So, Goa’s once beloved “Bhai” has become everybody’s favorite whipping boy nowadays. BJP cadres don’t seem convinced of the correctness of the government’s stand on the MoI issue, which in itself is partly a function of not all party MLAs being on board. His admirers including bureaucrats, journalists, commentators, businessmen and activists complain about his “arrogance” and add **sotto voce** that he wasn’t always like this. His connect with a vast cross-section of Goans who have justifiably been proud of his achievements is on the wane, his critics and the neutrals argue.
A tricky situation, no doubt, but which in normal circumstances could possibly have been overcome with astute political management, explaining, down-the-line, the rationale of the compromises that go into upholding **rajadharma** at times with a ***mea culpa** if required and turning on the fabled personal charisma.
But these are not normal times.
Make no mistake about it, the BBSM-led and Subhash Velingkar initiated battle is not just for the withdrawal of government grants for English-medium schools but is increasingly looking like a larger war to dictate the agenda for governance of the BJP while making a personal (in the political sense) point against Manohar Parrikar. Now I know the BJP pretty closely as a professional journalist and Mr Parrikar not very closely at all, but here’s the one thing I can tell you ~ the moment a single-agenda pressure group like the BBSM (or FORCE, or any NGO for that matter) thinks it can dictate policy to an allied or sympathetic political party, the core competency areas of each overlap and disaster ensues. The reason the Sangh Parivar has managed to avoid such a fate for decades given the various organizations working under its aegis has been a clear if sometimes contentious and on other occasions forcibly hammered out acceptance of this principle.
This is not to say the highly personally respected leaders of the BBSM such as Arvind bab Bhatikar or Uday bab Bhembre or indeed Subhash ji do not have an unalienable right to agitate and insist upon their demand; of course they do and they must do what they think is right. This writer’s stand (for what it’s worth) has consistently been that government grants, given it is the people’s money, should ideally be released only to schools where the medium of instruction in primary classes is in the mother tongue as it is proven scientifically to aid early learning among children and in the current context creates appropriate cultural resonance for a vast majority of Goans. The real world in which we all live and in which any administration must function, however, has its own limitations ~ different views, myriad sensitivities and issues of social cohesion. It is a BBSM purist fantasy to think the MoI policy can be forced and the consequences will be good for Goa, just as it would be a FORCE hardliner’s cardinal error to assume that just because a policy has been continued it is etched in stone forever.
Certainly, the “culprit” in that sense for the BBSM was the Congress government that issued the notification extending grants to English-medium diocesan schools. But once a facility has been extended and there are fellow Goans for whom it is important, it becomes highly contentious and a potentially communal issue if the successor Parrikar-led BJP administration had tried to roll back the policy without first convincing all sections on the desirability of such a move and building a consensus. That was tried, and no consensus emerged, so the decision was to continue the policy till it did.
Mr Parrikar has been clear that he is a strong supporter and votary of early education in the mother tongue; the widely circulated “man in the black T-shirt” picture of his opposing the Congress government’s move to extend grants to English-medium schools with fellow activists at the time is perfectly in keeping with that stand, though he too must learn to laugh if ruefully at the barbs that come his way when that visual is circulated. It’s part of the job of being a leader and the transition from protest mode to governance priorities. On a more serious note, yes, he could not and did not roll back the policy as all his BBSM/RSS supporters and friends had expected and indeed advised him to. But that is a reason to compliment him, not criticize him (**see reasons given above**).
The BJP administration under Mr Parrikar and his successor Laxmikant Parsekar have certainly made an effort to promote Konkani and Marathi medium schools and provide infrastructure both human and physical for them. Mr Parrikar also deserves respect for ensuring his and his successor administrations’ promotion of mother tongue and regional language learning has not come at the expense of vilifying and demonizing the “Other”.
God knows I am no fan of any politician, including Mr Parrikar. But as a reasonably mature, in the main sensible and hopefully always non-sanctimonious observer of the Goan political landscape within the (albeit flawed) sacred Indian democratic tradition who has zero desire for any personal or professional benefit from the powers-that-be ~ Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn ~ here’s how the politics on the MoI issue will unfold on the BJP side if the local RSS whether overtly or covertly continues to make efforts to try and politically cut Mr Parrikar down to size.
