PANAJI
If you thought alliances were sealed over wads of money and haggling over a list of favoured constituencies, former Deputy Chief Minister and MGP leader Sudin Dhavalikar’s words on Tuesday at a joint public rally with West Bengal Chief Minister and AITC founder Mamata Banerjee may well change your perspective.
According to Dhavalikar, whose party has snuggled in and out of comfortable and tentative alliances with the Congress as well as the BJP over the last couple of decades, the alliance with the AITC was formed over one helping each of ‘fau’ (stamped rice) and shira (sweetened semolina). That’s about it.
“Many must have thought that this alliance must have been done for some reasons, which you know about. But I am proud to say this alliance, you won't believe it. (It was sealed) over vati (small utensil) fau and one vati shiro,” Dhavalikar said at the public meeting near Panaji, where he recalled the genesis of the latest alliance in Goa’s political landscape.
Dhavalikar said that the alliance talk was first kicked-off over the two humble and traditional snack items at his own home in the presence of himself, Leander Paes and other AITC and IPAC representatives.
“The alliance talk was not held in a big hotel. (I said) Come home, say what you have in your mind. Tell me what you want and listen to what we want and if we click then can go ahead. You won't believe it. I got a positive reply three to four days later after this meeting,” Dhavalikar said.
“They ate one vati shiro, I had one vati shiro. They had one vati fau and I had one vati fau. Will you believe this, would you think this is true? But this is true. This is the truth. Nothing can extinguish the truth. Truth is immortal,” the MGP leader also said.
Dhavalikar said that his party’s alliance with the AITC would give a new direction to Goa, a direction which the state’s first Chief Minister late Dayanand Bandodkar had dreamt of.
“We formed the alliance for the good of Goa to offer Goa a new dawn and to take them to the precipice of development. To get to the mountain of happiness, we have to cross several hills of despair,” Dhavalikar said.
Dhavalikar, a Brahmin by caste also extolled his fellow Brahmin Mamata Banerjee’s rise to eminence in West Bengal and national politics, while attacking the BJP for casting aspersions on her, especially questioning her credentials which the ruling party has dubbed as “communal”.
“She is from a poor Brahmin family and she is ruling West Bengal. We all have to be proud of it,” Dhavalikar said, while slamming the BJP for ill-treating the woman politician and slandering her.
“We seek her blessings like a sister. Respecting wives, sisters, daughters is in our blood. They (BJP) do not have to teach her,” Dhavalikar said.
The former Goa deputy Chief Minister also questioned the BJP for attacking Banerjee, adding that she was also a part of a BJP-led coalition government headed by former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“In 1984, she became an MP. She has been MP on six occasions. She was in Vajpayee's ministry as Railways and Mines Minister. At that time, you (BJP) did not feel anything wrong?
A person should look to the ground when you walk. When the ground is burning at your feet, looking at someone else's feet can be fatal,” Dhavalikar said.
