Newly-appointed Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar caused a major embarrassment to the coalition government when he exposed what transpired between the State and Centre over the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme. Senior members of the coalition including Tourism Minister Babu Ajgaokar, TCP and Archives minister Vijai Sardesai and Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza who went to town screaming that the State government was in the dark will now have to eat a humble pie.
This piece of evidence will not only leave both Ajgaokar and Vijai red-faced, but will take the level of mistrust on the ministers to a new low. There has been a hue and cry over the scheme with sections of the society and political parties taking divergent stands. At the core is the big question of lack of transparency. Now that the cat is out of the bag, the focus will shift from questioning the heritage adoption to use of blatant lies by the government to steer away from yet another issue.
This has been an amazing start for Girish. At a time when rivalries between Congress and Goa Forward have hit a feverish pitch, with the tenure of the new GPCC being even compared to a T20 match, this has come as a perfect Yorker that has taken the ruling on the wrong foot. And going by the perfect picture presented at the appointment ceremony recently, it only conveys a message that Congress means serious business. Thanks to Chella Kumar’s intervention, these are rare occasions when the entire party brigade put up a united front and this time it was even more significant for the simple reason that majority of Congress MLAs were rooting for Margao strongman Digambar Kamat.
While the expose and shows of unity are fine. Beyond that, Girish has a tough job of steering his party as one united opposition, mindful of the fact that he has to reach out to various factions within the party. Girish’s leadership test has just begun, and yes, he is off to a flying start. Beyond exposing the government on its bunch of lies, the first major challenge knocking at the doorstep is the call for scrapping of Regional Plan 2021. This is where a pubic movement is gaining steam. Girish may be bang on target dispelling all the initial reluctance shown by his predecessor. But a bigger question would be if he could get all his party forces to galvanize support and be a force to reckon with in this agitation. This could be questionable since there are seasoned Congress Legislature Party members who have muddied their hands in this plot during their hay days, just as there are many others in different hierarchies who have strings attached to the RP21. The recent target being Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco who has been reminded that he was one of the signatories of a cut motion in assembly seeking operationalization of the Regional Plan. This is where Girish will have to swim against the tide and this is where the party’s entire momentum against the RP agitation could be weakened. Congress will have a lot of ground to cover on RP21 and go beyond those occasional squeaks if they are to re-establish that connect with the people.
