more fruitful listening to the heartbeat of their own party as it rises and reinvents itself almost Phoenix-like rather than listening to those who cannot comprehend this grassroots change within the Party.
