QUIT: Advocate Yatish Naik, who was among the first batch of senior leaders who joined the TMC, along with Luizinho Falerio, in Kolkatta in the presence of Mamata-didi, has resigned as he has not been given the ticket for Saligao constituency.

And a few stray thoughts and a few observations for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when there was a revolt against the Goa Trinamool Congress over its choice of candidates. When the Bhandari Swami Brameshwar Anand was given a Padmashri award. For a Saturday following the week when the Supreme Court wanted the law amended to stop freebies on the eve of the polls. For a Saturday following the week when the new Director General of Police revealed that 226 people were killed in road accidents in Goa in the year 2021. For a Saturday following the week when I discovered how difficult it had become to get a Covid-19 test done particularly if it is after office hours or during a holiday.

REVOLT IN TMC
And a few stray thoughts on the revolt brewing against the TMC. The TMC has now realized that if you are in a hurry to admit candidates you are liable to repent at leisure. They have finally realized the truth of why so many office bearers and so called grassroots workers of parties like the Congress and the BJP are so anxious to join them. Most of them were aware that they had little or no choice of getting a ticket to contest the elections from the party that they originally belonged to. They thought that by joining the TMC they would not only get a ticket but the marketing support that many of them needed. Amongst the first to join the TMC was advocate Yatish Naik who shot into prominence of his involvement in the Father Bismarck alleged murder case. Yatish Naik was among the first lot taken to Kolkatta along with Luizinho Faleiro to be admitted into the TMC in the presence of the supremo Mamata Banerjee. Yatish Naik was appointed as one of the vice-presidents of the TMC. He was expecting that he would have no problems getting the ticket for the Saligao assembly constituency. The TMC did give the ticket to a Yatish Naik but it was a different Yatish Naik from Porvorim. We understand that Churchill Alemao who had joined the TMC along with his daughter Valanka is also having second thoughts. Churchill is reported to be very upset over the induction of former Congress MLA Benjamin Silva into the TMC. The TMC has given the Velim seat to Benjamin Silva who is a sworn enemy of Churchill Alemao. Joseph Sequiera, former Congress MLA from Calangute, who was to contest on the TMC ticket has quit as his expectations were not fulfilled and he has joined the BJP.
For obvious reasons many of those who joined the TMC and quit seem to think that their best bet is the Bharatiya Janata Party which is ironic as the stated object of the TMC is to extinguish the BJP from the states controlled by it. This is to clear the way for Mamata Banerjee to be able to replace Narendra Modi in the 2024 Parliamentary elections.
Unfortunately, a rift has developed between Mamata Banerjee and the Congress. The UPA which is a combine of all the non-BJP parties is presently headed by the Congress acting chief Sonia Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi is neither willing to accept the post of president of the Congress party permanently or designate a successor outside the Nehru Gandhi family. Prashant Kishor in a recent interview to a television channel has admitted that he had intense talks with the Congress party including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. At a press conference in Lucknow Priyanka Gandhi also acknowledged that the Nehru Gandhi family has considered taking on Prashant Kishor. Not just an advisor but as a senior functionary of the party. Prashant Kishor has hinted that the deal did not come through as Sonia Gandhi turned down the suggestion that either Priyanka or somebody from outside the Gandhi family should be made the president of the grand old party of the Congress. Mamata Banerjee after her victory over the BJP in West Bengal in 2021 has assumed that she is the only one competent to head the UPA. An UPA where the Congress is a senior partner is not acceptable to her. Which is why the best matchmaker in the country Sharad Pawar is attempting to take over as chairperson of UPA which might be acceptable to both the warring begums.

STOP FREEBIES
AND a few stray thoughts on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court N V Ramana expressing his distress over political parties offering “freebies” to voters. To quote the Chief Justice N V Ramana, “freebies are going beyond the budgets. The Supreme Court had earlier pointed out in its 2013 judgement that freebies disturb the level playing field.” In any case freebies are a con as the benefits promised will be given to the voter only if the concerned party gets a majority and forms the government.
The forthcoming Valentine’s Day election in Goa has seen a tsunami of freebies, particularly from the TMC and the Aam Aadmi Party. So far the TMC has made three commitments. The TMC has assured that every woman head of a household in Goa would be given Rs5,000 per month or Rs60,000 a year if TMC is elected to power. The TMC has claimed that over three lakh women have connected with their Griha Laxhmi Card without realizing that it has no value if the TMC does not come to power. The TMC has also issued a Yuva Credit Card under which young people would get credit at a concessional 4% interest up to Rs20 lakh. In theory this Yuva Credit Card is meant for young applicants to acquire vocational skills or go for higher education. The ground reality is that there are already four engineering colleges in Goa which include the government Engineering College, the Father Concessesio EngineeringCollege run by the Pilar Society, the Don Bosco Institute of Technology and the Rayu Institute of Technology run by former Congress minister Subhash Shirodkar who has joined the BJP. In addition Goa has a campus of the Birla Institute of Technology which is considered equivalent or better than the IITs. Goa has its own Indian Institute of Technology although it still does not have a permanent address as there are disputes over the land to be allotted to it. In addition Goa has a National Institute of Information Technology. The problem is not lack of facilities for higher education but lack of industries to absorb the 5,000 odd engineering graduates who pass out every year. They do not want to join the government as they will be required to pay huge bribes. It has been recently exposed by Babush Monserrate that former PWD minister, Vinod Paliencar, collected Rs70 crore from the hundred new engineers he appointed to the PWD.
The third promise of the TMC is that the ownership and the title of the property in possession of those who have held it before 1974 will be given to them immediately the TMC comes to power. This is the TMC’s version of the BJP bhumiputra bill which offered to give possession of land illegally occupied to all those who had lived in Goa for 30 years. Here again the TMC seems to have no understanding of Goa’s laws. In the first place Goa already has the Tenants & Munkars Act promulgated by Goa’a first chief minister, Dayanand Bandodkar. The act stipulates that agricultural land will be transferred to the names of those who are actually tilling the soil. The landlords in Goa never cultivated the land but sub-contracrated it to tenants. The tenants had to pay a token amount for the transfer of the land from bhatkar to munkar.

