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http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug232004/n5.asp Goa MLA shows way to circumvent anti-defection law The Congress alleged that the MLA who resigned acted "immorally" and for purely monetary considerations. PANAJI, DHNS: The resignation of Congress MLA Isidore Fernandes from the state assembly on Thursday, is a pointer to how small states like Goa are still vulnerable to political defections, despite the new amendments to the Anti-Defection Act. Worse still, is the influence and unabashed use of monetary enticements that have become a part of the political powerplay in states plagued with instability. Goa has a history of political machinations. It saw 13 chief ministers toppled in a span of 10 years between 1990 to October 2000, when the present incumbent, BJP Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar took over by engineering a host of defections in the Congress. Mr Parrikar who has been in power for four years, has so far managed to ward off some serious threats to his position, first by inducting two members from his allies into the BJP, and now, by influencing a Congress MLA to voluntarily give up his membership of the House. With two MLAs short of a clear majority on its own (the BJP has 19 members in the 40-member state assembly) the BJP-run coalition has been vulnerable to toppling snipes from the Congress-NCP combine. Far more troubling for law-makers who thought a degree of political propriety could be injected through the anti-defection law, is the open acknowledgement by politicians that personal gratification, and not political accountability, is what really influences the way MLAs behave in small states. Congress leaders made no secret on Thursday of their conclusion that Mr Fernandes, who is expected to switch loyalties to the BJP, had been influenced by the carrot of pecuniary gain. "He told a CLP meeting that he was being pursued by loan sharks. He had a Rs 38 lakh loan with an interest liability of Rs 40,000 a month. We offered to collect Rs 50,000 from each Congress MLA to help him tide over the crisis. But he dismissed this as 'chiken-feed' and said the other side had offered to write off the entire loan, apart from making over a substantial amount to him," Congress spokesman Jitendra Deshprabhu said. He said a BJP minister who is a known loan shark had met with Mr Fernandes several times in the past few days. Congress legislature party leader Pratapsingh Rane said in a more cryptic manner that "everyone knows what purpose he resigned for." He described the MLA's move as "disgraceful" and "immoral," and seemed disappointed that legislators in this state had "reached a point where they've lost faith in democracy." The BJP on the other hand, said Mr Fernandes, who sent in a brief note resigning his membership of the Congress on Friday, would be welcome into the saffron party. FEEDBACK TO THE WRITER at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
