*********************************************************************** * G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * *********************************************************************** T H I S S P A C E C A N B E Y O U R S Advertise your Product(s) and Service(s) on Goanet & S u p p o r t G o a n e t o p e r a t i o n s F o r d e t a i l s c o n t a c t : [EMAIL PROTECTED] *********************************************************************** THE FIRST SPLITS By Valmiki Faleiro
Goa’s Opinion Poll of Jan 16, 1967 was historic. It was India’s only referendum, ever. The first MGP government had demanded Goa’s merger with Maharashtra. Big Brother, Maharashtra’s powerful lobby in Delhi, vigorously pursued the idea. The argument was that Goans had spoken their mind, pro-Merger, in the Dec-1963 elections. If that reasonably valid line was not accepted by New Delhi, and an Opinion Poll held, it was, primarily, thanks to two Goans: Purshottam Kakodkar and Dr. Jack de Sequeira. Kakodkar almost strained his sanity, and his personal equation with the Nehru family, selling the Opinion Poll idea. Sequeira shrewdly activated the then Mysore State lobby, led by the towering S. Nijalingappa, to counter Maharashtra’s influence. Queerly, the Opinion Poll led to free Goa’s first split, down the middle of the UGP. The second, in the MGP, occurred three years later. Both were genuine splits. Unlike later day `splits,’ naked defections actually, resorted to evade disqualification under the central Anti-Defection Act. The law stipulated that if one-third of a party’s elected strength broke away, it would be a ‘split,’ not a defection. Let’s look at the first splits. The UGP demand all along was for a plebiscite on lines of `Merger’ or `Statehood.’ The Congress Working Committee was meeting in Bangalore, ahead of the Sept 13, 1966 Congress Parliamentary Board’s resolution favoring an Opinion Poll in Goa. Karnataka leaders invited UGP leaders. Dr. Sequeira and some colleagues attended. The CWC agreed to recommend a poll on "Merger - Yes or No," not "Merger or Statehood." Without consultations, Dr. Sequeira agreed. Party MLAs back home rebelled against Dr Sequeira’s unilateral decision. They argued that a golden chance to secure forever Goa’s future as a separate State had been squandered. A poll victory would now mean Goa’s mere continuation as a centrally administered Territory, not an independent State. Of its twelve, six UGP MLAs split: Dr. Alvaro de Loyola Furtado, Joaquim Luis Araujo, Dr. Sebastiao Mazarello, Dr. Maurilio Furtado, Enio Pimenta and Urminda Lima Leitao. To their eternal credit, they did not quit immediately. They stayed back, campaigned hard against merger, and only after the Opinion Poll results, walked out. The Election Commission recognized them as the UGP-Furtado group. Goa’s second split happened in June-1970. DBB’s persona made him a much-loved, much-hated man. The masses worshipped him. But his legislature colleagues hated him, at least privately. DBB generally regarded people derogatorily. IAS officers were ‘Sogle bonde,’ IPS men ‘Te burr...’ and freedom fighters ‘blackists.’ FF Subodh Shetye actually kicked the CM. DBB addressed legislature colleagues in demeaning terms. Only a Brahmin, Minister of State Achut Usgaonkar, could swallow DBB’s insults and survive. DBB promised but did not deliver, particularly to his MLAs. He instantly believed in confidantes, seldom crosschecked. He chucked people. On June 6, 1970, DBB chucked party Gen. Secretary MS Prabhu, ostensibly for defalcating funds, and inducted 10 new members into the MGP Executive Committee, without any party consultations. In six years as CM, DBB was used to ‘yes’ men. There now were seven with self-respect, who decided to put some controls on his autocratic functioning. On June 8, seven MLAs including two ministers, led by KB Naik, party Vice- President since 1967, questioned DBB’s "dictatorial acts." Two days later, the old Executive Committee ‘censured’ him. On June 11, the rebels demanded that DBB quit, or face withdrawal of support. On June 19, ministers Anthony D’Souza and Gopal Mayenkar quit the four-member cabinet. Air was rife with DBB’s imminent fall. Dr. Sequeira told DBB those were his last days in the CM’s chair and that he (Sequeira) would soon sit in it. DBB muttered, "Bhoila aand." Quizzed, Dr. Sequeira and asked his deputy, Babu Naik, what that meant. Babu told the story of a fox that forever followed a bull, in the hope that the bull’s tantalizing testicles would someday fall and the fox would get to eat them. It never happened. The chair remained forever elusive to Dr. Sequeira. How DBB survived when reduced to a minority, we shall see next Sunday. On June 23, 1970, seven of MGP’s 16 (plus two nominated) MLAs broke away, to later form the `Nava-MGP’: party Vice-President KB Naik, ex-Ministers Anthony D’Souza and Gopal Mayenkar, Dy. Speaker Manju Gaonkar, Gajanan Patil, Dattaram Chopdekar and nominated MLA Jiva Gaonkar. Two lessons from Goa’s first two splits hold relevant. Both the UGP-F and Nava-MGP contested ensuing elections, ’67 and ‘72. None won. Goans, then, did not approve of even legitimate splits -- forget repeatedly re-electing naked defectors as in later years. Politicians, then, were men of some honour. Once rejected, they stayed home. Of the 13, only two who had tasted power, Anthony D’Souza and Gopal Mayenkar, joined the Congress.(ENDS) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ============================================================ The above article appeared in the February 11, 2007 edition of the Herald, Goa