In yet another surprising turn of events, Urban Development Minister Milind Naik against whom charges were levelled of his involvement in a sex scandal tendered his resignation on Wednesday evening. He put in his papers after GPCC President Girish Chodankar named him after being challenged to do so by the BJP leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and State party president Sadanand Tanavade.
While Chodankar named Milind, Youth Congress leader Sankalp Amonkar, a sworn political rival of the minister in Mormugao filed an FIR with Mormugao police and released WhatsApp chats, pictures and audio clips allegedly implicating the minister. Congress has alleged that Milind used his political power and sexually exploited a woman in distress. The sexual abuse and misconduct by ministers came in sharp focus against the backdrop of the government making a pitch of making Goa safer for women.
Now, the question is why did the BJP leadership push the issue to this point and invite embarrassment on the cabinet minister, the government and the BJP. Why did the BJP leadership dare Chodankar to register an FIR and name the minister despite being fully aware of the background and the consequences?
Sawant has indicated that the minister has quit facilitating free and fair investigation while assuring his government would launch a ‘100 per cent’ probe. Can the CM tell us why he decided against a probe when the issue was first brought to light? Why did Sawant shield a minister against whom a serious sexual charge was levelled?
If facilitating fair investigation is the motive now, this should have been a decision taken spontaneously, and long ago. It now appears that the BJP is trying to salvage itself from an ugly situation ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Liberation Day visit because Congress had put the BJP on notice.
Tanavade had maintained that the 'sex scandal' allegation was a personal issue of Milind. We understand that the party president tried to sidestep the controversy and disassociate the government from it in a hope that it will die off on its own. However, we fail to understand how a sexual misconduct allegation against a cabinet minister can be treated as a private issue. People's representatives are duty-bound to serve and are responsible for their acts and they cannot run away from scrutiny. A charge of sexual abuse and exploitation cannot, by any means, be discarded as a personal affair.
The government's reluctance to act has been as clear as daylight. In a politically charged environment, it is obvious the BJP did not want to concede a political advantage to Congress. Incidentally, two major issues have rocked the State within a fortnight – a job scam and a sex scandal. Government should have acted immediately instead of scouting for reasons not to and allowing issues to fester. Belated moves of damage control only expose what the government is trying to conceal.
