By Rajan Narayan

AND A few more stray thoughts and a few more observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when Chief Minister Digamber Kamat was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. For a Sunday following the week when Digamber Kamat lost the confidence of the GBA and the other activists in Goa. For a Sunday following the week when the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti was allowed to lead the Shigmo parade in Margao, while the Bajrang Dal was forcibly kept out. For a Sunday following the week when the Director General of Police himself stepped out to enforce the law, presumably because he has no confidence that cops at the lower level will do so. For a Sunday following the week when the Tourism Department, unable to discipline the tourist taxi drivers or shack owners, came out with a booklet advising foreign tourists on how to be safe in Goa.

DONN BADMASH

AND a few stray thoughts on Chief Minister Digamber Kamat being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Or should it be the two badmashes Mickky Pacheco and Churchill Alemao? It began with Mickky Pacheco hijacking Churchill confidant, Nelly Rodrigues, the former chairperson of the Zilla Parishad and getting her elected unopposed. Mickky also succeeded in ruffling the feathers of Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira by getting his candidate elected in the Nuvem constituency in the Zilla Parishad polls. Churchill Alemao, along with irmao Joaquim Alemao and Reginald Lourenco, succeeded in getting the majority of his candidates elected in South Goa. Not only that, Churchill also managed to get his candidates elected to the post of chairman and vice chairman of the South Goa Zilla Parishad. To add insult to injury, Churchill cockily declared that the Congress did not need the NCP and should contest the next General Elections, whenever it is held, on its own. Mauvin Godinho rubbed salt into the wounds of the NCP by endorsing Churchill Alemao’s call to the Congress Low Command and the Congress High Command to snap ties with the NCP.

The group of seven promptly went running to NCP President Sharad Pawar. They complained bitterly that the Congress was not observing the basic dharma of a coalition government. They demanded disciplinary action against Churchill Alemao for suggesting that the Congress should snap ties with the NCP as it was capable of getting a majority on its own without the latter’s support. Digamber Kamat is in a fix. The fact remains that Churchill has consolidated his position in South Goa and has emerged as the strongman not only of Varca, but of the whole of South Goa — if one goes by the results of the Zilla Parisad elections.

TRUST DEFICIT

BUT nobody in the Congress trusts Churchill, who is capable of switching sides at the drop of a hat if he is offered better inducements by the other side. At the same time, traditional Congress heavyweights in the South such as Francisco Sardinha and Aleixo Sequeira seem to have lost their clout, at least in electoral politics in South Goa. The only man who could perhaps have cut Churchill Alemao to size, Luizinho Faleiro, is no longer involved in state politics having been promoted to the post of general secretary at the centre.

NOT CONCERNED

DIGAMBER Kamat is not concerned with either the Congress party or the NCP. The CM does not have many supporters within the Congress party itself as they see him as a BJP wolf in Congress’ sheep clothing. Digamber Kamat has been unable to build a group of his own loyalists in the Congress party. There have been indications that even GPCC president Subhash Shirodkar has no great regard for Digamber Kamat. When there was a demand for a change in the leadership of the Congress Legislative Party, Subhash Shirodkar is alleged to have endorsed the demand and favoured the return of Pratapsingh Rane to the chief minister’s kodel. But then Subhash Shirodkar also does not have much support in the Congress and became party president because of the support of the Ranes, papa Pratapsingh and son Vishwajit.

Digamber Kamat is in a fix because if he does not concede to the demand of the NCP to force Churchill Alemao to apologise for his remarks about the NCP, there is a real possibility that not just the NCP but the entire group of seven will withdraw support to his government. On the other hand, if Digamber Kamat concedes to the demand to drop Churchill Alemao from the cabinet, he may face revolt within his own party. There is a very remote chance of Churchill apologising to the NCP and the logical corollary will be a demand by the NCP to drop Churchill from the cabinet. Not just Churchill, but a large group of Congressmen including Dayanand Narvekar, Aleixo Sequeira and Mauvin Godinho strongly resent the group of seven dictating terms to the Chief Minister and the Congress party, which represents the largest group in the Legislative Assembly. The revolt by the group of seven and the counter revolt by Churchill and company comes at a very inopportune moment. Because the budget session of the Legislative Assembly is scheduled for March 22 and the government could be toppled if the group of seven or the rival faction headed by Churchill Alemao decide to withdraw support to the Digamber Kamat government by voting against the Finance Bill.

