Why the Goa vote should worry the BJP Goa Forward has squandered a political future to become BJP's C team
Devika Sequeira devikaseque...@gmail.com One of the factors Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has persistently harped on to justify his party's wizardry in conjuring the numbers and rejigging a verdict, is that the BJP got a higher vote share than the Congress in this election. "While we did not get the numbers, we got 34.5% of the vote share, whereas the Congress got 28%," he stressed again in an interview in this newspaper (TOI March 20, 2017). The actual statistics are 32.5% and 28.4%. But never mind the minutiae. When it had made an aggressive bid for power on its own in 2002, the BJP had managed 17 seats and 35.5% of the vote. With just one seat less at 16, and 38.4% of the vote, the Congress had a higher vote share in that election. But it was the BJP that went on to form the government with the UGDP at the time, and no one even glanced at the vote share. Politicians often contort themselves into knots to defend the indefensible, on the arrogant assumption that with the muscle of central power to back them, they are answerable to no one -- till the next election. But behind the BJP's compulsion to grab power in Goa at all costs lurks a story no one's talking about, certainly not those twisting the verdict of defeat to make the vanquished somehow appear victorious. Seven of the 13 BJP's elected MLAs are Catholics. As one local newspaper put it, the Catholics saved the BJP the ignominy of a single-digit defeat like the Congress in 2012. Yet the party has remained resolutely silent on this unexpected majority of 'minorities', though it went to town about six 'Catholic MLAs' in its kitty in 2012 . The result probably astonished Modi's lieutenants more than anyone and explains the alacrity with which Parrikar agreed to give up one of the highest positions in the country (he becomes the first defence minister ever to give up the post to return to state politics) to return to Goa. The move also saved the BJP the embarrassment of confronting the obvious: would it ever allow a Catholic to head a BJP government in Goa? The thought becomes relevant in the light of the BJP elevating the party's most polarising figure, Yogi Adithyanath, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. I put the question to Michael Lobo, credited with playing a key role in roping in Vijai Sardessai and Co. "If I was responsible for bringing Vijai, why am I not a minister in the government?" he asks. Is there a hint of resentment in his cryptic reply? "Ask Francis D’Souza," Lobo went on to add, highlighting the fact that the BJP's longest-serving and most loyal 'Catholic MLA' had not even attempted to "stake his claim" to the top post. Far more worrying for the BJP no doubt, is its rejection in 2017 by a huge segment of the Hindus. Whatever spin Parrikar and his media cronies are attempting post government formation, there's no denying the Congress won 17 seats and BJP just 13. Both were contesting without alliances. These are their intrinsic strengths. Where the BJP has been worst stung is in the OBC (other backward classes) vote. The Bhandaris, who comprise the majority of the 27% OBC vote, deserted the BJP and MGP and turned back to the Congress. A political observer said the election proved Ravi Naik and Subhash Shirodkar "are the real leaders of the Bhandari samaj". The government is currently upper caste top heavy -- Parrikar, Sardessai, Dhavlikar, Khaunte, Pauskar -- and Parrikar's desperation to recover his party's footing among the Hindu majority is reflected in his opportunistic move to try and lay siege to the Congress stronghold of Sattari working on the bloated ambitions of the immature Vishwajeet Rane and throwing baits at whoever else in the Congress will take it. Just as it did with Mauvin Godinho and Pandurang Madkaikar, Parrikar is now willing to make compromises with any "winnable candidates" the BJP wouldn't have touched with a barge pole a few years ago. In their attempt to spite the Congress, more particularly Luizinho Faleiro, what the Goa Forward's cocktail club boys have achieved by their self-serving ploy is to reduce the local party to the same level of the numerous untrustworthy cut-throats that have preceded them, the Save Goa Front, UGDP, GVP to name some. The GF has squandered a political future to become the C team of the BJP. It cannot even aspire to the 'B' position long occupied by the MGP. Sardessai himself will probably need the BJP's help to get elected in Fatorda in the future. So will Rohan Khaunte in Porvorim. One doubts their voters are going to be as forgiving as they have of their brazen betrayal. Margao businessman Datta Naik who acted as the go-between between the Congress and Goa Forward said though he initially believed the tie-up between the two parties would have helped them get a clear majority, from the manner events unfolded he is not certain Sardessai would have stuck to his end of the bargain. He has learnt since that GF's leap to the BJP camp had been planned by Sardessai long ahead of the election in connivance with Parrikar, Michael Lobo and Nandan Kuchadkar, the owner of LPK and the shining knight of Goa's night club scene. It is time the Catholics in Goa stop seeing themselves as 'minorities' and second class citizens. A community that is more than a quarter of a state's population is in no minority. Nor is it in need of the "protection" of political big daddies of the likes of Parrikar or Sardessai. The Constitution does that without making any distinctions. ENDS [A version of this article was earlier carried in the Times of India]