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September28, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net ] RSS holds key to 'tribal treasury' >> |
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http://www.oherald.com/newherald/newsEDN.asp?qId=1205&qSec=EDN&qNType=R Saffronisation Of Goa A decade ago the Bharatiya Janata Party was a non-entity. The only visible face of the Bharatiya Janata Party was G Y Bhandare. We are not sure in retrospect whether his high media profile was due to what he said or the excellent batatawadas he used to serve at his press conferences. The only visible or active cadres of the Bharatiya Janata Party a decade ago were the Dhond family or rather Madhav Dhond. The Dhond family had an old Mercedes like many old families in Goa have which used to serve as the Rath Yatra or the vhan for senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party who used to make occasional visits to Goa. A frequent visitor of course was the present Deputy Prime Minister, L K Advani who used to then as now wax eloquent about pseudo secularism. No one outside of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh Parivar circles had heard of the RSS IITian Manohar Parrikar. Though by Manohar Parrikar??™s own admission a group of hardcore saffronites including the Govindacharya of Goa, Satish Dhond used to meet regularly in a flat in Panjim to plot and plan how the BJP could improve its presence and increase its influence in Goa. When Manohar Parrikar entered the Assembly in 1994, Goa was suffering from acute political fatigue. Since the beginning of the nineties, it was so many defections and counter defections that the political class has a whole had become totally discredited. Manohar Parrikar with his talk of political integrity and good governance seemed like a breath of fresh air in the fetid, putrid political atmosphere prevailing then. And our Manohar bab was very clever. Actually crafty would be a more appropriate expression. Parrikar was conscious of the very dominant role of the church and the minority community in Goan politics. So he was very careful about projecting a moderate Vajpayee like image. When the Vishwa Hindu Parishad organised a yatra starting from Divar to New Delhi to demand an apology for the excesses committed by the Portuguese during the Inquisition, Parrikar distanced himself. He even went to the extent of giving the Catholic church in Goa a clean chit. Parrikar also swore that he and his party would not engage in toppling games and would be committed to value-based politics. But in retrospect it is clear that all this was part of a carefully thought out strategy. A strategy based on infiltrating the system and taking it over. We need not remind you that Adolf Hitler was elected president or Chancellor of Germany by a significant majority by those who failed to realise what a rabid lunatic he was. Fortunately for Manohar Parrikar who divided splintered warring senior leaders of the Congress, particularly the christao leaders made his task of capturing power much simpler. In fact as we will demonstrate the warring Congress leaders handed over power to Manohar Parrikar on a platter. It was the good doctor, or rather the devious doctor from Saligao who let the fox into the chicken coop. Dr Wilfred D??™Souza as the political history of Goa reveals as always put his personal interest above that of the party. Enraged by the fact that though as the president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee he had led the Congress party to victory, he had been deprived of the top post because of the backstabbing engaged in by the gang of four comprising of Luizinho Faleiro, Dayanand Narvekar, Somnath Zuwarkar and Mauvin Godinho who installed Pratapsing Raoji Rane as the Chief Minister. As he had done once before in the eighties, Dr Wilfred de Souza broke away and formed the government and did not probably realise that he was a fly walking into the spider??™s parlour. The spider of course being Manohar Parrikar. Manohar Parrikar extended support to Dr Wilfred de Souza but was crafty enough to stay out of the government. Because his long-term goal was to capture power for the Bharatiya Janata Party. And years of RSS training and discipline had taught him the virtues of patience. Presumably Parrikar who has proved to be the shrewdest politician Goa has produced was aware that the Wilfred D??™Souza government would not last. And as expected Dr Wilfred de Souza managed to displease everyone including his deputy, Dayanand Narvekar. Luizinho Faleiro had no problems about toppling the Wilfred D??™Souza government. Never mind that at one time Luizinho Faleiro used to consider Dr Wilfred D??™Souza his mentor and hang around his coat tails. But soon enough given the rank opportunism that had corroded Goan politicians the Luizinho Faleiro government in turn collapsed and President??™s rule was declared. A time which Goans unanimously believed was the happiest period for Goa. But all good things come to an end and President??™s Rule was revoked. Elections were held again The Congress was returned to power and Luizinho Faleiro became the chief minister again. By then Luizinho Faleiro had begun to distrust his Congress colleagues. So to strengthen his position Luizinho Faleiro split the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the United Goan Democratic Party and increased the strength of the Congress legislature party to 26. But more is not neccesarily good in politics. It can cause acute indigestion. Luizinho Faleiro who in power has been even more despotic than Dr Wilfred D??