To Goanet - The return of Manohar Parrikar to power in March 2012 was greeted with overwhelming relief and widespread optimism in Goa. He had been given a clear mandate by Goans to take charge, clean house, and usher in a new kind of political climate. They had forgiven the blunders and excesses of his past stints in the hope that the lessons of experience would lead an intelligent man like him to forge a new beginning. Many Goans believed that a wiser Manohar Parrikar would be the way out of the nightmare wrought by the criminal and corrupt Congress governments. For the first time in Goa’s post-Liberation history, Hindus and Catholics came together to place their aspirations and hopes in one man. And thus began in March 2012, on a high note, the new innings of Manohar Parrikar.
Early on, there were a few red flags that didn’t go unnoticed. Within days of assuming office, the complete reversal on casino policy and his silly verbal contortions to justify it dismayed many of his ardent supporters. Then within a few weeks he announced his plan to go ahead with a new airport at Mopa, surprising many, given the catalogue of far more urgent issues that needed attention. For a project of such magnitude, drawing on enormous resources of coin and land, you expected a strong case to be placed before the public, one borne out of a thorough study, a clear statement of the costs and benefits trade-off matrix. To our surprise, Manohar did nothing of the sort. When confronted with serious questions, he pulled out the rabbit of “freight” as the new justification for a new airport. None of his ad hoc explanations even passed the smell test and it took a strong pushback to slow down the Mopa proposal. After that we got the obscene hike in salary for his Advocate General and even more egregious, the attempt to sneak in a toothless Lokayukta. By this time, some 6 months into his term, the level of skepticism as regards Manohar-bab’s intentions and his intended direction for Goa had come under a cloud and the label “U-turn Parrikar” had stuck. Compounding matters was another unbelievable utterance that there was “no illegal mining in Goa” after the Supreme Court had halted all mining activity in the state. Be that as it may, Goans by and large were forgiving of these early missteps. The overriding sentiment was, give him some time to settle in and set things back on course. After all, the foul mess he had inherited from the Congress governments was not something that could be swept away overnight. On every conceivable front, Goa was in a terrible place. Fair-minded Goans were willing to cut him a lot of slack in the belief that he would eventually point the ship in the right direction. Which brings us to today. We are now two years into his term and it is time to take stock of the situation. The very first casualty of his term was the pre-election pledge he made to Goans: zero tolerance to corruption. It is now abundantly clear that it was simply a slogan that he had no intention of honoring. Right now there is not even a pretense. Cronyism, dipping into the public treasury for lavish personal domestic and foreign travel, looking the other way while favoured builders/contractors/friends/associates flout rules and regulations – all this is par for the course in this administration. There is no difference whatsoever as regards the vile public corruption of the Digambar Kamat era and the Manohar Parrikar era. Only the names in the list of beneficiaries have changed. Not a single corrupt individual of any significance has been held to account by Manohar Parrikar’s government. On everyday issues that matter the most to ordinary Goans – meaningful jobs for locals, hospitals and health care, water, primary schools, law & order, traffic safety – Manohar Parrikar and his team have been ineffective on each of these fronts. This govt’s idea of currying favour with Goans is to turn them into beggars via the doles and schemes that are periodically announced. Environmental destruction of Goa continues at a furious pace with Manohar’s blessings. Hills and forests continue to be depleted for construction projects, most of them aimed at outsiders. Goans are being rendered alien in their own land while the uncontrolled influx of migrants from all ends of the economic spectrum continues unabated. Manohar’s laughable defense when construction violations are brought to his attention is that the permissions to destroy Goa were approved by the earlier government! The reality is that the Manohar Parrikar govt is willfully looking the other way while their pals – the casino honchos and megabuilders – rake in the big bucks, Goa be damned. This govt has turned its back on many crucial issues such as curbs on the sale of land to outsiders, rampant land conversion and so on. The Regional Plan has been deliberately put on the back burner to allow builders close to this government ample time to manipulate deals and get their projects through. The activity that excites the Parrikar government the most is one where there is a lot of quick money to be made. In virtually every instance that means pouring more cement and concretizing Goa to death. And so, while dogs roam the corridors at Goa Medical Hospital and rats feast on rotting corpses at the hospital morgue, Parrikar and his band of yes-men go around erecting stadiums and hosting extravagant galas with crores upon crores of rupees the state cannot afford and does not have. This is their idea of “development,” the pies in the sky, all the things the favoured contractors can make a killing on. After all, the rupees siphoned off in kickbacks have to be couriered to Delhi to keep the party bosses happy. What we have seen unfold is a great tragedy. Manohar Parrikar has squandered the momentum, the goodwill and the political will granted him in a mere two years. He has brought no fresh ideas or originality of thought to the table. In his worldview, the only way to create jobs for Goans is by grabbing more of our scarce Goan land and pouring concrete on it. The “development” scam is so well-worn that anyone who raises concerns about this mule-headed thinking is declaimed as someone inimical to Goa’s progress. The very nefarious things that Manohar Parrikar and his acolytes accused Digambar Kamat's govt of doing are the things they now engage in with even more fervour. Which brings me to my verdict: Manohar Parrikar and his government have been an abject failure and the consequence of this failure is that Goa is now beyond redemption. On every measurable and perceptible metric, the Parrikar government has not only failed to deliver but has made matters worse. In the past I have written about the specific issues and areas that ought to have been the focus of any sensible administration. Finally, let me set one thing straight: Goa is beyond repair now. India has fully intruded on Goa and we are now part of the Indian sewer. Life will only get worse for the common Goan here on out. There are no good choices left for Goa. If Narender Modi becomes PM, that will give Manohar virtually unlimited power to ride roughshod over any political opposition and push through the grandiose projects that will enrich the favoured few while a few crumbs will be tossed here and there at Goans. Given the record of the past 2 years, that will only accelerate Goa’s decay. In my view, therefore, the more immediate imperative is for Goans to reject both Narender Modi and the Congress in the upcoming election. [I count on Manohar’s poodle army to have another hissy fit now. Likewise, the perpetual Manohar-haters will find enough here to have their fill. Neither of these two extremes is my intended audience. This commentary is aimed at the large, sensible Goan middle that can digest a point of view and reflect on it.]
