August 10, 1998

The state faces instability as the Congress is determined to put up a show of strength.

By Robin Abreu

It was not exactly the stormy monsoon session that the 40-member Goa Assembly was anticipating. Though dark clouds had gathered over much of the picturesque state last week, it was not heavy rain that undid the Congress government led by Pratapsinh Rane. The sudden decision of some Congress members to break away from the parent party led to the formation of another coalition government in Goa.

Trouble had been brewing at the Old Secretariat in Panjim for some time. It erupted on July 27 when five ministers and five MLAs split from the 23-member Congress legislature party to form the Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC) under the leadership of revenue minister Wilfred D'Souza. Soon after that the new group -- which included animal husbandry minister Chandrakant Ghodankar, forest minister Carmao Pegaab, deputy speaker Deu Mandrekar, irrigation minister Dayanand Narvekar and transport minister Subhash Shirodkar -- submitted a petition to Governor Lt-General (retd) J.F.R. Jacob seeking the dismissal of the Rane government. D'Souza, deputy chief minister in the earlier Rane ministry, cited the deteriorating law and order, falling power supply and increasing corruption for the decision to break away. "The time had come to save the state from further harm," he said.

The GRC also informed the governor that it had the necessary strength to form a government with the help of eight Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLAs, four BJP members and Independent John Manuel Vaz. "The government lost the confidence of the ministers because of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state," said MGP leader Kashinath Jhalmi. With D'Souza parading the nine members of his group at Raj Niwas, the governor directed Rane to prove his majority in the assembly the next day by 3.30 p.m.

However, on July 28 when Speaker Tomazino Cardozo called the house to order at 2 p.m. to conduct the proceedings, pandemonium broke out with the Congress demanding the removal of the 10 members who quit the party. Cardozo, in direct contravention of assembly procedures, passed an interim order barring the 10 members from taking part in any of the day's proceedings, including the vote of confidence. Opposition members, including those from the BJP, immediately protested, but in the ensuing din Rane read out the motion of confidence which was quickly passed by the Speaker without the customary show of hands.

The farce did not end there. When the Speaker left the house, opposition members swiftly installed Deputy Speaker Mandrekar in the Speaker's chair under the pretext "that the Speaker had abandoned the house". With Jhalmi egging the deputy speaker on, the 10 breakaway Congress members and the 13 opposition members passed the no-confidence motion against the Rane government. Not surprisingly, in keeping with the sham, there was no one from the assembly staff to record the proceedings.

The deputy speaker's nod to the vote of no-confidence was reason enough for D'Souza to renew his claim to form the government. Governor Jacob, acting under Article 174 of the Constitution, had no alternative but to dismiss the 43- month-old Rane government and instal D'Souza as chief minister, with Narvekar as his deputy. "With the Rane ministry losing the confidence of the people, I had no option but to dismiss it," said Jacob.

The Congress high command, however, is not willing to take the governor's decision lying down. "The matter is far from over as we are determined to take the matter to the Supreme Court," says Girija Vyas, party observer for Goa. "How can the Rane government be dismissed considering that it had won the vote of confidence?" The party seems determined to put up a show of strength -- which means another round of instability in tranquil Goa.

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