The revolving door
Now before you argue that the only thing constant is change and that the power corridors would definitely have rubbed off on the man fondly referred to as ‘bhai’ in Goa.
But not only has Delhi rubbed off on him, there’s so much of the Delhi dust that it has now begun to rub off on the corridors of power back in Goa -- in particular the actual physical corridor between the staircase and the office where the chief minister sits.
That corridor now sports a brand new glass door occupying what was once an open accessible corridor till the actual doorway where the CM’s office and associated offices are located.
What purpose this actually serves, is beyond us, given that the glass door doesn’t really opaque and there already was an additional check point at the doorway to enter the lobby of the Chief Minister’s office.
The only thing, that the door can achieve, is to keep other ministers and MLAs out -- maybe that’s the real plan.
In hindsight, we have only one suggestion to the Chief Minister: he should have installed a revolving door -- a real as well a figurative reflection of Goa’s politics.
Parulekar’s new pastime
It is a million-dollar question. What exactly do politicians do after they have lose an election? Especially if they have been into politics for a really long time. Well some return to their real estate business if they are young enough to carry on, and others simply lead retired lives with the savings they have earned. To call them savings would of course be an understatement. Many live lives of obscurity and outside of the spotlight, there is little about them that makes news. And then there are those who provide fodder for this column.
One such politician is former Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar.
Rumour has it that Parulekar having had to go back to his ‘old life’ was seen hanging out in Saligao, when a bunch of tourists stopped by and not knowing who he was, stopped and asked him for directions. Rather than turn up his nose at them, Parulekar like a true Gõycar proceeded to given them the right directions of how to get to their destination.
Out of sight is out of mind?
It’s debatable, but the two major mass issues facing the state over the last two months or so is that of the dredging and coal handling at Mormugao Port Trust and secondly that of a taxi revolution in Goa. While the former saw a gathering of people in a real physical space at Tilak Maidan in Vasco da Gama, the latter saw people congregating together in the cybersphere and more particular on social media.
However, what is indeed surprising, is that other than a few disparate voices, none of the elected representatives, who are “allegedly” representatives of the people of Goa have publicly and on record offered their opinion on either of the issues. The otherwise very vocal chief minister has deliberately and very carefully steered clear of both the issues even as both sides of the argument stare longingly, hoping for some kind of decisive decision making in the matters.
Perhaps that’s not what the elected representatives think they should be doing, in the view that their kind of work involves ‘setting’ and ‘fixing’ other kinds of problems.
Mauvin goes to Srinagar
It was indeed a strange choice for the State Government to depute, of all the people, its minister for panchayats Mauvin Godinho for the all important task of representing the views of the state at the Goods and Services Tax meeting to be chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Godinho, who heads the department that is facing the most flak for what is considered a very haphazard delimitation and reservation process was busy cooling himself off in Srinagar rather than face the heat in Goa for his election process.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is also the finance minister, and who we believe was too busy to make it to the meeting didn’t have an able deputy in his current cabinet who he could trust and the task fell on the incumbent panchayat minister.
What is the connection between the department of panchayats and the GST is little known.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that Mauvin’s deployment was illegal, especially since the GST law, while it prefers that the minister of finance be a member, allows any other minister to represent the state on the council.
But by the looks of things, the only contribution Mauvin has sent back is a photo of himself with a very sheepish smile seated next to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
during a tea break. Jaitley himself is absolutely disinterested in the photo.
(With inputs from Padmavati Prabhu)
