Parrikar turned his back on coalition dharma...and fell ![]()
PRAKASH KAMAT
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TIMES NEWS NETWORK
PANAJI: Notwithstanding ousted CM Manohar Parrikar�s claim that his government collapsed on account of his action against a corrupt minister in the interest of Goa, it was his inability to abide by the �coalition dharma� that led to his downfall.
Armed with the image of a performer and passionate about all-round development of Goa, Mr Parrikar brought a semblance of stability to the state perennially ridden with defections.
His detractors termed his style of functioning autocratic and questioned his fast-track projects of infrastructure development, but the majority felt he delivered the goods.
His functioning was in contrast to the frequent toppling games, which brought to power �fly by night� operators.
However, Mr Parrikar�s survival plan seemed suicidal. He dangerously began poaching the MLAs of his allies � the two regional outfits � which had anointed him to power, following a fractured mandate.
To add to
the embarrassment and resentment of the parties like UGDP, which have a predominantly Catholic vote base, he chose to ignore their suggestion to shelve the controversial CD on Goa�s freedom struggle.
The government�s decision directing aided schools to screen the CD had annoyed the Goa Church and Catholics at large, who saw it as the BJP CM�s subtle way of pushing the RSS� communal agenda.
After the issue spiralled into a controversy, Mr Parrikar sought to undo the damage by seeking suggestions to amend the CD through a committee instead of shelving it.
The seeds of the present problem were sown in the fractured mandate of the May �02 general polls. BJP won 17 seats against 16 of the Congress (I) in the 40-member house and was backed by an independent.
It was the inability of the faction-ridden Congress legislative party to elect its leader in time that forced regional outfits UGDP and MGP with three and two MLAs, respectively, to back Mr Parrikar for
a coalition government.
Of the two, UGDP has been an outshoot of Congress� internal power struggle, which manifests during every election in the form of rebels and ejected people from Congress standing as candidates.
This party, ideologically close to Congress, chose to join Mr Parrikar to oppose Congress. The MGP, on the other hand, had been traditionally a moderate Hindu mass-based party, which was being eroded by the arrival of BJP on Goa�s political scene.
Once in power, Mr Parrikar opted to split the two allies by inducting one MLA from each of the parties into BJP, raising the strength of the leading party in the coalition to 19.
The coalition partners were too weak to protest. With the change in government at the Centre, Mr Parrikar got a setback. BJP-appointed governor Kidar Nath Sahni was replaced by Congressman SC Jamir.
With the attempts of destabilisation from the Congress on the rise, Parrikar decided to take the battle in the enemy
camp by striking at the Congress legislative party.
Isidore Fernandes, a disgruntled Congress MLA obliged BJP by resigning and getting elected on a BJP ticket in the by-election.
While many saw this as a master stroke from the shrewd CM, who had managed to take the BJP tally to 20, the seeds of discontent among more ambitious elements within the coalition were sown.
The Congress continued to tacitly back disgruntled ministers like Anatasio Monserrato, MLA who was brought into BJP from UGDP and was not good news for Parrikar.
Parrikar�s gamble of inducting into BJP Micky Pacheco, a UGDP MLA who was thrown out of the Cabinet by him a few months back to accommodate UGDP MLA Mathany Saldanha, proved the fatal blow.
With the number of BJP MLAs within the coalition increasing to 21, the magical clear majority, Parrikar decided to strike at Monserrato by stripping him of his town and country planning ministry, which culminated into the present
crisis.
Parrikar�s BJP, which won 17 seats in the last Assembly elections is now back to 17.
- Forwarded by www.goa-world.com
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