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PANORAMA

Not Quite Convincing
By Vinayak Naik

It has been our practice all along to interview every 'new' Goa chief minister that has
come along. And, mark you, we have had a host of them, averaging one per annum,
especially over the last quinquennium. The latest to enter the list of Goa chief ministers is the kingpin of State BJP, Manohar Parrikar, whose interview, by the way, is one of the key features of this issue.

Being the one who did the grilling, I can't help saying that the chief minister's answers to some of the questions I put to him were anything but convincing. I'll take up for commenting here a few snippets from that tete-a-tete.

When I questioned the propriety of BJP's acquisition of power by cunningly doubling its Assembly bench-strength through the expedient of defections, the chief minister's post-haste riposte was, "You should have asked that question to Luizinho Faleiro when he raised his strength from 21 to 26". Now, what is one to make of that statement? To my mind, it is, as the logicians would say, plainly fallacious. How does Luizinho come in the picture? Moreover, Parrikar had disapproved of almost everything that Luizinho had done. And, the way things are going, Parrikar himself doesn't seem to be doing anything strikingly different. Granted, what Luizinho did was wrong, but then the question is, why emulate a wrong doer? Whoever said two wrongs can make one right?

If a party can augment its tally of Assembly seats the way the State BJP did recently, then the elections will be devoid of any meaning. As things stand, thanks to the constitutional sanction for political defections, even a party that has fared miserably at the hustings can transform its hopeless minority into a thumping majority. This will continue to happen till the time the licence to defect is constitutionally cancelled. Alas!
Be that as it may, as regards the size of the ministry, Parrikar has done exactly a la Luizinho by going for a disproportionately large cabinet. This, in fact, goes starkly counter to what his party manifesto had promised at the time of the elections to the ninth State Legislative Assembly in June, 1999.

"I would love to have a small cabinet. But, frankly speaking, I have realized that a small cabinet would not have given justice. When I see the number of portfolios, the number of works taken up by departments, I think it is not possible to have a small cabinet." That's precisely how the incumbent CM tried to rationalize his outsize cabinet. So, why did he gratuitously cavil at Luizinho? Indeed, it has been rightly said,"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others".

To my observation that, with the BJP being the ruling party at the Centre, the State BJP government was in an advantageous position vis-à-vis securing financial aid from Delhi, the chief minister dismissively remarked, "You don't understand Economics at all". Well, if that is not rudeness, what is? Honestly, I wonder, was my observation that silly?
Mind you, I am not prejudiced against the chief minister. In fact, in the past, I have showered encomiums on him for his dedicated work, particularly in his first term as Panjim MLA. However, what I find difficult to come to terms with, is the manner in which he has now got to the hot seat.

In all fairness, I must say, the chief minister's action of cracking down on the bribe-happy government functionaries is laudable. But to be able to rid the State of corruption, root and branch, as it were, he needs to go the whole hog in that exercise. Else, as has been usually the case, only the shrimps of corruption will be netted while the whales will get away.

Asked about the likely span of his government's stay in office, Parrikar asserted that it would immutably be there for the remainder of the three and half-year term. But one can't really take such chief ministerial assertions at face value. We have seen almost every preceding chief minister proclaim almost the same only to lose office soon afterwards.
As per my prognosis, Parrikar's government can't possibly have too long a run. Take a look at the composition of his cabinet and you'll find that almost all those MLAs, who have, either newly joined the BJP, or extended support to this party, have been accommodated in it. Interestingly, several 'die-hard' BJP MLAs have been left out of it .

This is bound to cause a lot of bitterness among those sidelined. I'll be extremely surprised if this government doesn't fall, just the way the preceding one did, before long.
Honestly, through this rather critical piece, I don't really mean to take on the CM. I know what price an editor could end up paying in a place like Goa for attempting to do a thing like that. But then, I had to get, whatever I have said, off my chest. It was an inner compulsion. Couldn't just bottle it up. After all, I have to be honest with myself and also with my profession.
Merry Christmas.

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