No alliance with Goa Forward yet clarified AICC’s Goa desk in charge Dinesh Rao. This comes a day after a photo was released to the media showing Rahul Gandhi in a celebratory pose in Delhi joining hands with a visiting Goa Forward team comprising leader Vijai Sardesai and Vinoda Paliencar along with Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat and Rao. Photos speak a thousand words and so did this photo. The question is, why is the Congress leadership not coming out openly on the alliance? Why is it using terminology like ‘support’ which is hard to decipher and interpret in electoral politics?
If we may recall, on Tuesday, a tweet from Sardesai indicated that a decision on alliance has been sealed. He tweeted “We agreed to fight resolutely, wholeheartedly and unitedly on behalf of the people of Goa”. The Fatorda MLA spoke of how a decision has come from the highest rung of leadership and how the alliance is formed to free Goa from, what he labelled as ‘corrupt’ BJP. He spoke about unity and Team Goa and how all like-minded forces should join hands.
Almost 24 hours later, the Congress leadership tries to dodge past the talk of an alliance by stoutly denying it, and clarifying that no decision has been taken in that regard. Rao maintains that Goa Forward has only extended its support to Congress. The hesitancy in going public about the alliance is as baffling as the idea of taking only electoral support from Goa Forward. Can Rao explain the contours of that support, and how it is different from the alliance, and why was there a steady silence after Sardessai tweeted such a significant political development?
It is obvious that Rao is foreseeing a possible fallout of this decision since it is bound to rattle the party ranks, especially the section led by GPCC president Girish Chodankar that consistently opposed the idea of an alliance with Goa Forward. Ironically, the photo of unity from Delhi completely upstaged a Chodankar moment that tried to expose a BJP minister with a sexual exploitation charge, an issue that even forced the government on the back foot. The Delhi development not only overshadowed that issue but left Chodankar completely isolated.
It appears that the Congress high command doesn’t have the spine to come out straight on major decisions it takes, as much as it doesn’t have the basic courtesy to respect the frontline warriors who have held the party together in challenging situations. Agreed, that Congress follows a High Command culture where crucial decisions are taken on alliances, electoral support, readmission of defectors, traitors and betrayers, and also accepting or rejecting the support of political parties. Loyalty may not always be rewarding here.
In a political haze, the Congress-Goa Forward alliance appears to be a done deal, but the party boss, by over-ruling its State leadership, has only taken two steps back at a time when it was poised to move a mile forward.
