By Rajan Narayan

PORIEM has been the center of all political attention. On Sunday, January 28, 2024 all of Goa’s top politicians in Goa including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant got together in Poriem to mark the 85th birthday of Pratapsingh Raoji Rane. Former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu, who served Goa, was also present along with Shripad Naik.
Pratapsingh Raoji Rane began as a member of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party (MGP). He was the revenue minister in Shashikala Kakodkar’s Cabinet. Pratapsingh Rane quit the MGP and joined the Congress. When the Congress came to power for the first time in 1980 it named the then little-known Rane as the chief minister of Goa.
There was a fight between Ravi Naik and Dr Wilfred D’souza for the chief minister’s chair. As a compromise solution, the Congress High Command appointed Pratapsingh Rane as the chief minister. Pratapsingh Raoji Rane, who has a business management degree from Texas University, made sure that he would continue to be the chief minister.
Rane was a very firm leader. During Rane’s time, all the members of his cabinet were very frightened of him. He ruled over the cabinet with an iron hand and even cabinet ministers who received his calls in their cabin stood up to talk to him.

ENGINES OF GROWTH
RANE has definitely done a great deal for the development of Goa. It was Rane who set up the Goa Industrial Development Corporation and the Economic Development Corporation. Both became engines of growth in the early years after Goa’s liberation.
Pratapsingh Rane was a strong Marathiwadi. He gave his full support to those who wanted Marathi to be the official language of the state. Even though he was directed to pass the official language bill making Konkani the official language he ensured that Marathi was protected. The Congress deputed RR Bhatia, the High Command observer to be present on the day the official language bill was passed. Nobody was sure if Pratapsingh Rane got the approved official language bill passed.
Pratapsingh Raoji Rane diluted the official language bill substantially. Even though in the bill Konkani was declared as the official language, Rane undermined it. The bill stipulated that Marathi could be used for any and all official purposes. This virtually nullified the status of Konkani.
The declaration of Konkani in the Devanagari script as the official language deprived was a blow for the minority community, which was more than 40% of population of Goa. No member of the minority community must be conversant with Konkani in the Devanagari script. The Catholic population in Goa is used to Romi Konkani.
The minority community was again greatly upset when the Diocesan English-medium schools were forced to switch over to the Konkani medium. This was because primary English medium schools would be denied grants by the Rane government.

KONKANI MAI BETRAYED!
THIS official language bill in the diluted form did not please the minority community. I remember the night when the bill was passed Churchill Alemao came with a large crowd to my office at the “OHeraldo” and wanted me to say “Konkani mai betrayed.” I refused because this would have further divided Goa, as it is there had been a bitter fight to make Konkani the official language.
However, Pratapsingh Rane ruled the state for three more terms till late in his third term he was toppled by the then-speaker Luis Proto Barbosa and Churchill Alemao, the Benaulim MLA. Churchill was elected to the assembly for the first time. Churchill expected to be the sports minister in the post-Konkani election.
Surprisingly, Rane had gathered so much momentum that even after the official language bill was passed, he got re-elected. Churchill was very keen on becoming the sports minister so the revolt was to express his frustration. Churchill managed to persuade seven members of the MGP under Ramakant Khalap to join the seven revolting Congress members. They managed to effectively bring down the Rane government. Rane had offered stable government.
During the next ten years, there was grave political instability in Goa. There was a succession of opposition-run governments with Proto Barbosa giving way to Ravi Naik. Ravi Naik and his group of seven MLAs also defected to the Congress. Between Ramakant Khalap and Ravi Naik, they killed MGP.

