Hot Goan curry

Goa Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane, technically speaking, won his vote of confidence, with some invaluable assistance from pro-tem speaker Francisco Sardinha. The victory, however, carried with it no flavour of conviction, came bereft of the spirit of meaningful democracy and, indeed, offered little promise of stability. It was yet another event in the string of farces that has characterised the state’s politics ever since the earlier chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, dismissed Antanasio Monsserate, the minister of town and country planning, in January and very shortly thereafter found himself without a chair.

There are no saints in this story. Manohar Parrikar is certainly no saint. His party, the BJP, got to rule Goa with the ballast provided by various interested individuals who had originally owed their allegiance to parties of the opposition. He did this, presumably, by making them offers they could not refuse. The earlier speaker, Vishwas Satarkar, was no saint when he won for Parrikar a vote of confidence by disqualifying from the assembly a member of the opposition. Governor S.C. Jamir was no saint when he decided — whether on instructions from the Congress high command or not — that the Parrikar government deserved to be dismissed given the impropriety of the speaker, and then did not even wait until daylight to swear in the Rane government. Pro-tem Speaker Sardinha was no saint when he chose to disqualify a member from the United Goans Democratic Party — who chose for whatever reason to ignore his party’s whip and throw his lot in with the BJP in this instance — and thus ensured that Rane won his vote of confidence. Rane is no saint. He has already announced that all the MLAs defecting to his party will be fielded by the Congress in forthcoming by-elections.

This is no resolution, it is a curry — a hot Goan curry redolent with the spices of opportunism and capriciousness. The only way to clear the air, to cut through the ambiguities that the various self-serving defections have introduced, is to order a fresh election in the state. The Union cabinet, perhaps as response to the tongue-lashing that had come the Central government’s way over its sorry seizure of the Jharkhand assembly, expressed its unhappiness over the Goa vote and recommended President’s Rule in the state. However, the only long-term way out of the mess the state now finds itself is to go back to the people. There really are no half-measures.