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 Luizinho Faleiro is reported to have stalled Babush Monserrate and Vishwajit Rane’s entry into the Congress. For a Sunday following the week when a frustrated and angry Monster Rat revived the group of seven MLAs who have attempted to topple the Digamber Kamat government on several occasions. For a Sunday following the week when a narcotics war divided the police force with Agnelo Fernandes determined to disprove Ravi Naik’s ridiculous claim that Goa was drug free. For a Sunday following the week when the Archbishop emulated the example of the outgoing Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who has been resisting demands for greater transparency in the functioning of the courts at the highest level. For a Sunday following the week when the former minister for state for external affairs and presently NRI Commissioner, Eduardo Faleiro, continued to display his contempt for the call for austerity by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

PLEA REJECTED

AND a few Stray thoughts on why the Congress High Command turned down the plea of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Subhash Shirodkar, to readmit Babush Monserrate into the party. It will be recalled that the GPCC President announced, more than two months ago, that the decks had been cleared for the entry of Babush Monserrate and Vishwajit Rane into the Congress party. I understand that the move to induct Babush and Vishwajit into the Congress had the blessing of Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, who probably felt that they would pose a lesser threat to his kodel if they became part of the Congress. As unattached members, they would be free to plot and plan the overthrow of the Digamber Kamat government as they had done several times in the past.

CRIMinal CASES

APPARENTLY Babush and Vishwajit, for their own reasons, were also keen on being admitted into the Congress. Babush, who is facing several criminal cases — the most serious of which is the attack on the Panaji police station, felt that he would enjoy greater immunity from the law if he formally joined the Congress party. But Babush, who finds himself out of his depth in the Education ministry which he now holds, apparently had set the condition that he should get the Industries and Mines portfolio currently held by the Chief Minister if he joined the Congress. As far as Vishwajit is concerned, he is aware that he has no political future as an independent MLA and only by joining the Congress he could fulfil his ambition of occupying the chief minister’s chair as his father Pratapsingh Rane did for several terms.

The options of joining the BJP or the NCP receded consequent to the poor performance of both these parties in the Lok Sabha elections. The virtual eclipse of the BJP at the Centre was also a factor in Babush wanting to return to the Congress. Babush was apparently promised that he would be taken back to the party by Priyaranjan Das Munshi in exchange for continuing support to the Digamber Kamat government during the most serious of the toppling bids. But Priyaranjan Das Munshi fell critically ill soon after and is reported to be in a coma in a Kolkata hospital, kept alive on life support systems.

PLANS AWRY

SUBHASH Shirodkar, for his own reasons, took up the cause of the admission of Babush and Vishwajit into the Congress with the High Command. It was all set and Shirodkar even announced that the duo would join the Congress before the winter session of the Legislative Assembly. The winter session came and went but there was no formal announcement from the party High Command. I understand that it was Luizinho Faleiro who put a spoke in the wheel and at least temporarily stalled Babush and Vishwajit’S entry into the Congress. The wily Luizinho Faleiro seized upon the stand taken by Congress President Sonia Gandhi that criminal elements and politicians against whom there were criminal cases should not be admitted into the party.

Luizinho apparently brought to the attention of the Congress President that a charge as serious as an attack on the Panaji police station was pending against Babush Monserrate. He also reportedly appraised the Congress High Command of Vishwajit Rane’s land deals. The Congress High Command, which is increasingly being influenced by Rahul Gandhi and his commitment to clean politics, decided that it would be inconsistent with its polices to admit Babush Monserrate back into the party in the light of the several criminal complaints against him. Seeing the unwillingness of the Congress High Command to admit them and perhaps irked by the delay, Babush first and then Vishwajit announced that they had changed their mind about joining the Congress party in a face saving gesture.

NOTORIOUS SEVEN

AND a few stray observations on the revival of the notorious group of seven by Babush Monserrate in retaliation for the rebuff from the Congress High Command. When it became clear that he was not going to be readmitted into the Party, despite the promises made to him by Subhash Shirodkar, Babush was back to his toppling games. The ostensible excuse was the nine month delay by the Chief Minister in clearing the file, who is also the finance minister, for the new cyberage scheme to provide computers to students. Though Digamber Kamat, in an attempt to appease Babush, cleared the file the very next day, Babush is not willing to forgive what he sees as a humiliation.