™Souza or Manohar Parrikar sidelined senior Congress leaders like Francisco Sardinha. And consequently in the banana republic that Goa had by then become there was another coup. This time around of course Francisco Sardinha who would not know the difference between fundamentalism and secularism invited the Bharatiya Janata Party headed by Manohar Parrikar into his wide outstretched embrace. And Manohar Parrikar did a Shivaji on Afzal Khan Sardinha. Which resulted in the collapse of the Sardinha ministry. A major contributory factor was that the Congress man left behind, all sixteen of them of them were very restive when Sardinha toppled Luizinho Faleiro and became the chief minister. Without power, Congressmen like fish out of water cannot breathe. So Parrikar waited till by twos and threes various Congress leaders joined Sardinha. And then he delivered the coup de grace by withdrawing support to Francisco Sardinha. Since the Congress was so hopelessly splintered the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest group in the Assembly. Seeing the writing on the wall, a host of senior Congress leader were only too anxious to extend support to Manohar Parrikar to form the government. But Parrikar by then was aware of the perils of coalition governments. So Parrikar insisted that if they wanted power they had to join the BJP. So all the Khalaps and the Ravi Naiks and even Shaikh Hassan happily exchanged their Adidas and Nike shorts for khakhi cheddis. There was, however, one major problem. Parrikar had been talking too much about good governance. Whereas the Congressmen who joined the BJP believed that politics was purely a vehicle for private aggrandisement. Over a period of time denied the opportunity to loot and plunder on the scale they were accustomed the neo saffronites became restive. And unlike his Congress predecessors Parrikar took pre-emptive action and dissolved the Assembly prematurely. In the hope or perhaps the confidence that the BJP would be able to win a majority on its own. In the last elections if the Congress had shown the slightest instincts of self preservation, they could have inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Bharatiya Janata Party. Unfortunately for the Congress the High Command observer sent to Goa Ramesh Chennithala was even more rapacious and greedy and self-centered than the local sharks. So against all advise and even common sense tickets were given to tainted MLAs. Worse still under the direct orders of the High Command tickets were given to last minute defectors like Ravi Naik and Ramakhant Khalap. This did not exactly endear the Congress to the electorate. But even so the Congress could still have kept the BJP out if they had struck a deal with Dr Wilfred de Souza.The results proved that because of a Kramer vs Kramer kind of situation the Congress lost at least four seats. If there had been a seat adjustment betweent he Congress and the nationalist Congress the combine would have got a clear majority. As it happened the election virtually threw up a hung Assembly. The Congress got 16 seats and the BJP got 17 seats. The United Goans Party got three seats and the MGP got two seats. The United Goans at least were quite willing to join the Congress to form the government provided of course they got their pound of flesh. The tragedy was that at a time when the Congress should have been engaged in some hectic horse trading they were busy quarreling among themselves as to who should be the boss of the stable. So it was the Congress party particularly the christao leaders in the Congress party who have handed over the State to the saffron brigade on a platter. The BJP unlike the Congress has used its period in power very effectively to widen its base. And spread its tentacles to every part of Goa.Jobs were distributed like confetti to saffronites and those who were willing to embrace saffron. Parrikar systematically ensured that all goodies went to those who could be expected to support the BJP. When the Congress particularly under christao chief ministers also distributed jobs and the goodies of office. But they did not do so with the view to strengthening the party. Congress leaders ever always preferred hard cash. If you leave the land fallow it is overwhelmed by Congress grass. But since the Congress had lost all its roots it was a saffron grass which took root and has overwhelmed the political scenario in Goa. A decade ago the Bharatiya Janata Party could not attract even 500 people for its political rallies. The Bharatiya Janata Party expects 25,000 people to attend the installation ceremony of the new State president of the party and if the Congress and all those who still are a little literate about secularism do not resist the saffronisation of Goa, Goa will in the foreseeable future not only become saffronised but completely Moditvised. --------------------------------------------- Courtesy:Harsh Kapoor/SACW http://groups.yahoo.com/group/act |
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| << September28, 2003 - India Thinkers Net ( Amnesty Int'l Press Release) |
September28, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net ] RSS holds key to 'tribal treasury' >> |
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