Ram kasam, miracles do happen, or how else do you explain this?
Only last year, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told The New York Times that the Gujarat riots were a blot on Narendra Modi’s career and that he would have handled the violence situation more efficiently. Parrikar is now a favourite for a high-profile union cabinet post, possibly defence minister.
It is easy for people who aren't from the state to be taken in by the unassuming metallurgist with unkempt salt and pepper hair, who wears crumpled bush-shirts and scuffed sandals to work and has a reputation as a man who can perform miracles in governance.
Critics in Goa actually paint an image of the 58-year-old IITian in a magician’s hat, stylishly pulling rabbits out of it in quick succession.
Only the rabbits aren’t real.
A stellar reputation
Parrikar’s reputation as a modest man and an efficient administrator with zero tolerance for corruption is as much an urban legend as Tamil Nadu’s Ramar Pillai, who claimed to have invented herbal petrol.
Never has this been more evident than in Parrikar's third term as chief minister, when with an unprecedented simple majority in the 40-member state legislative assembly, he not only massively failed in his delivery of key manifesto promises, but also played a shadow minister for the mining, casino and real estate lobbies ‒ all of them together.
Here’s a case in point.
In July last year, the Justice M.B. Shah Commission indicted nearly every mining company worth its name in Goa in a Rs. 35,000-crore mining scam. As leader of opposition for seven years, Parrikar had gone hammer and tongs at the mining industry, alleging gross illegalities. As chief minister, Parrikar last week renewed the leases of the same mining companies. This despite the fact that the Supreme Court had cancelled all mining leases in Goa in April.
Parrikar’s renewal of mining leases goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise in his 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto to auction national resources.
Casino permissions
The other glaring contradiction was turning back on his promise of doing away with Goa’s casino industry, which has emerged as one of the most powerful lobbies in the absence of mining in the last two years. After threatening to drown Goa’s casinos in the Mandovi river when in the opposition (there are five operational offshore casinos and a dozen-odd onshore casinos in five-star resorts), the Parrikar administration gave permission to the Deltin group to launch the state’s biggest casino. This decision was made shortly after the conclusion of the 2013 BJP national executive meeting in Goa, where Modi was formally anointed the face of the 2014 poll.
Parrikar’s promise of "zero tolerance to corruption" and good governance comes into question if one considers the fact that one of his ministers, Ramesh Tawadkar (sports), has been charge-sheeted for rioting with arms, while Dilip Parulekar (tourism) is an accused in a land-grab and cheating case.
Further, Goa has a lame-duck State Information Commission, with only a Chief Information Commissioner and no mandated Information Commissioners. The incumbent CIC Leena Mehendale has on repeated occasions complained to the media about government apathy towards implementing the Right To Information act.
Even though the BJP's poll manifesto promised a Lokayukta in 100 days, Goa also has had no functioning anti-corruption ombudsman.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the Goa chief minister says that there are no organised drug gangs in the state. He made this claim in the state legislative assembly in August, even as documents tabled during the same session showed that there was a drug bust every week in the state, known for narco-tourism.
While there may not be much of a silver streak to the gloomy spell of Brand BJP governance in Goa over the last two and a half years, a saffron slip is definitely beginning to show.
In his first stint as chief minister in the early 2000s, Parrikar marched on the streets of Panaji in the Sangh uniform on Dussehra and even performed tricks with the lathi for the media and eager onlookers.
RSS leanings
In this third term from 2012, he has taken adequate care to not make such obvious mistakes. But he has indulged the Sangh Parivar in other ways. He has made budgetary allocations for a defence academy to run by Forum for Integrated National Security, a think-tank promoted by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Indresh Kumar. He also cleared the way for Baba Ramdev to teach yoga in government schools.
Parrikar’s refusal to publicly reprimand his cabinet ministers for reinforcing the idea of India as a Hindu nation and their clamour for a ban on "revealing clothes" only reveals the chief minister's carefully camouflaged hardline streak.
Now, Goa can feel proud about the fact that the state's chief minister will become the defence minister, the highest national political position to be held by anyone from the state. Goa can also feel relieved that the grand illusion of good governance created by the Parrikar government has ended and hope that someone new at the helm will actually put life here in order.