tenancy misused
Unfortunately, it is the builders who bought the land belonging to the tenants under benami names and paying huge bribes to the former tenant owners. In the case of the Munkar Act, the personal servants of the landlord have been historically permitted to build small huts on the bhatkar’s property. Under this act it has been stipulated that the personal servants will be entitled to 250 sqmts of land in rural areas and 150 sqmts in urban areas. The problem is that the land is allotted only to one member of the munkar family who would logically be the head of the family. As in the case of other properties, the other children of the concerned munkar also staked a claim to the property. The 250sqmts and 150sqmts were not adequate to accommodate several generations of the munkar family. In the TMC proposal those who are in possession of the property will be given the title without any additional payment. Most of the property in possession of those who will benefit is property which has been encroached upon by migrants. The percentage of migration in the first decade of the Liberation is as high as 35%.The Aam Aadmi party also has made a lot of promises including elimination corruption within 24 hours of coming to power.
Similar promises have been made by Congress and the BJP. This includes 24 hours water supply for every household and underground cabling to prevent power disruptions. The parties have promised higher subsidy for farmers and horticulturists. The 64 million dollar question is where the money will come from to fulfil all the promises? These promises are like promisary notes which declare that they promise to pay a certain amount conditional to the job being fulfilled. The state of Goa does not have enough funds to even fulfil the promise sit had made to provide the girl child Rs1lakh on completion of 21 years. Under the Grih Adhaar scheme the woman head of the household would get Rs1,500. The BJp government has discovered that there is large scale corruption in the implementation of these schemes. Even government servants not entitled have availed of the scheme. The corruption has been exposed interestingly by a social service body which is run by the RSS. The total debt of the Goa government now exceeds Rs35,000 crore. The government has no money to pay the interest of the loans it has taken let alone repay the principal amount.
It is in the context that the Supreme Court has declared the offer of freebies a corrupt practice . The SC has suggested that the recognition of the party involved in such offers should be withdrawn. It has pointed out that the freebies and doles would completely destroy the finances of the next government, whichever party forms the government after the elections.

padma awards
AND a few stray thoughts on the prestigious Padma Awards traditionally declared on Republic Day being politicised. Every party in Goa contesting the February 14 polls has been chasing the Bhandari Samaj. Arvind Kejriwal has been criticised for dragging caste into Goan politics by pointedly announcing that he made Amit Palekar of the Bhandari Samaj the chief ministerial face of the party. Traditionally, the senior leaders from the Bhandari Samaj have been Ravi Naik, a former chief minister, and Shripad Naik who continues to be a Union minister of the BJP. Swami Bramesh Anand who is the head of the Tapobhumi Matt and the godman of the Bhandari Samaj has been conferred a Padmashri. Clearly this has been done by the BJP to ensure his support in the forthcoming election. The only other Padmashri from Goa is the veteran football champion Bramanand Sanwalkar who won the first Santosh Trophy for Goa. The Padma list is dominated by godmen, defence generals and sports persons.

DRUnKEN DRIVING
And a last stray thought on drunken driving. In the month of January alone three people have been run over by drunken drivers. In the first instance a drunken driver killed two young policemen on naka bandhi duty. In the second instance a drunken driver crashed into a couple on a scooter. According to the new director general of police Inderdev Shukla 226 people were killed in road accidents in Goa last year 2021. As correctly pointed out by DGP Shukla, a drunk driver is like a moving bomb and it can explode any time and may kill the driver or other road users. Despite the literally deadly impact of letting drunken drivers go scott free, the chief minister Pramod Sawant directed the police force not to be harsh on drunken tourist drivers in the run up to the New Year. The DGP has revealed that on an average 15 to 20 drunken driver cases are booked in Goa daily. The drunken drivers are unconcerned as they can get away with a nominal fine. The State government has refused to implement the amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act which has steeply increased the fine for all traffic offences, particularly drunken driving.