States: Goa: Castles on the Sand

India Today, February 22, 1999
Feb 22, 1999

GOA
Castles on the Sand

With leaders forming governments only to be toppled, credible rule becomes a thing of the past in the state.

By Robin Abreu

It had to happen before long. In a state where legislators are frequently prone to play their favourite game of musical chairs, Luizhino Faleiro's days as Goa chief minister were numbered even when he took charge last November. That he clung on for two months and more was not because of any credible administration that he provided but because the Opposition could not spring any defection earlier. When Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC) leader Wilfred D'Souza announced on February 3 that Social Welfare Minister Deu Mandrekar of the Congress and Revenue Minister John Manuel Vaz, an Independent, had joined his side, Faleiro knew his time was up.

Defections and switching loyalties are nothing new to Goan politics. Faleiro's was the third government to be formed in less than a year, after the Pratapsinh Rane government, which was in power for 43 months, was toppled on July 29 last year. However, from the time he weaned away five members from D'Souza's GRC to form the government last November, Faleiro had been walking the tightrope as he had a majority of only one MLA in the 40-member Assembly. He won the vote of confidence on November 27, 1998, with his rallying cry that the Goan people "wanted a clean, honest, efficient and transparent administration". In the end horse-trading prevented him from fulfilling his vow of providing one.

Master of the Game: President's Rule has denied D'Souza another innings as CM D'Souza is a past master in the art of engineering defections and splits. In fact, he started the current spate of toppling governments by forming the GRC on July 29, 1998, with the help of 22 Congress MLAs. His reign as chief minister, though, lasted for only four months as his arbitrary style of functioning did not endear him to many of his party MLAs. Matters worsened for him when his planning minister Dayanand Narvekar plotted to pull him down on being denied the deputy chief minister's post. Saying that "the chief minister deliberately sidelined me", Narvekar crossed over to the Congress along with former Congress members Subhas Shirodhkar, Pandu Vasu Naik, Mandrekar and the Independent, Vaz. D'Souza lost the vote of confidence on November 27, 1998, when his majority fell to 19 MLAs, and the Congress's Faleiro was sworn in as Goa's 12th chief minister. "D'Souza ran away from the battlefield like a coward. He was scared the Congress would expose his corrupt practices," Narvekar had observed then.

But D'Souza had been planning his revenge against Faleiro since his ouster. "My main aim is to defeat Luizhino and after that I will decide what to do," he had said repeatedly. He started by submitting to the CBI five cases of corruption against the Faleiro government. Then followed it up by wooing two of the weakest ministers -- the old and infirm Mandrekar and Vaz, whose son is facing land-scam charges. Faleiro had no chance as it was beyond him to muster support to face the vote of confidence on February 8. As a Congress worker said, "These days it takes only one Independent to hold the entire state to ransom."

With the Faleiro ministry reduced to a minority, D'Souza had grand visions of forming another government. He even complained to the Assembly Speaker that "an unidentified man, with long hair and wearing dark clothes has been following me on a motorcycle ... The Opposition will do anything to stop me from coming to power ... But I am determined to defeat Faleiro in the vote of confidence." This time though, government formation would have been a difficult task. There were reports of legislators being herded into groups and kept in safe houses and some of them demanding up to Rs 50 lakh for pledging loyalty.

Governor Lt-General (retd) J.F.R. Jacob recommended President's rule when he realised the leading parties -- the Congress, GRC and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party -- did not have the necessary numbers for a majority in the Assembly. The Centre too okayed the suggestion to check the growing tendency of government formations at the drop of a hat. Now that the state is to face elections, the people are hoping that a strong party will come to power. But with Independents traditionally playing a big role in the formation of governments, that appears next to impossible. As a Congress member put it, "The state has many chief minister aspirants but few MLAs to go with them." That sadly is the fate of Goan politics.

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