Two politicians who set the narrative after the Goa 2022 assembly elections and installation of the Pramod Sawant 2.0 government, clearly were the Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane and former Opposition Leader Michael Lobo with their political dogfight over matters of land, conversion and big real estate deals.
The Rane-Lobo dogfight was indeed what reactivated a temporarily dormant volcano of political defections. It eventually erupted last week but neither Rane nor Lobo are anywhere around to mop up the mess the political lava from the defection eruption has left all over Goa's political terrain.
Rane and Lobo have both scooted off and are in foreign lands, the former in the USA and the latter on another continent - Africa.
In fact, Lobo skipped the parade organised for the eight Congress MLAs who defected to the BJP before the Central leaders in Delhi. Even Delilah, his wife, was there.
Why wouldn't one choose a faraway park in Africa rather than one in Delhi for your morning walk with a snubbed Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, lurking around?
Lobo's pre-election snub when Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis organised the tete-a-tete with Shah in a bid to pre-empt his then rumoured crossover to the Congress, is going to haunt him for a long time to come.
As for Rane, sources tell us he departed, because he does not want to be around and part of the shake-up that is to follow as a by-product of the defection. But then, Goa has a history of politicians discovering that the ground under their feet has shifted in their absence, when on a trip abroad.
South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha knows it better with an Aussie trip sending him down under, over two decades ago.
Where is Jossh?
Well it seems ages that we haven’t spotted Joshua Peter D’Souza the young MLA of Mapusa. For nearly a month Jossh (that’s how his friends address him?!) was out of station having travelled to Italy along with his close family members.
He had attended the ceremony of Archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Ferrao who was recently elevated to a Cardinal in Rome, Italy.
We do not know if his colleagues in the Goa Legislative Assembly really missed him but some of the councillors of Mapusa, who are all set to pull the daggers on the incumbent chair, were definitely feeling out of place without his omnipotent presence.
Some say he arrived in the State late Wednesday night but the young MLA was not present for the BJP function held on Thursday right in his backyard.
Hope to see you soon, boy! Time for some action.
Calangute sarpanch
gets a massage call
It’s ain’t funny. A village sarpanch getting persuaded by a tout for a massage!
The incident took place in the beach village of Calangute when Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira was walking on the beach front in his shorts. He was approached by a tout who asked him in chaste Hindi: Saib, aap ko aram chahiye? Massage mangta hai? (Do you want to unwind? How about a massage?).
Well, the sarpanch was forced to relate the incident at the gram sabha meeting when villagers demanded strict action and clamping of unauthorised massage parlours and spas that have sprung up in every nook and corner of the village.
So who are these people who are involved in such unscrupulous business ventures? Surprise, surprise! It’s the elite class of people not the common Goenkar, that’s what the sarpanch told the villagers in the gram sabha.
Incidentally, not long ago, our dear Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had issued a direction to police inspectors in the coastal belt to shut down all authorised massage parlours and spas coming under the jurisdiction of the coastal police stations.
He had also warned the Police Inspectors that action would be taken on the police incharge if the instructions were not followed. Adhering to the directives, some police officers had also taken prompt action and a couple of parlours were also sealed. With the passage of time everything is forgotten.
But then the CM has another scourge to battle now. And it’s turning out to be quite a handful.
Bad start for tourism season, one would say.
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Coincidence?
Speaking of the start of the tourism season, is it just coincidence that a big, newsmaking drug bust or story almost always pops up just in the days leading to the opening of a new one?
The tourism industry and its backers from the political ilk often have this theory that any bad press related to the industry is a conspiracy of destinations competing with Goa.
First it was the Sonali Phogat death case and now the tussle over narco-policing between the Goa and Hyderabad Police. Bad publicity always seems to find a way of popping up at the worst time for Goa.
But while many are raging over Goa's narco trail getting the glare, there are some in the trade who are quietly squirming. Good or bad, publicity earns the limelight and augurs well for their business.
After all, one man's food is another man's poison.
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RGP's time to fish
in troubled waters?
With the Congress MLAs defecting to the BJP for a second consecutive term, a void has been created in the political scenario of the State and a number of political parties will be trying to fill it.
The Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP), though, seems to be first off the blocks to grab the opportunity and are in the forefront of taking up issues affecting Goans, the latest being opposition to the amendments to the TCP Act.
And, on Friday, it would be a litmus test for RGP as everybody would be watching how much crowd they are able to attract for the protest in Panaji.
If they are able to get thousands of people, as claimed by their leaders, then RGP will definitely boost their chances of presenting an alternative to the Goans.
Their lone MLA Viresh Borkar has been drumming up support for the protest in St Andre constituency. But, the challenge for RGP is to spread their wings all over Goa, particularly the areas where they have limited presence.
They also need to take along a wider audience which hitherto has shown hesitation to support them.
But the question remains whether RGP will show willingness to be accommodative to get acceptance among all sections of the society.
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Congress at crossroads?
The Congress’ drive to protest at residences of the MLAs who defected had very few takers as seen in Nuvem where not too many voters from the constituency were present.
It now remains to be seen whether the Congress will be able to keep the tempo and muster the numbers in the other seven constituencies, or will the party rely on non-constituents to garner support.
Whether or not it will continue with its plan to accost its deserters with similar protests at their homes in the balance seven constituencies will be closely watched.
From the looks of it, though, it appears the Grand Old Party is struggling to convince voters to stand by it after yet another fiasco.
(Compiled by Ashley do Rosario with inputs from Agnelo Pereira and Manuel Vaz)
