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STATES:
GOA
Saffron
Surprise
Goa has
yet another new government, this time a BJP one
By
Sheela Raval
There's
a literal note to it when they talk about the government of the day in
Goa, as Francisco Sardinha ruefully realised this past week. Having broken
away from the Congress one day 11 months ago to form his Goa People's
Congress Party (GPCP) government, he found, just as suddenly the other
day, that he had no wind left to fight defections that brought a legislative
majority for the first BJP government in the state. Chief Minister Manohar
Parrikar-newly sworn in last Tuesday-will have to tread as warily; stability
is not a strong point of politics in Goa.
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| Grace
Time: Parrikar (left) being sworn in |
It's a windfall
for the BJP. "We have captured the hot seat after just two decades
in Goa," jubilates party leader Atul Bhatkalkar. For the moment,
Goa's 13th chief minister in 10 years has little to worry about, Governor
Mohammed Fazal having waived the mandatory confidence vote after being
convinced the incoming government had a strength of 26 in a 40-member
House: BJP 18, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party 2, GPCP (Venkatesh Desai
faction) 4, Congress (Shaikh Hassan faction) 1, plus an Independent.
There was
always the impression, admitted even by BJP leaders in private, that the
party couldn't come to power in a state that had a big Christian population.
When Parrikar declared earlier that he would stake claim to form a government
by 2000, it was dismissed as a politician's bravado. But he had a theory:
"Too many leaders with too many ambitions were posing a serious problem."
Astute backroom manoeuvring proved the 45-year-old IIT graduate's theory
true on October 24. "We were at the right place at the right time,"
he philosophises. Of course, Sardinha shares no such visions about the
BJP's rise. "It is unfortunate I mistook enemies for friends,"
he says lamely.
If Sardinha
had engineered a split in the Congress to upstage Luizinho Faleiro in
November last year, it was, ironically, another breach in that party that
heralded his doom. For the third time since the 1998 assembly elections,
a senior Congress leader-Ravi Naik this time, three MLAs in tow-parted
ways. Former Speaker Sheikh Hassan Haroon and four others had left the
Congress in August. With the BJP managing to woo eight of these former
Congressmen to its fold on October 21-taking the saffron party's legislature
strength from 10 to 18-Sardinha's fate was sealed. After all, his 11-member
party was dependent on the BJP for a majority.
"We
were not only disappointed by the high command's lack of political will
in regaining power in Goa, but also disgusted with the personalised power
politics here," says Naik justifying his joining the BJP. Faleiro,
Goa PCC president now, however, did not see reason. He presides over a
party that came to power in 1998 with a majority but has been reduced
to six in the Assembly. He described the split as "a motley crowd
of disenchanted and frustrated elements leaving to grab power".
But grabbing
power has been a sustained game in Goa. In the past decade, no government
has managed to complete its full five-year term, the average tenure being
just over six months. "Stability is an illusion because the state
now needs 40 ministers and 21 chief ministers for stable governance,"
quips a senior Congress leader. Parrikar has taken the first step to appease
all groups, offering the deputy chief ministership to Naik and inducting
12 other heavyweights in his Cabinet.
Parrikar
says his priority as chief minister will be to generate revenues and employment
and to eradicate corruption. One would think his main concern would be
to walk the tightrope of political uncertainty without slipping too quickly.
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