The clamor for a roll-back of the MoI circular from a significant section of the Goa BJP leadership and cadre will intensify as politically and electorally it is a no-brainer for them that the minority community seems to have consolidated against the BJP swayed by what they see as “Secular Taliban” propaganda despite the government having gone out of its way to ensure that the communal troubles in the rest of India have been firmly kept out of our land. BJP MLAs have told me this personally. The method by which this will be brought to fruition is hinted at too ~ the MoI committee constituted by the government is to make recommendations before Goa goes to the polls, after all… The point is that by whatever means, if the MoI roll back is a done deal, the political logic is that the MGP loses a major bargaining chip with the BJP, the RSS falls in line, the BBSM and the so-called RSS Goa offshoot take credit for it, and the core BJP/RSS vote is consolidated. Then in the event of the BJP then coming back to power, the imprint of the victors will be clearly visible on the new administration, both in how it is peopled and in the nature of the policies it adopts.
If this audacious move comes off, Mr Parrikar would be effectively edged out of Goa while paying lip-service to his status, contribution and leadership and ensuring certain key changes such as projecting someone who has been careful on the MoI issue such as say Rajendra Arlekar as the CM, a couple of Mr Parrikar’s protégés being denied tickets, and the other two BJP announced “star campaigners” Mr Shripad Naik and Mr Nitin Gadkari being given larger roles that include perhaps a ticket for the former’s son from Cumbharjua and a key role for the latter in the political management of the BJP-MGP negotiations given the funding power he has for public works as Union minister for key infrastructure sectors.
It is now for Mr Parrikar to balance the necessarily solid not spectacular job he has done as Defence Minister whether in terms of establishing a transparent weapons systems procurement policy, clamping down on the insidious arms dealers who have become part of the Lutyen’s Delhi elite or allowing the robustness of our armed forces’ response to border adventures by a radical Islamic state on the West and an absolutist dictatorship on the East with the political troubles in his home state of Goa. In fact, this will be the toughest test of his political career for the following reasons:
* He will have to deal with the perception issue ~ he holds a key Cabinet portfolio and cannot be seen to be micro-managing Goa. The political management of individual seats, tactical candidatures and political understandings will be a daunting challenge given he cannot logistically do it all himself this time around.
* He will have to deal with the substantive issue of convincing his own colleagues, cadres and allied organizations through an effective communication strategy that his sticking to the no-roll back on MoI stand is not a question of his “ego” or false pride but a compromise he has made to uphold **rajadharma** till such time there is a broad consensus on the issue which both he personally and the BJP government will actively seek to achieve.
* He will further have to convince his own party that such a stand can win them the 2017 election despite the BBSM and the RSS offshoot openly working against the BJP, and the official RSS in Goa looking like it is doing so covertly. In addition, he will have to strategize a way to make the MoI issue a non-decisive one in the coming poll.
* For all of the above to happen, he will probably have to, taking Mr Gadkari into confidence and with the PM’s consent, speak to the RSS central leadership pointing out the personal animus element in the campaign by Subhash Velingkar ~ after all, the RSS nationally has not started an **andolan** against the Modi government because the Ram Temple at Ayodhya has not been constructed, the Uniform Civil Code has not been promulgated or the abrogation of Article 370 is not yet a reality. Presumably, this is so because while all are committed to these issues intellectually and as an agenda in the manifesto, to force them would be counter-productive for the nation. Would not the same argument apply in Goa with relation to forcing a decision on MoI roll back?
* Of course, there is the last option ~ if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Such a decision can be given many colors ~ political expediency, proof of ideological commitment, electoral necessity or a rectification of a mistake. If Mr Parrikar does go down this path, a section within the BJP and RSS asserts that the BJP will have a much better chance of winning the 2017 Assembly Poll. That may or may not be true.
What I can say with certainty, though, is that if Mr Parrikar can play his role in leading the BJP to a win and install a Parsekar administration as he has said repeatedly he intends to without caving in on the MoI rollback demand, he may just ensure that Goa can ever after live with accommodating minority sensitivity without letting it become a veto.
(**The author is Editor-in-Chief & Director, Fomento Media**)