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Only last year, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told The New York Times that the Gujarat riots were a blot on Narendra Modi’s career and that he would have handled the violence situation more efficiently. Parrikar is now a favourite for a high-profile union cabinet post, possibly defence minister.
It is easy for people who aren't from the state to be taken in by the unassuming metallurgist with unkempt salt and pepper hair, who wears crumpled bush-shirts and scuffed sandals to work and has a reputation as a man who can perform miracles in governance.
Critics in Goa actually paint an image of the 58-year-old IITian in a magician’s hat, stylishly pulling rabbits out of it in quick succession.
Only the rabbits aren’t real.
A stellar reputation
Parrikar’s reputation as a modest man and an efficient administrator with zero tolerance for corruption is as much an urban legend as Tamil Nadu’s Ramar Pillai, who claimed to have invented herbal petrol.
Never has this been more evident than in Parrikar's third term as chief minister, when with an unprecedented simple majority in the 40-member state legislative assembly, he not only massively failed in his delivery of key manifesto promises, but also played a shadow minister for the mining, casino and real estate lobbies ‒ all of them together.
Here’s a case in point.
In July last year, the Justice M.B. Shah Commission indicted nearly every mining company worth its name in Goa in a Rs. 35,000-crore mining scam. As leader of opposition for seven years, Parrikar had gone hammer and tongs at the mining industry, alleging gross illegalities. As chief minister, Parrikar last week renewed the leases of the same mining companies. This despite the fact that the Supreme Court had cancelled all mining leases in Goa in April.
Parrikar’s renewal of mining leases goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise in his 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto to auction national resources.
Casino permissions
The other glaring contradiction was turning back on his promise of doing away with Goa’s casino industry, which has emerged as one of the most powerful lobbies in the absence of mining in the last two years. After threatening to drown Goa’s casinos in the Mandovi river when in the opposition (there are five operational offshore casinos and a dozen-odd onshore casinos in five-star resorts), the Parrikar administration gave permission to the Deltin group to launch the state’s biggest casino. This decision was made shortly after the conclusion of the 2013 BJP national executive meeting in Goa, where Modi was formally anointed the face of the 2014 poll.
Parrikar’s promise of "zero tolerance to corruption" and good governance comes into question if one considers the fact that one of his ministers, Ramesh Tawadkar (sports), has been charge-sheeted for rioting with arms, while Dilip Parulekar (tourism) is an accused in a land-grab and cheating case.
Further, Goa has a lame-duck State Information Commission, with only a Chief Information Commissioner and no mandated Information Commissioners. The incumbent CIC Leena Mehendale has on repeated occasions complained to the media about government apathy towards implementing the Right To Information act.
Even though the BJP's poll manifesto promised a Lokayukta in 100 days, Goa also has had no functioning anti-corruption ombudsman.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the Goa chief minister says that there are no organised drug gangs in the state. He made this claim in the state legislative assembly in August, even as documents tabled during the same session showed that there was a drug bust every week in the state, known for narco-tourism.
While there may not be much of a silver streak to the gloomy spell of Brand BJP governance in Goa over the last two and a half years, a saffron slip is definitely beginning to show.
In his first stint as chief minister in the early 2000s, Parrikar marched on the streets of Panaji in the Sangh uniform on Dussehra and even performed tricks with the lathi for the media and eager onlookers.
RSS leanings
In this third term from 2012, he has taken adequate care to not make such obvious mistakes. But he has indulged the Sangh Parivar in other ways. He has made budgetary allocations for a defence academy to run by Forum for Integrated National Security, a think-tank promoted by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Indresh Kumar. He also cleared the way for Baba Ramdev to teach yoga in government schools.
Parrikar’s refusal to publicly reprimand his cabinet ministers for reinforcing the idea of India as a Hindu nation and their clamour for a ban on "revealing clothes" only reveals the chief minister's carefully camouflaged hardline streak.
Now, Goa can feel proud about the fact that the state's chief minister will become the defence minister, the highest national political position to be held by anyone from the state. Goa can also feel relieved that the grand illusion of good governance created by the Parrikar government has ended and hope that someone new at the helm will actually put life here in order.