This is the reward for 20 years of loyalty to the party. I am out of work for just one month and the party couldn’t tolerate my absence, was former Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza’s terse message soon after being relieved of his ministership, along with ailing power minister Pandurang Madkaikar. Consider another side. If these two have been sacked for their ill-health, why is chief minister Manohar Parrikar staying put after shuffling in and out of the state for seven months to treat his ailment?
The fact of the matter is that emotion has taken centrestage while performance and administration has taken a back seat. It’s been a while that D’Souza has been struggling with his health and we have all seen how Parrikar rushed in to fill in the void created by his Urban Development Minister. Let’s not forget the loads of promises on infrastructure development that the CM made for Mapusa while D’Souza remained out of bounds. It is a matter of shame that legislators prefer to hang on to their powers till they are virtually told to go, and it’s a bigger shame when politicos use an emotional card to counter their ouster. Emotional and health issues cannot hold Goa’s development to ransom.
In the second case, Pandurang Madkaikar has been hospitalized at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai for nearly four months after he suffered a massive brain stroke on June 4. There is no update till now on the status of Madkaikar’s health. This virtually means that the major reforms in the power infrastructure that Madkaikar spoke off early in the year continued to remain in a switched-off mode. Let’s not forget that Madkaikar promised a brighter picture for Goa in two years’ time, banking on a Rs 1700 cr sanction from the Centre. Ironically, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel with half of a year gone only waiting for Madkaikar to return.
Parrikar has been taking treatment for his ailment for over seven months, and despite being ‘half-ready’ to quit he is compelled to hang on by the pulls and pressures of coalition politics. The leadership crisis has exposed the chinks in the ruling dispensation and the party bosses in Delhi have no other choice but to stick to Parrikar for now.
There are ailments and now there are replacements, but how fair are the choices made? An ailing Madkaikar has been replaced by a new power minister in Nilesh Cabral. Goans will hope to see fresh energy in a sector that remained crippled over the years. On the other side, Urban development is handed over to none other than former Power Minister Milind Naik, the very same legislator who failed and was rejected by his own colleagues for not doing anything during his tenure as power minister. It comes as a surprise that the BJP has decided to re-install a minister who was written off completely for ignoring power infrastructure. A minister who was notorious for inordinate delays in granting load approvals for the industrial sector and crucial government-run projects. It comes as a surprise that the government has hand-picked an MLA who is embroiled in an alleged government land-grab case besides facing a Rs 300 crore tender scam charge.
If Goa has to develop then it has to make a smart choice of horses for courses. An appraisal on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assessment of his team needs to be followed in the State. Performance should count in selection of ministers, not their failures.