TOPPLING SPREE
IN the elections, it was Dr Wilfred Dsouza who with the help of Ravi Naik toppled the Prato Barbosa government. Ravi Naik was however disqualified by the High Court. Dr Wilfred D’Souza finally achieved his ambition of becoming the chief minister. Ravi Naik’s disqualification was set aside by the Supreme Court. The then governor Bhanu Prakash Singh promptly dismissed the Rane government and swore in Ravi Naik without seeking the permission of the centre. He remained chief minister only for 24 hours. The Congress high command sacked him and reinstated Dr Wilfred D’Souza. Dr Wilfred D’souza managed to lead the Congress combined into the general election.
After the general election which the Congress won, Dr Wilfred staked his claim to the chief ministership. However, the high command chose to fall back on their trusted solider Pratapsingh Rane. All together Rane is the only chief minister who has served five terms as chief minister of Goa. It must be said to his credit that a large part of the development that took place in Goa happened during his time.
If I recollect rightly the Commonwealth heads of government retreat happened during his tenure. The CHOGM retreat transformed Goa into an international tourist destination. Rane certainly gave tourism a brighter space in the Indian economy. As far as I can recall the Zuari units of the Birla units were set up during Rane’s tenure as chief minister.
Rane also smoothened the track for the setting up of engineering colleges. Rane was always loyal to the Congress party. The Congress party in turn had stood by Rane during his stormy political days. It was only very late in his political life that Rane defected to the BJP when he was in his early 80s. Rane was under severe pressure from his son Vishwajit Rane. Rane did not force his son on the party. Rane was aware of the defection of Vishwajit Rane.
It was only when Rane became very old that Vishwajit became very powerful. It was to advance Vishwajit’s interests that Rane became the chief minister. Once the late Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister it was the BJP all the way. Excepting for a brief spell in the 90s when Digambar Kamat became the chief minister of Goa.
The Rane hold on the Congress continued till he retired from active politics. Even the BJP appreciated Rane’s power and they made him the speaker of the legislative assembly. Rane had an air of command that dominated. There was very little indiscipline in the legislative assembly when Rane was the speaker of the assembly. The speaker’s chair was occupied by very distinguished people in Goa. It was only after the BJP came to power that the speaker’s chair was reduced to a rubber stamp.
The claim of Pratapsingh Rane that he was the builder of modern Goa cannot be disputed. While Rane developed the whole of Goa, his own constituency of Sattari was an exception. Rane had in his position as revenue minister made an exception of Sattari in the Land Revenue Acts. So much so even after the Tenants & Mundkar Act was passed, Sattari and Pernem remained outside its purview. In these two talukas, the tenants or mundkars are still at the mercy of their bhatkar, namely Pratapsingh Rane and Jitendra Deshprabhu.
We are not aware of any major projects being located in Sattari. There were not even many institutions of higher level in Sattari. It is perhaps just to claim there is more development in the Sattari taluka after the BJP came to power. The Sattari and Valpoi taluka which were backward developed only after Pramod Sawant became the chief minister. Valpoi and Sattari between them now have three ministers in the state cabinet.
The book of Pratapsingh Rane’s as a “Maker of Modern Goa” was released on his 85th birthday at a Poriem celebration. The book is claimed to have been written by Vijayadevi Rane, the wife of Pratapsingh Rane. It does not matter who actually wrote the book, it is clearly Pratapsingh Rane’s thoughts and Pratapsingh Rane’s vision.

NOT FLASHY LIKE PARRIKAR
OF all the chief ministers that Goa has had Rane is definitely the most commanding. He also provided Goa unprecedented political stability. Rane was not a flashy chief minister like the late Manohar Parrikar, but Pratapsingh Rane was never a people’s chief minister like Dayanand Bandodkar. Dayanand Bandodkar fully focused on empowering the backward classes of Goa. Now even the Bhandari communities are demanding OBC status. The percentage of seats reserved in the medical and engineering colleges has become so high that deserving candidates from both the Kshatriya and the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin communities do not qualify for inclusion.
Even after the introduction of the National Eligibility Test (NET) the reservation quota is so huge that many people from the upper caste are denied the benefit. Rane was good for industrial development. However, Rane did not pay much attention to class two development. Rane did focus on agriculture development. It must be said that Rane was committed to a green Goa. The TCP and the PTAs did not try anything when Rane was chief minister. They were tightly controlled by him and there was no auctioning of cultivated agricultural land of forest.

FROM GREEN TO GREY GOA
IRONICALLY, all the looting and plundering started under the tenure of the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar. Parrikar made Babush Monserrate the Town & Planning minister who initiated the process of turning green Goa into grey Goa.
I’ve had my differences with Rane over his arbitrary sense of functioning. But later in his political life, we became friends if not good friends. Rane asked me to persuade Dr Vinay Jindal to accept the post of being the GMC’s dean. The bureaucracy was under control during Rane’s tenure. The major complaint about Rane was that he was too authoritarian and too strict. Everyone may not have liked Pratapsingh Rane but he commanded the respect of everybody. He was perhaps the cleanest and among the most honest of the chief ministers. Rane was greedy for power but not money like the other chief ministers of Goa.