NCP GROUSES

BABUSH found a ready response from the NCP group supporting the Digamber Kamat government. The NCP has been bitterly complaining that Digamber Kamat has been violating the coalition dharma in not taking into confidence the coalition parties in taking major decisions. Mickky Pacheco has his own personal scores to settle with Digamber Kamat over the delay in taking action against his bitter enemy John Fernandes in the Russian molestation case. Jose Philip D’Souza, the NCP Minister for Civil Supplies, is nervous about being blamed for the sharp increase in the prices of essential commodities. It may be recalled that Jose Philip D’Souza suffered considerable embarrassment during the last Assembly session when it was admitted that large stocks of food grains in the warehouses had gone missing. There have also been charges that food supplies meant for below the poverty line schemes have been diverted to the open market with the blessing of the Civil Supplies Minister.

Jose Philip D’Souza, who is also the revenue minister, has also come under attack for conversion certificates issued to mega land sharks in violation of the spirit and letter of the Regional Plan draft 2021. Besides the three NCP members and the two spurned independent members Babush and Vishwajit, the other two members of the group of seven are the Dhavlikar brothers. Sudin Dhavlikar has been quite upset about being implicated in the Margao bomb blast and the scam related to the tenders for high security registration plates. So much so, all the members of the group of seven were only too happy to respond to Babush’s call for the revival of the group. It is not a coincidence that the first meeting of the group was held not in the Monserrate Mansion at Taleigao, but the official residence of the Transport Minister in Altinho.

REVOLT WITHIN

BUT the revival of the group of seven, who gave Digamber Kamat several anxious moments in the first two years of his reign as chief minister, are the least of his problems. Simultaneously, with the revival of the group of seven, Digamber Kamat also faces a revolt within the party from disgruntled MLAs. Not surprisingly, Churchill Alemao, who has aspirations of becoming the chief minister, has joined the revolt against Digamber Kamat. Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes and Goa Velha MLA Francis Silveira, who are aggrieved about not getting what they believe is their due share of the fishes and loaves of office, are also reported to have joined the chorus within the party for a change in leadership. I understand that the demand for toppling Digamber Kamat also has the support of Dayanand Narvekar, who was dropped from the cabinet by the Chief Minister when he was charge-sheeted in the cricket ticket scam case, and Mauvin Godinho, who is apparently frustrated over not being given the berth in the cabinet that he was promised.

SENIOR RANE

DIGAMBER Kamat cannot dismiss the latest threat to his government because, unlike during earlier revolts incited by the group of seven and disgruntled MLAs within the Congress party, this time around Speaker Pratapsingh Rane appears to be extending tacit support to the Digamber Kamat hatao move. In the past, Rane has refused to succumb to pressure, even by his son, to topple Digamber Kamat and replace him as the chief minister. The future of the Digamber Kamat ministry will depend on whether the Congress High Command is willing to amend its historical stand that, if for any reason Digamber has to be replaced, the choice for the leadership of the Congress Legislative Party wild be Ravi Naik, who was the original choice in any case. But then Ravi Naik has blotted his copy book by his miserable performance as the home minister. The probability is that Digamber Kamat will continue because of the TINA factor. There is no other alternative to the continuance of Digamber Kamat because there are too many contenders for the chief minister’s post if it is decided to bring about a change in the leadership.

DRUG WARS

AND a few stray thoughts on the narcotic wars, which stem from the determination of Agnelo Fernandes, the Calangute MLA, to prove that Ravi Naik is protecting and extending patronage to the narcotics trade in Goa. It may be recalled that, in the wake of the death of the young hotel employee from Bangalore who died of a drug overdose at the Sunburn festival, Ravi Naik insisted that Goa was not the epicentre of the narcotics trade in the country. This was immediately challenged by Agnelo Fernandes, who insisted that he knew the names of the drug dealers and could identify them. Never mind that when it came to the Sunburn festival itself, Agnelo Fernandes gave the organisers a clean chit, allegedly because they had taken care of him.

The festival, at which large scale consumption and peddling of drugs was allegedly rampant, took place in the Calangute constituency on a plot of land adjacent to the property of Agnelo Fernandes. Ravi Naik suffered further embarrassment when not only the Director General of Police, B S Bassi, but even the spokesman of the police, Atmaram Deshpande, publicly ridiculed Ravi Naik’s claims that no drugs were consumed or peddled at the Sunburn festival.

