EVILDOERS: If Dhavalikar becomes the chief minister or acting chief minister, he might try to implement “Spiritual Practices of protecting seekers and destroying evildoers including those fighting against ‘false spirituality’ — which would mean activists like Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Narendra Dabholkar

BY RAJAN NARAYAN

Goa faces the dreadful possibility of Sudin ‘Sanatan’ Dhavalikar becoming the chief minister or holding charge as acting chief minister. This could lead to control of the Goa government by Jayant Athavale, whose followers are allegedly involved not only in murders, but conspiracies to explode bombs to create enmity between communities. Unfortunately, other jackals in waiting are Vijai Sardesai, Vishwajit Rane and Luizinho Faleiro — none of whom are much better

With the BJP high command apparently having taken the decision to retire ailing chief minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar, there is a strong possibility that Sudin ‘Sanatan’ Dhavalikar will become the new chief minister. Even the prospect of Sudin Sanatan Dhavalikar becoming the acting chief minister or the deputy chief minister in charge of the state during the continued absence of Manohar Parrikar is very frightening.
The BJP legislators and the core group of the party may insist that only a serving or former BJP MLA should take Manohar Parrikar’s place temporarily or permanently. Manohar Parrikar himself and a section of the BJP would like a temporary solution to the continued absence of Parrikar. But the G-6 group (three GF MLAs and three independent MLAs), led by Vijai Sardesai is insisting, perhaps rightly, on a permanent solution.
This seems sensible considering that in the last seven months, Manohar Parrikar has spent more time in hospitals than as chief minister functioning from Goa. Even this time around, although he came two days ahead of schedule to celebrate Chaturthi, he had to be hospitalised because his system still cannot digest solids. The continuous liquid diet apparently made him very weak. We do not know what the cause was, and if it was temptation to eat modak, but soon after his return he was admitted to the Dukle hospital in Candolim, which incidentally is managed by the family of his brother-in-law.
The never say die chief minister did manage a very brief date with Shri Ganesh at his ancestral residence at Parra. He took a half hour break to go to his ancestral home at Parra before returning to the Dukle hospital where presumably he was back on drips.
This time around the BJP high command has obviously decided that he can’t be sent back to New York at government expense, considering that he goes back and forth between Goa and New York even more often than he used to travel between Delhi and Goa for his fish curry when he was defense minister.
At the time of writing he is in the best medical institution in the country, the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS) under the care of their Gastroenterology Department. There is no question of his being treated in Goa as there is no Gastroenterology Department in GMC.

GADKARI FAVOURITE
The odds seem to favour Dhavalikar because he is very close to Union Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari, who is the most important BJP leader after Narendra Modi. Nitin Gadkari is not only from Nagpur, the RSS headquarters, but he is very close to the Sangh Parrivar. Gadkari has a well-deserved reputation as an extremely efficient minister.
It was during his tenure as PWD minister of Maharashtra that more than 20 flyovers were built in Mumbai. More significantly, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was built — faster and cheaper than the estimates. The ambitious project of strengthening the network of national highways, including creation of a dedicated corridor from Nagpur to Mumbai, is Nitin Gadkari’s idea.
It is also rumoured that Nitin Gadkari’s son is all set to marry Sudin Dhavalikar’s daughter. When the BJP team of observers came to Goa, Sudin Dhavalikar made it very clear that as the senior-most member of the Cabinet, he expected to be made acting chief minister.
Never mind that Dhavalikar himself is very sick — having allegedly undergone a liver transplant as well as a cardiac procedure. You can see that he is unwell in photographs that have appeared after his return from hospital.
While Nitin Gadkari is likely to push for the appointment of Sudin Dhavalikar as acting chief minister or even chief minister, it is doubtful whether the BJP has the numbers to achieve this.
Besides the BJP would expect him to merge the MGP with the BJP before appointing him acting or full-fledged chief minister. The other MGP MLAs, excepting his brother Deepak Dhavalikar, and the cadres of MGP, will strongly object to the merger of the MGP with the BJP. Indeed, the MGP is a party which was deserted not by its cadres, but by its leaders like Sashikala Kakodkar, Ravi Naik and Ramakant Khalap.
Ideologically of course, Dhavalikar, with his close links to the Sanatan Sanstha, would be the favourite choice of the RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat. There is no doubt in our mind that the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti are frontal organisations of the RSS.
SUDIN IN CHARGE?
What would be the consequences if Sudin Dhavalikar becomes even the acting chief minister?
We presume it will be Jayant Athavale, who heads the Sanatan (which has been implicated not only in murders but in bomb explosions too), who will do the back seat driving. If Sudin become the chief minister he will no doubt treat the Science of Spirituality Vol 1E (Spiritual practice of protecting seekers and destroying evil doers) as his guide.
Let us look at what is in store for Goa if Sudin Dhavalikar, patron of Sanatan Sanstha, becomes the chief minister. Among the targets of the chief minister will be “the politicians of today who want to establish their rule simply to acquire money and respect for themselves”. Never mind that Dhavalikar heads the list of ministers who have allegedly acquired money and power for themselves.
The reason why comrade Pansare was killed is probably because the Sanatan considers union leaders a smaller version of politicians.
According to Jayant Athavale, union leaders “can never think about the entire society. Union leaders are a smaller version of politicians but even more self-centred”. Bankers also have much to fear if Sudin Dhavalikar has to follow the spiritual practice of destroying evil doers as prescribed by Jayant Athavale. In his book (section 14D) Athavale has asked seekers or sadaks to

