PRESSURE: It was pressure from RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat that forced the BJP to make Pramod Sawant the chief minister in preference to Vishwajit Rane.

By Rajan Narayan

Finally the BJP has made up its mind that Pramod Sawant shall be chief minister. But it is clear that the new party MLAs will grab all the prized cabinet berths. Even the finance and home ministry may have to be given to Vishwajit Rane for being a good boy and not throwing tantrums.

THE BJP has started behaving like the Congress. It followed the Congress formula on the selection of the new chief minister of Goa. Historically, whenever there have been differences between the elected MLAs, the state Congress is forced to adopt a resolution leaving it to the Centre to appoint the chief minister. The decision is then taken by the super high command comprising Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Promptly a senior Congressman labelled as Congress observer descends on the state and the lucky candidate is crowned chief minister.
The observer has a meeting with the elected MLAs of the party symbol. The two bitter rivals — in this case, Vishwajit Rane and Pramod Sawant — are pressurised to present an image of unity, which is what happened on Monday, March 21, 2022. To everyone’s surprise, Vishwajit Rane proposed the name of Pramod Sawant to continue as the chief minister of the state. We do not know the threats and the promises made to the hot-headed Vishwajit Rane to force him to play second fiddle to Pramod Sawant. The meeting went on for two hours and clearly, the decision taken was not unanimous. But what is important is not what happens behind curtains but the drama enacted especially for the media.
There is further evidence that the BJP has been taken over by the Congress rebels. In any case, the Congress has more leaders to inspire confidence. The Gandhi family will not yield control to anyone else. The myth that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be a better vote winner than Rahul Gandhi was demolished in the Uttar Pradesh election. Despite Priyanka being projected as the face of the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress won just two constituencies. This led the group of 23 dissidents led by Ghulam Nabi Azad to ask all three — mother, son and daughter — to resign.

PARTY LOYALTY
IN CONTRAST to other advanced democracies there is something called party loyalty in India. The historical tradition of political leaders remaining aligned to a particular party has vanished over the last decade. Every MLA who gets elected on any party ticket will join the party which has the best chance of forming the government. The first to realise this in Goa was Vishwajit Rane. He realised that the Congress had no chances of getting a majority and was the first to quit the Congress and join the BJP.
Vishwajit Rane was followed by Mauvin Godinho who also quit the Congress and got elected on a BJP ticket. The other superheroes of the Congress who jumped on the saffron bandwagon were Ravi Naik, a former Congress chief minister and the biggest critic of the BJP. Then came ardent Congressman Reginaldo Lourenco. As far as the MGP is concerned Sudin Dhavalikar has always jumped over to any winning side. Every politician wants power to be Cabinet minister and a rewarding portfolio.
The “bhaile” (outsiders) have always had a better chance of getting a Cabinet berth than loyal party workers. After all, they have to be rewarded for the so-called great sacrifice they made in jumping their mother party. The consequence is that when it comes to the selection of the Cabinet and the allocation of portfolios, it is the bhaile who will get the cake, and loyalists will have to be content with the crumbs.
I understand that the condition that Vishwajit Rane put for supporting Parmod Sawant for chief minister is that he should be given the home ministry. Sudin Dhavalikar expects to return to his money-making department of the Public Works Department (PWD). The Town & Country Planning (TCP) portfolio will probably go to the rabbit from Curtorim, who by accident hopped into the right alliance. Reginaldo Lourenco will not be content with anything short of the TCP ministry. The fourth superman, Atanasio Babush Monseratte, though he failed to deliver all the five Tiswadi seats, will probably demand the finance portfolio.

Pramod Sawant will be the chief minister but all the important portfolios will go to the alliance partners and the MGP. In addition, the “bhaile” MLAs will also ask for cabinet berths for their wives – Divya Rane and Jennifer Monseratte who was the minister for revenue in the outgoing Cabinet. Babush might insist that his wife be retained as minister of revenue. Dr Divya Rane will compete with Chandrakant Shetye, the optician who founded Vision Hospital in Margao, for the health portfolio. Both are doctors although it is doubtful if Dr Divya has been a practising doctor.

FISH & LOAVES
WITH bhaile having taken away the best fishes and loaves there will be very little left for the BJP loyalists. There will be only four minor portfolios available for the loyalists. They will have to choose between portfolios like education, waste management, fisheries, youth affairs, sports and women’s welfare. Not that these portfolios are unimportant but from the public point of view they offer fewer opportunities to make money. Though even with a portfolio like waste management, our friend Michael Lobo managed to become the richest MLA in Goa.
The new brand of politicians may squeeze money even out of stone. The immediate prospect of making big money is the chief minister’s proposed recruitment of another 25,000 government employees. Already there are 50,000 plus government employees. Politicians are geniuses when it comes to creating jobs where none exist. When the quota of ward boys and ward girls in the GMC was exhausted, Vishwajit came up with the concept of multi-utility workers to ensure that there would be enough jobs for voters in his constituency.
Pramod Sawant may have managed to get the RSS chief to pressurise Narendra Modi to appoint him as chief minister. He is the only one of the chief minister contenders to have an RSS background. The BJP tradition is that Cabinet posts should only be given to RSS karyakarta. So much so we expect a major revolt against Pramod Sawant and the BJP when the Cabinet posts are announced. Those who are not happy with the departments they have been allotted will threaten to join the Congress or the Aam Aadmi party.
The BJP may have secured 20 of the 40 seats in the Goa Legislative Assembly. But unless it has 22 MLAs it can never be confident that there will be no revolt. Of the 20, the BJP will have to appoint their most trusted MLA to the Speaker’s post. Which brings the strength of the BJP down to 19. This is why if the unsatisfied bhaile join hands with equally disappointed karyakarta the BJP government may collapse in a shorter time than observers expect.
It has taken BJP 11 days to announce the name of the chief minister. We don’t know how many more days it will take to swear them in. The Valpoi MLA was forced to propose Pramod Sawant’s name on Monday, will he be cursing when the swearing-in takes place before Governor Shreedharan Pillai. And if you want to know which industrialist or which lobby such as the gambling lobby, the taxi mafia lobby, the building lobby, keep your eyes open and see who occupies the front row at the swearing-in function.

