Parrikar's absence casts a shadow after a year in power Lack of second rung leadership a major handicap for Goa BJP
Devika Sequeira devikaseque...@gmail.com Less than two weeks since he returned from the Mumbai hospital for the budget session, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was flown out to the US for treatment. The brief video message and photographs put out before he left leaves little doubt about how seriously ill he is. Which brings up the question: why was he even allowed to return to Goa at serious risk to his health? Bravado, sentimentality and secrecy -- a large dose of which have been put on display by the BJP and its supporters these past few weeks -- are the last thing someone battling a critical condition needs. In pretending there's not much wrong with the chief minister and denying him a break from the strain of heading a government while he recuperates, the BJP and Parrikar's admirers are doing him more harm than good. Political parties exist after all purely for the pursuit of power and keeping its grip on government at all cost seems to be the BJP's key concern currently. Though he never served a full term as chief minister (this is his third time in the seat) there's no denying the BJP might have been only on the fringes of politics in Goa had it not been for Parrikar. Whether in power or in the opposition, ideology, immense ambition, political astuteness and ruthlessness have driven the man. They came into play at the very beginning of this term in the selective targeting of those in the opposition -- Digambar Kamat, Babu Kavlekar -- and the open compromise with others like Vijai Sardesai and Babush Monserrate. That has been the saffron party's big advantage in Goa: a single leader surrounded by marionettes ready to fall in line -- they did so even when the allies took the biggest slice of Cabinet posts -- as opposed to the Congress and its bulge of inflated leaders with personal agendas. But what was until now an advantage has turned into a handicap in the absence of a second line of command that would qualify -- in the BJP book, ties to the RSS would come on top -- to take over in Parrikar's absence. The three-member cabinet advisory committee was probably the best option available given the urgency of the situation and the challenges of holding together an ideologically disparate coalition to stay in power. The Congress has questioned its constitutional validity, and the chief minister's prolonged absence is likely to raise suspicions over who is actually calling the shots in Goa: the executive or the bureaucracy steered by remote from the BJP's nerve-centre in Delhi. What stands out in this ad hoc arrangement is Parrikar's decision to not nominate an acting chief minister to fill in for his long and uncertain absence. This displays his lack of confidence and trust in any single member of his lead team -- Sudin Dhavlikar, Sardesai, Francis D'Souza -- as much as it accentuates the shakiness of the opportunistic coalition patched together despite the BJP's clear defeat in last year's election. The three-man steering boat appears to have sprung a leak already as Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral's outburst displays. The assertions by the MGP and Goa Forward that their support would continue only so long as Parrikar is chief minister only amplify the political uncertainties ahead for this government. Parrikar's absence coincides with the culmination of a year in power, and the report card is hardly flattering. Confusion rather than achievement dominates the government's score. The defining image is the centre's rebuff to our grovelling elected representatives who wanted a Supreme Court ruling overturned to mollify their miner friends at the expense of ordinary citizens. Across Goa, panchayats are in an uproar over the inclusion of their villages in the PDAs, the bodies that have become synonymous with payoffs and kickbacks. Mounting public anger has compelled Congress MLAs Francis Silveira and Tony Fernandes to resign from the greater Panaji planning and development authority (GPPDA) constituted purely to accommodate Monserrate after his backing to Parrikar's election in Panaji. Further north, the skulking Michael Lobo who wants to expand his area of control under the NGPDA is likely to face a similar response in Calangute, Candolim and Parra. These issues, a consequence of the politics of compromise and appeasement, were festering long before the chief minister took ill. A golden opportunity presents itself to TCP minister Sardesai to now sort out the mess and prove he is after all CM material. Will he take on the challenge? ### This article first appeared in an edited version in the Times of India, Goa.