or the first time in the history, maybe, the Budget speech was read sans the Opposition. The Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly Rajesh Patnekar had directed the marshals to remove the protesting MLAs – Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat, Pratapsing Rane, Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik, Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco, Vijai Sardesai, Sudin Dhavalikar, Rohan Khaunte, Jayesh Salgaocar and Vinod Palyekar out of the House for disrupting the proceedings.
The Speaker read his 56-minute budget speech amidst vacant Opposition Benches, who were protesting the arrest of independent MLA from Porvorim Rohan Khaunte’s arrest a night prior to Budget over what is being termed as a “bogus complaint” by a BJP party functionary Premanand Mhambrey.
The arrest of the MLA by the police in “midnight knock” was ill-timed as it not only missed the projected target miserably but also united the entire Opposition.
The Opposition, more so Goa Forward president Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte, who were the then main crusaders against the Parsekar government before they teamed up with former chief minister (late) Manohar Parrikar, were itching for an opportunity to hit out at the government after their unceremonious exit from the Sawant cabinet. Unfortunately, Sawant played into their hands.
That the Opposition was in an attacking mood was clear when the “United Opposition” protested on the first day itself before the Speaker in the Assembly against Government’s action to side-line their demand of discussion on Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The Opposition, including Rohan, Vijai and Kamat, cornered the government on several issues including Mhadei, CAA, State borrowings etc. But the move employed by the government in its quest to take the attack back to the opposition seems to have misfired and they committed a big mistake.
This is when the Sawant government faltered; as it not only gave the Opposition an upper hand but also gave the Opposition a feeling of sympathy for being targeted unnecessarily.
Whoever the advisor to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant or Speaker Rajesh Patnekar – who gave his consent for Khaunte’s arrest – did not apply his/ her mind on the fallout of such a move when the Assembly was in session. It gave BJP a bad name before the entire State if not the Nation as well.
Even the Speaker Rajesh Patnekar could not give a satisfactory answer for giving his consent for the arrest.
The Speaker could have easily checked the CCTV footage to satisfy himself to assess if the assault on a BJP functionary really happened or not, before granting his consent for the arrest.
Kudos to the entire Opposition for coming together and showing solidarity with Khaunte and more importantly, the Opposition standing their ground for two days continuously, despite the Speaker offering discussion on the issue.
“Will not allow house to run until we get justice, democracy is more important than the budget,” said the Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat.
The Opposition did not just stop in the Assembly. The “United Opposition” called on the Governor of Goa Satya Pal Malik, and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention in the undemocratic arrest of sitting MLA Rohan Khaunte and the inaction on the part of the government to arrest the person who had lodged false complaint against Khaunte.
The Independent Porvorim legislator reacted saying the BJP government couldn’t answer, so they arrested him. I had raised topics of state-wide relevance in Goa Assembly and had demanded answers from the government. Having no answers, the BJP started a smear campaign against me”.
He continued, “Dr Pramod Sawant is willing to stoop so low to prevent me from doing my job of asking the right questions. However, these cowardly actions of the BJP will not distract me! I will continue being the voice of Goans inside and outside the assembly. Following this, they misused the police and state machinery to arrest me on dubious charges. Arresting an MLA in the cloak of darkness for talking out in the assembly is clear sign of facsicm! CM has committed murder of democracy by blatantly misusing his powers.”
Goa Forward President and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai said “the arrest of Khaunte is a cowardly and despotic act to silence the Opposition and run away from the questions Goemkars are asking. If you don’t desist from these methods, and answer to the people, be aware, united Goemkars will bring you down to your knees.”
MGP MLA Sudin Dhavalikar, who has also joined the Opposition bandwagon, termed the arrest as shameful.
“It’s shameful that the MLA is being arrested on a complaint of a BJP party worker when the assembly is in session. People must think what could be their fate if this government remains in power for long, must teach them lesson in ZP polls,” he said.
More importantly, the senior Rane, Mr Pratapsing Raoji Rane, who was walking with Rohan when the incident happened, termed the whole complaint as bogus.
“That was a false complaint. I was there with Rohan when the incident happened,” Rane said.
Govt’s lack of floor management exposed
With the Opposition in a marauding mood, the Chief Minister seems to have no answer. The issue also brought to fore the chink in the BJP’s armour. It meant that except for the Chief Minister, there was no minister or MLA in the team of 27 or maybe 30 who could save the day for the government.
Seriously, as pointed out by Vijai Sardesai, the BJP definitely is short on talent, unlike their colleagues at the national level or their counterparts in State assembly.
Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho, Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane etc considered to be good speakers but none of them made any statement on the issue of Rohan Khaunte’s arrest.
Of course Atanasio ‘Babush Monserrate and Jennifer Monserrate will never defend the arrest of any legislator after having gone through what they have in February, 2009.
The only reaction from BJP came from the new State president Sadanand Shet Tanavade, who obviously not the member of the House.
“Lawmakers cannot be lawbreakers. If Rohan was upset with Mhambre’s press conference he should have addressed the media and refuted charges. One cannot abuse senior citizen in the campus of temple of democracy. All procedures in arrest were followed,” Tanavade said.
CHURCHILL’s SILENCE
Former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao, who is now a Benaulim MLA, has neither spoken a word against the government or supporting it.
He has not walked out with the Opposition and has decided to play a “fence-sitter”.
“My support to the government is issue-based,” was all what he said when asked for his reaction.
Churchill, a NCP MLA, who has faced the music in BJP regime in 2015, when he was arrested for bribery in Louis Berger case, says he would stay neutral for now.
However, the comment of the session came from the legendary politician from Varca, who asked “what would be the punishment for a tiger if he eats a cow? If man is punished for eating cow, why not Tiger?”…. This statement became a national hit instantly.
IMPORTANT BUSINESS IN THE HOUSE
Besides the Budget, the House did not see any notable business being undertaken except for the passing of the Private Universities Bill.
The Bill was passed in absence of Opposition. Else this would have also met with stiff opposition.
The government’s move to increase punishments to three years under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) also was punctured by the Opposition.
The Chief Minister was forced to send the Bill to the Select Committee before it was passed in the assembly.
In the five-day session, for two continuous days, the Question Hour had to be postponed due to Opposition’s protest.
BUDGET ANALYSIS
While the maiden budget by the CM Pramod Sawant has been termed as a balanced one by many; such analysis appears to be off point as the financial borrowings are continuously on the rise.
To put check on the borrowing, the CM neither introduced any revenue generation modes nor has he stopped any of the dole schemes like Griha Adhar etc.
On the contrary, he has added mining revenue, when the operations of the industry are defunct since the Supreme Court ban.
His addition of Rs 500 crore revenue from the mining sector, is hypothetical as there is no time-frame when the SC will pass it order.
Even the order, which came last week about the transportation of royalty, paid extracted ore; the government tends to earn absolutely nothing from the same.
Merely, hike of excise duty and increasing stamp duty will not fetch more than Rs 200 cr.
CM’s idea of generation of 25,000 jobs in the private sector is also imaginary as there is no new industry coming in and the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) is considered to be as good as defunct.
So than, are we going to see some more borrowings this year, the borrowings have crossed 20k crore and with limit of Rs 2,700 crore, it may well pass the Rs 23k crore mark if not more.