THE FRONT ROW
WHEN Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as chief minister in 2012 the front row was occupied by Jaydev Mody, Casino czar of Mandovi River in Goa. This time around the probability is that along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukhesh Ambani will be right up front in the first row at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium. Goa has already become a double-engine state like UP and other BJP-ruled states. The first casualty will be “Green Goa” as the doubling of the South Western railway track will now speed up for the benefit of coal baron Gautam Adani.
It is clear that the Narendra Modi government and the BJP have no respect for democracy. It has been 11 days plus, plus since the counting of Valentine’s Day election was concluded. The Goa BJP President Sadanand Shet Tanavade even boasted in advance that the new BJP government will be sworn in by 5 pm on March 10, 2022 — the same day of the counting. With the BJP reaching the halfway mark on its own and the independents extending support to the part, they could have staked their claim to form the government immediately.
Primarily, the BJP has now become a kichadi of political hustlers from the Congress such as Vishwajit Rane and Babush Monseratte. It cannot form a government as there is a bitter fight going on about who deserves to be the prime minister of Goa. The Central high command was reportedly in favour of Vishwajit Rane, which is why Pramod Sawant unleashed goondagiri against the Congress government. A small Holi day celebration skirmish is being magnified so that the chief minister can demonstrate he is in control of the law and order situation. The actual result is on the contrary, people are aghast that an acting chief minister should engage in such trivial games.
The problem with the BJP in Goa is that it does not have any leaders of its own, who would have been automatic choices for chief minister’s post — unlike the Congress which has been clear from the beginning that Digambar Kamat will be the chief minister if the party forms the government. In its obsession with holding on to power the BJP mastermind behind Pramod Sawant, Satish Dhond, wants to retain his pupil who is content to be his puppet.

MANY CM CONTENDERS
IT is these clashes between the contenders for the CM’s post which has led to prolonged delay in appointing a chief minister for Goa. The delay is unfathomable as the deadline for passing the annual budget which is March 31 is almost coming to an end. It has been reported that the financial department officials have only now started preparing the budget.
It is not just in Goa but in all the other three states where BJP has got a majority that there is delay in formation of the new government. Maybe, a ten-day delay in forming the government may not result in a disaster in Goa. But surely a ten-day delay in appointing the chief minister and his Cabinet in the largest state in the country that is Uttar Pradesh has proved to be disastrous. Unlike in Goa, there are no disputes about who should become the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh (UP). It has been made clear that Yogi Adityanath will continue as chief minister of UP. Then why the delay? Unless the BJP, being a superstitious organisation, is looking for an auspicious day for the swearing-in.
In Uttarakhand and Manipur, the two other states with BJP victories it is the same story. No chief minister is in sight in Uttrakhand and Manipur either. This is in sharp contrast to Punjab where the Aam Aadmi party won a majority and to avoid disputes after the election, Arvind Kejriwal announced well in advance who would be the chief minister candidate — if AAP got the majority vote. Bhagwant Mann was sworn in as CM in the village of Bhagat Singh as Arvind Kejriwal had earlier announced – while the BJP states are still headless, Punjab already has a chief minister and a full cabinet.
The attitude of the BJP in forming a government displays its contempt for democracy. It is absurd that the BJP should have taken 10 or more days to swear in the new CM and cabinet of small state Goa. Particularly at a critical time like this when usually state government presents their budget. Perhaps the BJP thinks there is no challenge to it and no risk of anyone snatching the crown. The BJP in Goa probably thinks that the Congress is so demoralised that it cannot hijack the government — like the BJP did in 2017. Or maybe Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not yet decided whether Pramod Sawant should continue or should be replaced.

RSS & BJP BATTLES
ARE we witnessing a battle between the RSS and the BJP? There is no debating the fact that the RSS would like Pramod Sawant to continue in power. This is because he is a good Swayam Sevak who will implement all directives coming from Nagpur. But what the BJP does not realise is that the more the delay in appointing the chief minister, the greater the loss of credibility over the BJP’s interest in governance. The very fact that Pramod was designated as acting chief minister first shows reservations about his leadership.
No date has yet been announced for the swearing-in of the new cabinet in Goa and the other BJP states. There is a lot of speculation on whether the BJP will implement the promises it has made in the manifesto. Including gifting three LPG cylinders a year to every family – this itself is absurd as three cylinders are likely to last only a month or two! So this freebie is a hoax as only three cylinders will be given in the financial year. The state government will make up for the expenditure by increasing VAT on cooking gas so that it can recover double what it spends on so called free distribution of cylinders.
Perhaps the delay in swearing-in of the CM is the concern of Narendra Modi over the growing stature of Yogi Adityanath. Even Narendra Modi did not win the elections in the Varanasi constituency by a margin of more than one lakh votes as Yogi Adityanath has. Perhaps the prime minister is concerned that in 2024 the party and the RSS will choose Yogi Adityanath as the country’s prime minister.