SLANGING MATCH

THE real reason for the slanging match between Mickky Pacheco and Churchill Alemao, which has precipitated the new threat to the Digamber Kamat government, is the politics of delimitation. There have been major changes in the Navelim constituency, which will affect Churchill’s chances of getting re-elected from the constituency which he snatched from veteran Congress leader, Luizinho Faleiro. So Churchill is now interested in contesting from the Benaulim constituency, which is now represented by Mickky Pacheco. Mickky in turn is wondering whether he would have better chances in the Nuvem constituency as his strongholds — Colva, Majorda and Betalbatim — are now part of the Nuvem constituency.

NUVEM

WHICH is why Mickky took so much interest and allegedly spent a lot of money to get his candidate elected from Nuvem, a village in which Power Minister Aleixo Sequeira has a major interest. This is in turn is because the Loutolim constituency now represented by Aleixo Sequeira has disappeared and has been replaced by the new Nuvem constituency. Similarly, there are problems between Jose Philip D’Souza and Mauvin Godinho as far as the new Dabolim constituency is concerned. Dabolim has replaced Cortalim, which is now represented by Mauvin Godinho. But part of the Dabolim constituency overlaps with the Vasco constituency represented by Jose Philip D’Souza. Which is why Jose Philip D’Souza kept objecting to Mauvin Godinho interfering in his constituency.

Unlike the South, there are no serious problems in the north because of de-limitation. There is a new constituency of Valpoi, which in any case is the stronghold of the Ranes. The other new constituency in the North, Porvorim, is considered a BJP stronghold with the probability that the present leader of the opposition will shift to Porvorim. There are no conflicts between the NCP and the Congress or even between members of the group of seven and the Congress in the North because of delimitation. Which is why the election to the post of chairperson and deputy chairperson of the North Goa Zilla Parishad was quite smooth with the Congress entering into a pact with the Yuvraj Sattari Yuva Morcha.

BROKEN PROMISES

AND a few stray observations on Digamber Kamat losing the confidence of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan and other activist groups. At the meeting with GBA, following the sit down protest outside his official residence, Chief Minister Digamber Kamat had assured the group that no mega projects would be permitted in the eco-sensitive zones identified in the Regional Plan 2021. He had also assured that, in the village three category, floor space index would be low because of high density of population.

The Chief Minister is very good at making promises, but not particularly good at keeping them. Despite his promise to the GBA and the village associations, the TCP Department has been unwilling to even look at charges that the DLF project in Vasco has violated several TCP rules relating to hill cutting. For the first time, the GBA spokesperson has insinuated that Digamber Kamat himself has a vested interest in the DLF mega housing project in Vasco. Never mind that the truth is possibly that it is Mauvin Godinho and possibly Aleixo Sequeira who are pushing the project and Digamber Kamat does not have the guts to antagonise them.

When village groups and the GBA protested to the Chief Town Planner, Ahmad Morad, against the granting of high floor area ratios in villages, which have been classified as high density areas in the Regional Plan 2021, Morad apparently claimed that he could not do anything as the Regional Plan 2021 is yet to be notified. So, legally, there is no bar to granting high floor space index, even to villages which are classified as densely populated and which should have low FARs. So the ball is back in the Chief Minister’s court. And considering the pressure from his cabinet colleagues and the group of seven, who have a vested interest in the mega projects, it is unlikely that the Town and Country Planning Minister Digamber Kamat will be able to keep his commitments to the GBA.

