While the focus of late has naturally has been on ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar, as he comes to the end of his honeymoon phase andfaces questions (see accompanying edit), the Goa Congress, if anyone cares,will easily go down as the most, brittle, directionless and unconcerned of allunits in the country.
Manohar Parrikar has a job for the next four years and threemonths, he has a party, he is getting recognition from the national media andis in a position to make a difference, albeit under heavy scrutiny from themedia which will demand accountability. On the other hand, the full disclosure of the depths of disaster in theCongress comes not from a ground level survey but from scraps of littleincidents, which indeed have a pattern if you care to comprehend
Let’s pick some recent random overtly unconnected ones
a) ChurchillAlemao, supposedly of the Congress, made another announcement of contesting forthe South Goa parliamentary seat. The elections are a while away andChurchill’s candidature isn’t the top of the mind political, social or welfareissue of the state of Goa. Quite honestly, it’s irrelevant. The Congress, inits helplessness and laziness, doesn’t even bother when Churchill makes frontalattacks on its former chief minister and others, calling them corrupt andinefficient. His “decision” to contest the elections when the Congress has asitting MP has not been met with any resistance. While this may be fine in theCongress school of diplomacy, the truth is that a shabby organisation has noclue what to do when it is openly defied and insulted.
b) The longlost Luizinho Faleiro, who has spent the last couple of years nurturing theNorth East like a loving father, knowing that Goa is nobody’s child, has onlyspent energies boosting his son like Avertano Furtado extract Churchill fromNavelim. One of Goa’s senior most congress leaders who still has relevance.These days when attempts to discuss Goa’s politics are made, Luizinho has onerefrain “I have been away from Goa’s politics and have nothing to say.”Luizinho happens to be the only Congress leader with a toe-hold in 10 Janpathand can be used to begin a process of streamlining and this beginning can comeonly from him.
c) Everyoneseems to have forgotten that less than four weeks ago, the Congress MLA fromCurtorim, the speed talking statement a minute Alexio Reginald Lourenco,addressed a press conference with Fatorda’s independent MLA Vijai Sardesai,stating, and do get this, that his own Chief minister Digambar Kamat and othershad taken bribes to clear the de-notification of Bernard Costa’s land inDabolim, earmarked for airport parking. Lest the significance of this is missed,let’s actually draw a parallel on the Centre. This is akin to imagining ManishTewari, minister and Congress spokesman at the Centre, addressing a pressconference with another non Congress MP and saying that Manmohan Singh and hisministers negotiated with Walmart and took bribes to clear FDI.
There is actually no difference between the two. In bothcases, an elected representative of the party (MP/MLA), goes public and accuseehis own leadership of taking bribes, no less. Reginaldo’s action was worse. Butin doing so, he actually confirmed Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s chargethat the Congress took bribes on the Costa deal.
It’s another matter that a supposed act by Tewari isunimaginable and even a momentary lapse of reason on his part would cause hisposition and political future ruined to eternity. What did the Congress in Goado? It did what it does best. Nothing. Digambar Kamat shut himself off waitingfor the storm to pass. Reginaldo’s limited objective was fulfilled, Heresponded to Parrikar’s demand that the Congress should admit to the briberycharge in the Costa deal for him to re-notify the land, taking the onus tospeak for the Congress without any authority. Parrikar snubbed Reginaldo andmade it clear that he was in no hurry to clean up the Dabolim parking mess,created by the Congress with an extra degree of urgency. Reginaldo and VijaiSardesai later went mysteriously quiet on the Dabolim land de-notificationfront.
The Reginaldo episode is the final definite proof that theCongress is dead. It is so dead that it’s unable to lift a finger even as amurmur of protest while its former minister (Churchill) literally abuses theparty and decides to contest after all his family members were resoundlydefeated in the elections. And the dead Congress got buried when its own MLAsaid his former Chief Minister and ministers accepted bribes, and the partytook no action against the MLA.
And finally, even a dead party can hope of no resurrectionwhen senior leaders like Luzinho are not interested and its other MP ShantaramNaik is seen cavorting with film stars like Raveena Tandon on aninconsequential campaign trail in Gujarat, without having addressed a singleGoa issue right here for months.