Not just Agnelo Fernandes, but a section of the police force who were apparently humiliated by Ravi Naik are also reportedly determined to embarrass Ravi Naik. Even as Ravi Naik continued to insist that Goa was not a major destination for the sale of narcotics, the SP North Goa, apparently with the encouragement of the DIG R S Yadav, launched a massive drive against drugs in the northern coastal belts. The raids were carried out without taking into confidence the Anti Narcotics Cell or even the coastal police stations. The raids may not have fetched much by way of seizures of drugs, but dramatised the deep divide within the police force.

The section of the police force which supports Ravi, which is headed by the Inspector General of Police has been carrying out counter raids against informants who tipped off the DIG, allegedly at the instigation by Agnelo Fernandes. The Inspector General is reportedly grateful to Ravi Naik for coming to his rescue when his son misused and damaged the former’s official vehicle. The fact that the SP North Goa and the DIG kept the Anti Narcotics Cell in the dark about their raids is a clear slap in the face of the Home Minister. The Anti Narcotics Cell was kept out because, historically, it has been perceived to be dancing to the tunes of the Home Minister and his son Roy who are together alleged to be the biggest patron saints of the drug trade in Goa.

We are inclined to believe that the competitive drug raids are more about equitable sharing of the loot and the plunder rather than any serious commitment or enthusiasm on cracking down on the drug trade. We refuse to believe that Agnelo Fernandes has suddenly woken up to the extent of the drug menace in Goa. Or that Ravi Naik does not realise that his claim that Goa is only a consumption centre and not a major destination for drugs is absurd. Obviously, Ravi Naik has not been sharing the loot and plunder with the coastal MLAs, who have allegedly been extending patronage to the drug trade for decades.

COLVA PRIEST

AND a few stray observations on the Archbishop’s defence of the Colva Parish Priest, Fr. Diego Fernandes, who allegedly incited and instigated the mob against Calvert Gonsalves. The Archbishop’s belated statement on the break down in law and order in Colva, when supporters of the parish priest ran amuck, is comparable to the stand taken by the outgoing Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Dr K G Balakrishna. The Delhi High Court, for the second time, has ruled that the higher judiciary falls under the purview of the Right to Information Act. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, on the other hand, has persistently taken a stand that the higher judiciary should be kept out of the purview of the Right to Information Act. This is part of the tradition of the higher courts, which have historically insisted that truth is no defence in contempt cases. The historical alibi for this stand is that the prestige of the judiciary and the people’s faith in it would be undermined if it was brought under the Right to Information Act. But, as the Delhi High Court has rightly pointed out, the higher judiciary will not come under threat unless it is transparent and seem to be transparent.

The Archbishop seems to be emulating the bad example of the Chief Justice in defending the Colva parish priest and virtually absolving him of any responsibility for the attack on the house of Calvert Gonsalves and the Colva bandh by the parishioners, which disrupted tourism in the peak season. As Derrick Almeida rightly pointed out in a discussion on the issue carried by Prudent Media, the allegations made by Calvert are not religious issues. That the parishioners would not have gone on the rampage without at least the tacit support of the parish priest, if not his active instigation. The district magistrate, under political pressure, compounded the situation by banning the CD arbitrarily, which he was not empowered to do according to a member of the Law Commission, Cleofato Coutinho.

The Archbishop and the Church in Goa are constantly condemning incitement of local communities by religious leaders belonging to other religious denominations. The Church has repeatedly asserted its right to back or even participate in agitations launched by NGOs. People who live in glass houses cannot afford to throw stones at others. The Church is as much accountable as any other religious or secular leaders in Goa or for that matter in the country. Just as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is behaving like an ostrich by insisting that the higher judiciary cannot be brought under the jurisdiction of the Information Commission, so also the Archbishop has disappointed thinking Christians by his exoneration of the Colva parish priest. There is a real risk that this will encourage the already widely prevalent corruption and indiscipline in the Church.

NOT AUSTERE

AND a last stray thought for yet another Sunday. The NRI Commissioner, Eduardo Faleiro, does not believe that the austerity measures stressed by Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi apply to him. Unlike the Congress President, who travelled to Goa to ring in the New Year in economy class, every time Eduardo goes to Delhi he insists on flying business class. Not only that, he insists on flying on Sunday evening when the fares are the highest, instead of Monday noon when they are much lower. I suppose that Eduardo Faleiro still thinks he is the minister for state for external affairs.