punish evil doers — he urges sadaks to “fell the trunk instead of cutting off the branches. This means that if or in an office the officer, clerk, peons take bribes the officer should be eliminated.”
All citizens of Goa may also become the targets of the Sanatan. Because according to the spiritual practice of destroying evil doers, passive supporters of evil doers are evil doers also. “Along with evil doers, all those who know about their evil doings, those who survive on the money generated from their current practices such as their family, should also be destroyed.
Athavale’s preaching are the opposite of that of Gandhi or Vivekananda who is the new icon of the RSS.
‘SIN NOT TO SLAY’
According to Jayant Athavale violence towards the evildoers is non violence. “punishing an unrighteous man does not tantamount to violence. He further clarifies “in this context violence does not mean inflicting unhappiness but implies harm. Indeed, according to Athavale, “it is a sin not to slay an evildoer”.
There is even a very detailed procedure prescribed in a book on how to train seekers to destroy evildoers. Here, evildoers don’t only include vegetable vendors who cheat on weights, those adulterating food grains and petrol, taxi drivers who charge excessively, mechanics who cheat and selfish union leaders, they even include those ‘making false propaganda against false spirituality’.
Presumably, Dabholkar, comrade Pansare, Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh and even Damodar Mauzo (who has been threatened) come under the last category.
NUMBERS GAME
Anything can happen in Goan politics. But fortunately the numbers are against Sudin Dhavalikar at present at least. Though in theory the BJP by itself has 14 MLAs, including Vishwajit Rane, who recontested on the BJP ticket, in practice there are only 10 MLAs.
This is because four of their MLAs are in poor health. Manohar Parrikar and Sudin Dhavalikar, the second senior most in the Cabinet, have not fully recovered. Former Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza is away in New York attending to complications following a kidney transplant. Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar, like Goa’s power system, is more off than on, and no one knows if he has recovered from his coma.
Even with the support of the three MGP MLAs the numbers add up to only 13 if there is a floor test. The BJP cannot do with the support of GF and the three independents who have come together to make up a group of six. Even if you take the six into consideration the numbers may only add up to 19, well short of the majority of 21. Since Promod Sawant, whom Parrikar has been promoting for the chief minister’s post, is the Speaker, he cannot vote unless there is a tie.
This is the best opportunity for the Congress to topple the BJP and form the government. Even after the defection of Vishwajit Rane they still have 16 MLAs. If the group of six Goa Forward and Independent MLAs join the Congress the numbers add up to 22 which means they can stake their claim to form the government and get their member elected as the Speaker too.
But this will not happen because the Congress is busier fighting among themselves than toppling the BJP and forming the government.
Though Girish Chodankar is an honest and efficient leader, he has no money and the Congress High Command is broke. I understand salaries have not been paid of those in the Congress office.
The Congress lost the chief minister’s post because of the fight between Luizinho Faleiro and Digambar Kamat. It will lose the fight to take advantage of the situation created by the illness of five BJP MLAs because Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat will not let a young Reginald Lourenço or Girish Chodankar become chief minister.
The only hope is that the AAP reinvents itself with a more popular leader with a mass base. In fact, AAP should project Reginald Lourenço as chief minister, and call for dissolution of the Assembly and fresh elections in the state.

