Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the number two in his cabinet Vishwajit Rane have spent the last few weeks trying to convince the public that there are no differences between them. In fact we had in these very columns highlighted how Vishwajit and his MLA-wife Deviya were left blushing at the bridge inauguration in Valpoi when Sawant publicly ridiculed the 'bogey' of a tussle between them as handiwork of Opposition politicians. Also, in the ongoing session of the Goa legislative assembly, Vishwajit reciprocated and repeated the 'no differences between us' charade from the floor of the House.
But then, actions speak louder than words, don't they? Earlier this week, Vishwajit sent tongues wagging when he skipped the ongoing Assembly proceedings to suddenly dash off to Delhi for a tete-a-tete with the much in demand Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, ostensibly to discuss politics and governance matters.
It resulted in some jaw-dropping reactions and analysis from journos and political pundits. More tongues wagged when Sawant made a similar dash to Delhi and met not just Shah but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president J P Nadda. He had, the new Rajya Sabha MP, Sadanand Shet Tanavade and Union minister Shripad Naik for company.
For now, we aren't sure if as the duo says 'there are no differences". What we do know for sure is that there's no difference between what the two do, in their game of politics -- one upmanship in their race to pay obeisance to Modi, Shah and co. in Delhi.
'Patkar v/s Girish' feud
bogging down Cong?
It's no secret that there's turmoil in the ranks of the Opposition Congress, or whatever is left of it after the deathly blow it suffered in last year's mass defection by eight of its eleven MLAs. However, for months this festering feud within the party ranks had remained behind closed doors but now it seems to have spilled into the open. It apparently stems from a trust deficit between current GPCC president, Amit Patkar and his predecessor Girish Chodankar.
It erupted with the sudden suspension of Janardhan Bhandari, an active Congress leader who was its candidate from Canacona constituency in the 2022 assembly poll, by Patkar.
Along with Bhandari, four others namely Pradip Naik, Khemlo Sawant, Mahesh Mahambrey and Glen Cabral have also been suspended from the party, pending an enquiry. All are said to be close to Patkar's predecessor Girish Chodankar, who many inside and outside the party believe is positioning himself to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha poll due in 2024.
'Elders' in the party stepped in to resolve this Patkar v/s Girish skirmish within as the ongoing sparring between the two was damaging the party organisation. Last week, a delicate truce was brokered between the two by a 'senior' and on Sunday the two were set to share the dais at a press conference they were to address on the government's response to the High Court's 'tiger reserve' judgement. It didn't happen and Patkar was left alone to the address the media with the media cell head Amarnath Panjikar and GS Shrinivas Khalap for company. Girish was nowhere in sight and the feud continues.
Rahul Gandhi cold
shoulders local unit
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the State on Wednesday-Thursday and is said to have stayed in a North Goa hotel.
Initially, reports were circulating that Gandhi will be engaging with a cross section of the Goan society including business leaders at different locations in Goa. However, by late Wednesday evening, there was no sign of any itInerary of his public engagements and no functionary of the party was willing to come on record on the issue.
All that came out officially from the party about Gandhi's engagements in Goa was information of a Wednesday night dinner he had with the three legislators -- Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, Carlos Alvares-Ferreira and Altone D'Costa -- and GPCC chief Amit Patkar.
What then was the reason why Gandhi's team decided to keep his 2-day Goa visit under wraps?
If one senior leader of the grand old party is to be believed, the Gandhi scion is furious with the local unit and the internal divisions among Congressmen here and refused to partake in any public engagements at the party level.
Thus his two-day visit got converted to a private affair but with a silver lining -- he returned to the national capital on Thursday with a pair of Jack Russell Terrier puppies he picked up from the Mapusa based 'Shade's Kennel' owned by one Stanley Braganza.
Electric dreams &
old smoky screams
The primary reason for moving to Electric Vehicles is to transition towards cleaner energy. While the Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited has been adding electrical buses to its fleet in order to curb emissions, it has simultaneously been contributing to emissions with the old fleet that continues to ply across Goa.
Most of these buses can be seen with a naked eye emitting thick black smoke which is not only harmful to the environment but also produces Carbon Monoxide, a toxic gas that many Goans are compelled to inhale while commuting. A majority of these buses are so old that they qualify to be scrapped under the government's own new scrapping policy.
If Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai who labelled these buses as "coffins" is to be believed, 323 of the total 520 KTCL buses, a whopping 62%, are more than 15 years old.
For all its tall claims of switching to EVs, the government will be taken seriously on its green push only if and when the Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited scraps these 323 buses under its own vehicle scrappage policy.
It's a tough call to take. Will someone in the government take it, or will the KTCL be permitted to continue with more than half its bus fleet sticking to the old smoky ways?
Either way, the government has got itself in a thick, smoking soup.
