PANAJI
There's a children's tale about a greedy ostrich, which swallowed a hot potato kept on a window sill. The steaming potato got wedged in its throat, scalding the tender tissue on the inside, even as the bird went flapping about in distress.
Children's stories invariably have lessons for adults.
The story of the ostrich has lessons for the Congress in Goa, which for years now has buried its head deep in crusty Goan laterite, over the Rane conundrum.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant bestowed "lifelong" Cabinet status on the sitting Congress MLA and former Chief Minister (over several terms) Pratapsingh Rane. At the time of writing this piece, there was no confirmation as to whether the octogenarian politician had accepted the 'honour'.
Chances are, Rane will.
Because over the last few years, the lines of political propriety appear to have blurred in the 82-year-old's book. On the other hand perhaps, accepting the honour would fit snug on the very narrow 'statesmanship' shelf in Rane's very, very long political career, which has spanned multiple roles including Chief Minister, Speaker, Leader of Opposition and yes, a party hopper (Rane switched from the MGP to the Congress very early in his legislative career).
The Chief Minister's bestowing of such an unprecedented honour ostensibly could be described as a gesture which cuts across party lines, overriding the political acrimony which has beset the poll-bound state.
But the timing of the gesture -- less than two months before the polls -- comes at a time when the ruling party (and those in the Opposition too) has been trying its best to lure, steal, badger, scare potential candidates from rival parties.
Coming back to the story of the ostrich and the hot potato and deciphering who is the hot potato and who the ostrich in the current circumstance.
Rane has served at the helm of the Congress' affairs in the State for more than 40 years now. Consider this. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was in school when Rane was sworn-in as Chief Minister for the first time. And when Rane was first sworn-in as a Minister in 1972, Sawant was not even born.
While nationally, Rane was almost synonymous with the Congress for nearly a decade and a half, through the 1980s and early 1990s, his contribution to the party over the last decade has been found wanting.
The demise of Rane's political clout also coincided with the rise of his son, in state politics. Rane Sr's characteristic brand of politics involved positioning himself aloof from the trademark rough and tumble of intra-party and inter-party politicking in Goa, thus lending him a statesman-like halo. But as a father, Rane appears to have succumbed regularly to seemingly reckless political ambitions of his only son.
One does not have to go too far to find an illustration to bolster the above argument.
Earlier this month, Pratapsingh Rane claimed he was being encouraged by supporters from his Poriem bastion to contest the upcoming polls and indicated that he just might take up the offer.
Soon after the development, his son spoke to the media publicly urging his father to "retire gracefully" or come to terms with the prospect of facing him as an opponent on a BJP ticket. Vishwajit expressed confidence about defeating his father by at least 10,000 votes.
A few days later, Rane, at a function flip-flopped and said that he may not be inclined to contest the elections after all.
Rane’s longevity in the Congress is unquestionable, but his commitment to the party, when it comes to his son, has been found wanting in recent times. When Vishwajit quit the Congress after the 2017 assembly election results were announced and joined the BJP soon after, Rane made his preferences clear ahead of the bypolls.
"Family is more important than politics... There are many instances in India, where members of the same family have contested on different party tickets," Rane told a press conference on July 28, 2017.
Currently, the Poriem seat has only been in the Congress grasp on paper. Metaphorically, it is the hot potato which the Congress has had wedged in its throat. And unlike the ostrich from the tale mentioned at the outset, which flapped about in pain after swallowing the steaming tuber, the Congress in Goa appears to have emulated another classic trait of the flightless bird. It has simply buried its head in the earth to avoid shame.