BATTLING PANCREATIC CANCER
Two senior BJP leaders are reportedly suffering from the same deadly disease at the same time — Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar and union parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar. While Parrikar is admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, Kumar is believed to be undergoing treatment in London.
The government and the party have not revealed any information about the condition of the two leaders, but it is reported that both are afflicted by pancreatic cancer, which oncologists call the “worst cancer” of them all.
“Pancreatic cancer is not easy to detect. The symptoms are often subtle. More often than not, you catch it at a later stage,” Dr Sameer Kaul, senior oncologist at Apollo Hospitals told ThePrint.
Unlike most other types of cancers, survival rate in pancreatic cancer is “very low”, Kaul said.
Dr Abhishek Shankar, assistant professor at the department of preventive oncology, AIIMS, agreed. “It is the worst type of cancer anyone can have,” he said. “If it is diagnosed at an early stage — a receptacle local tumour — then the survival is 20 months. If it has locally advanced, then the expected survival is 10 months. If it has reached the metastasis level, then survival is only about five months.”
Why it’s difficult to diagnose
Diagnosis is often delayed and pancreatic cancer is found only when it has hit a later stage.
“The abdomen is a large area, so if anything starts enlarging, unlike the brain, it takes time for symptoms to appear. For example, abdomen pain cannot lead to a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer directly. Only when it spreads to areas like the liver do the symptoms start showing up,” said Shankar.
The most common symptoms of this cancer are jaundice, weight loss, nausea, vomiting and back pain. “The pain can get so bad that you find people doubled over,” said Kaul.
It also spreads faster than many other types of cancers, which makes it difficult for doctors to control it.
Main types and treatment
Doctors say pancreatic cancer is of many kinds, but two of them are most common: Adenocarcinoma (exocrine) and neuroendocrine cancer.
Adenocarcinoma
“The most common type is adenocarcinoma. It arises from the glandular cells and usually blocks the ducts. It can start from the head of the pancreas, and sometimes the body or tail, and spread to the bile duct and the pancreatic duct,” said Kaul.
“It can sometimes infiltrate over the duodenum and obstruct the passage of food.”
If not diagnosed early, adenocarcinoma can spread to major vessels like the superior mesenteric artery and portal vein — a major drainage vein conveying blood to liver from stomach, pancreas, spleen and intestines.
“If it infiltrates to these areas of the body, it becomes inoperable. Locally, it further spreads to the stomach, colon, lymph nodes around the aorta and travels in the blood stream,” Kaul said.
He added that if adenocarcinoma is found at an early stage, the first method of treatment is an operation called “whipple”, in which the head of the pancreas, the first part of the small intestine (duodenum), the gallbladder and the bile duct are removed.
The second line of treatment varies from targeted therapy and radiation therapy to chemotherapy.
Neuroendocrine — greater hope of survival
Neuroendocrine cancer can occur in any of the endocrine (hormone-producing) glands, of which pancreas is one. A person can survive longer if afflicted by this disease than adenocarcinoma.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs suffered from this type of cancer.
The treatment for this type of cancer is chosen after identifying the speed of growth, Kaul said.
If it is a slow-growing cancer, targeted therapy in the form of oral tablets or chemotherapy is given.
Asked if there was any difference between the treatments available in India and abroad, Kaul said they were along the same lines. “The guidelines laid out by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (an alliance of cancer centres in the US) are followed in India as well as abroad. The treatment is available in India too,” he said.

Courtesy: ThePrint