Has Manohar Parrikar, the biggest hope Goa had, and stillhas, got himself into a situation where the solution to the mining shutdown hasslipped out of his hands totally? While his intentions on getting sustainable miningback on track appear to be genuine based on decisions that he has taken, thepolitical Parrikar perhaps has unknowingly played a wrong hand that both he andGoa are paying for. It is clear for anyone who cares to see that the step bystep shut down and lockout of mining has been dictated by a series of politicalevents and decisions, which paved a way for rapid downward spiral giving the courtsenough ground to shut the industry down.
The Congress has clearly taken its revenge after doing most damageto the industry by allowing out of state players to do trade with no controls.The Congress has nothing to lose. Its already has lost. Shutting down mining willresult in the government tap running dry or almost leading to public angst anda resultant outrage. The seasoned Congress understands that anger, especiallyover food and employment is directed straight at the official provider, thegovernment. An out of work truck owner, getting letters from the bank to payhis EMI of Rs 30,000 will direct his wrath at the government of the day and notthe one of the past. There is no time to pontificate, analyse and see reasons.The needs are far more rudimentary, and in a pitch such as this, the immediatebecomes all consuming.
And the immediate here is getting the funds to pay this EMIor least the previous one or if not that either, the one earlier. The immediatefor the barge owner is getting transportation of extracted ore to start so thatsome trips would allow them to manage for just another month. The immediate forthe loader in MPT would be some ore from Karnataka and Maharashtra movingthrough Goa so that some work is generated.
So where did Parrikar get stumped? Was it the seedypolitical acumen of the Congress that saw the advantages of creating a crisisnow by choking not the industry but the earning capacity of its people? Or wasit his own supreme self confidence that Goa was his and his decisions were final.Left to himself, he would have solved the issue. The problem is that hebelieved that he would be left to himself and continued to do so till he washit by a pincer movement. The pincer movement was timed to perfection.
It allowed Parrikar to engage in power play as he began bysaying that FIR’s would be lodged against Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane.He quickly enhanced to by referring to specific instances in the Shah Commissionreport where Kamat was referred to. And then the suspensions of offi cersfollowed.
The unfortunate suicide of one of the officials, DattatreyaBhave, irrespective of the circumstances served to push the government furtheron the back foot. The Congress’ dirty tricks department which it is thelifelong custodian of (an IIT degree is of no use in this university) moved intoswift action during the visit of Environment Minister Jayanthi Nattarajan andtwo Congress MLAs actually forced her to announce the suspension of EC licensesof all mines when it was not even on her agenda. It takes a very high degree ofingenuity for Congress MLAs to convince their own party’s union minister tosuspend licenses issued by her own ministry on the basis of which mines havecontinued to operate- and throughout the Congress’ own tenure in Goa.
Brick by brick, decision by decision, control slipped out ofParrikars hands. He suspended mining operations, the Environment ministersuspended mining licenses. Parrikar appointed the Khandeparkar committee to lookinto all issues of the Shah Commission, the Supreme Court in response to a PILasked the CEC to investigate, virtually nullifying the Parrikar appointed commission.It first slipped out of Parrikar’s executive control. Then the executivecontrol slipped out and into the hands of judicial control. Optimists see thisas a silver lining since the ball is out of any party’s court. It’s not quite.The centre will any day have more power play in this situation than Manohar
Parrikar. If the CEC’s detailed questions running intoseveral pages for the Directorate of Mines is an indication, then this is afull-fl edged independent investigation talking the scope and reach beyond theShah Commission.
Parrikar though, has every right to say “Where did I go wrong?I was doing what I could and I would have solved it”. He however miscalculatedthat the Congress would be a sitting duck waiting to be led to the gallows withits own government in power at the Centre. Perhaps a little less show ofexuberance with an air of “I told you so because my investigations showed whatthe Congress did”, could have given him more breathing space to formulate strategy.The fallout is that the best man to work at a genuine solution aimed atcleaning the industry and allowing genuine players to function has been paralysed.That is Parrikar’s and Goa’s tragedy.
