The BJP juggernaut rolls on mercilessly trampling upon parties irrespective of affiliations. In a pre-dawn strike, the saffron party roped in two MGP MLAs “ Manohar Babu Ajgaonkar, a veteran of many a defection, and first-timer Deepak Pauskar.
The evil of defections which has been deeply entrenched into Goa’s political system has raised its ugly head once again, but in a new avatar. And it is a matter of great concern that the saffron leadership has, with its high-handed maneouvres, completely diluted the regionalistic flavour which the allies were aspiring to carry forward.
In this fluid coalition, BJP’s desperate moves to stay in the majority are as clear as daylight. The half-a-dozen-odd reasons that the BJP put forth to justify the move of engineering a split in the MGP are just not good enough. At the face of it, splitting the MGP may appear premature against the option of waiting till close of nomination, since it would have offset any collateral damage in terms of face-off in elections. But a closer look makes it evidently clear that the BJP didn’t want to take risks. With the MGP central committee meeting on Wednesday, the party could have effectively checkmated BJP moves with the expulsion of Pauskar. And the BJP’s early morning surgical strike on MGP pre-empted this.
It is a sad irony that the people’s mandate has not been respected by legislators. Ajgaonkar was elected on a MGP ticket beating BJP’s Rajendra Arlekar handsomely with a 6000-vote margin. Now here is Ajgaonkar, for the lure of a better deal,
betraying the electorate and joining ranks with the same
party against which he fought a high-pitched battle in the 2017 assembly elections. Same is the case with Pauskar, who convincingly
defeated another BJP candidate in Ganesh Gaonkar by
5000-odd votes.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s contention that the two MGP imports have walked in on their own sweet will doesn’t hold water for the simple reason that there is a reward attached to it. Pauskar has been sworn-in as minister and Ajgaonkar is awaiting his perks. No matter how much the BJP think-tank is trying to hide their perfidious ambitions, it’s all showing.
The much propagated coalition dharma has remained a farcical acronym. The Congress continues to fall prey to ‘politics of defection’ and the MGP split has taken it to a different level. And this may not end here. Congressmen continue to be on the BJP radar and these developments can’t be in the comfort zone of ally Goa Forward. In politics there are no permanent friends, and no permanent enemies but permanent interest, so goes the old adage. ‘Kam Zalem Voiz Melo’ is the proverbial Konkani line that partners in the government need to be wary of. It’s time allies realise that political interests override friendships, dharmas, karmas and the vision.