SEZ SETBACK

THE credibility of Digamber Kamat has received a further blow following the answer of the Union Ministry of Commerce to a question on the status of the SEZ in Goa. Though the CM has been insisting that not only the approval to the SEZs, but even the SEZ policy has been scrapped, the Centre has made it clear that the SEZs have not been scrapped as they are sub-judice. The cat came tumbling out of the bag when the SEZ promoters, who have got clearances both from the state and central government, complained to the High Court that the state government has been delaying filing its response to the claim by SEZ promoters that due processes were not followed in cancelling the allotment of huge amounts of land to land sharks pretending to be promoters of SEZs. Which means that, typically, Digamber Kamat has been sitting on the fence and has not taken any clear stand on the future of the SEZs which he claims have been scrapped. In the case of casinos also, the Chief Minister has been ambivalent though an order has been passed asking the casinos to get out of the River Mandovi.

MARGAO SHIGMO

AND a few stray thoughts on the Margao Shigmo parade organised under the chairmanship of Digamber Kamat. The committee which was entrusted with the task of screening the floats apparently decided to evict the Bajrang Dal, which had registered itself for participation in the float parade. Legitimately, because the Bajrang Dal wanted to participate with naked swords. The swords or the carrying of any lethal weapons would have created a security hazard. The Digamber Committee claims that in the past also the Bajrang Dal was banned from participating in the Shigmo parade. The real reason, of course, is that the float was apparently sponsored by Sharmad Raiturkar, the BJP candidate who had contested against Digamber Kamat in the last elections.

But the irony is that while the Bajrang Dal was refused permission to participate in the Shigmo parade, an equally communal organisation like the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti was not only allowed to participate in the parade but was even asked to lead the parade. Which is strange considering the close links between the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and the Sanatan Sanstha, which has been implicated in the Margao bomb blast. Indeed, the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have a common website. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is as rabid as the Sanatan Sanstha and is alleged to have filed more than 1200 cases in various parts of the country against the barefoot Picasso of India, M F Husain. It was the harassment and persecution by groups like the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti which compelled M F Husain to renounce his Indian citizenship and take up the offer of the citizenship of Qatar recently. So it is very strange that while the Bajrang Dal was kept out, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti was invited to lead the float parade. Will someone tell me whether the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti participants were carrying trishuls, which are as deadly and dangerous as swords? And talking of swords, what is the status of the case against the minority community residents of Moti Dongor, who were accused of having imported a large number of swords into the state?

COPS FRUSTRATED

AND a few stray observations on the high levels of frustration among the top cops like the Director General of Police and the DIG about political interference in the working of the Police Department. I understand that the DIG Ravindra Yadav and the Director General of Police were keen on arresting police inspector Ashish Shirodkar and the constables who have been implicated in the video posted on YouTube by Israeli drug peddler Atala. The video, which apparently shows the drug peddler boasting about his connections with police officers and politicians or at least the son of a major politician not to mention journalists, has created major embarrassment and a divide between local cops and the top bosses belonging to the IPS cadre. While the top bosses like the DGP and the IGP were insisting on the arrest of the police inspector, apparently orders from the Home Minister led to the delay in arresting Shirodkar. Presumably, the Home Minister may be worried that the enraged police inspector might implicate his son Roy, who is widely alleged to be involved with the drug mafia.

Forget about high profile cases of drug peddling and molestation of foreigners by politicians, the police are not even permitted to enforce the sound pollution act. Though it is well known that Nandan Kudchadkar’s Paradiso routinely violates all the laws, the police are not allowed to touch them. The frustration among the top cops led the DGP himself to conduct a raid in plain clothes on Paradiso and, on his insistence, a case has been registered against Nandan Kudchadkar’s night club. Whether anything will come of it given how well connected Nandan Kudchadkar is, is another matter all together.

TOURIST SAFETY

AND a last stray thought for yet another Sunday. The Tourism Department has been unable to persuade the police to ensure the safety of foreign tourists. The Tourism Department has been unable or unwilling to enforce its own rules regarding the number of beach beds shacks can put up. The Tourism Department, under political pressure, has been unable or unwilling to demolish illegal shacks. The Tourism Department has been unwilling or unable to regulate the functioning of water sports operators. The tourist police have proved useless and are more concerned about extortion than keeping the beaches free of lamanis and other traders. The Tourism Department, realising its importance, has now shifted the onus of looking after themselves to the tourists by bringing out the guide on how tourists should behave on and off the beaches.