By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Congress party-Goa Forward and MGP admitted that before the assembly election in 2022, they all received funds through electoral bonds. For a Saturday following the week when the Congress has not been much in the picture in North Goa, except in 1971 when Purushottam Kakodkar was the winning North Goa MP. For a Saturday following the week when Rahul Gandhi betrayed his ignorance of Hinduism. For a Saturday following the week when there was a delay in announcing the candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats.
AND a few stray thoughts on the Congress, Goa Forward and Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) admitting that before the assembly election in 2022, they all received funds through electoral bonds. The largest contributor to electoral bonds was the Fomento Group. The Fomento group is reported to have contributed over Rs13 crore. The Fomento group which is owned by Auduth Timblo made this contribution via front companies including Motown Trading, Hardesh Ores and Infrastructure Logistics.
ILPL and Jai Ganesh Ispat bought Rs4 crore worth of bonds. Goa’s contribution crossed Rs27 crore. Dattaraj Salgaocar was the second largest contributor who had gifted electoral bonds worth Rs4.5 crore to the Congress and Goa Forward. The Shrinivas Dempo group donated Rs2.4 crore. Shrinivas Dempo purchased bonds worth Rs1.25 crore in his capacity with the various companies of the group including “The Navhind Times” donated through electoral bonds. The Chowgule family bought Rs2 crore worth of bonds. The funds went to the MGP and the Congress.
Highstreet Cruises and Entertainment bought Rs40 lakh worth of electoral bonds. Before the 2022 state election, Shivanand Salgaocar contributed Rs35 lakh to the MGP. Among the biggest donors through electoral bonds was Venkaiah Rao, the bungling contractor who donated Rs90lakh worth of electoral bonds.
Significantly, Auduth Timblo, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the mining scam, does not contribute anything through electoral bonds. We believe that Timblo funded the election of all the mining MLAs. Timblo was considered the kingmaker during the rule of Digambar Kamat. None of the other big Goan groups like the Alcon group is on record purchasing electoral bonds.

REAL ESTATE COMPANIES
AND a few stray thoughts when it was revealed that most of the buyers of electoral bonds in Mumbai are real estate companies. The Mumbai companies purchased Rs1,344 crore of all poll or electoral bonds. Two companies, Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd and Vedantam which is registered in Mumbai marked more than Rs400 crore each of electoral bonds.
Interestingly, the Inorbit malls brought Rs25crore worth of bonds. Major builders include the K Rahejas and SD Corporation which are associates of Shaporji Pollanji. This is the company which has the largest share in the Tata group. The Piramal group invested Rs48 crore. Isha Ambani is married to the heir of the Piramal group. The other companies who have bought bonds are Cipla, the pharma giant, which has a unit in Goa. With the SBI expected to release more data on the poll bonds it is likely that more details of the bribes for business votes will become known.

RAHUL’S HINDUISM!
AND a few stray thoughts on Rahul Gandhi betraying his ignorance of Hinduism. Rahul makes stupid comments on Shakti. Shakti is the embodiment of women’s power. It is revolves around the cult of the mother goddess. The most powerful mother goddess is Durga and her headquarters is likely to be the Kolkata Kali temple (Dakshineswar Kali temple at Kolkata in West Bengal, although there are many temples), this is a powerful temple celebrating female shakti or power. In Goa it is Mangeshi and Shantadurga which are the main kuldevta/kuldevi of the Goud Saraswat Brahmin community and the upper caste.
Never mind that the backward classes and the scheduled tribe do not contribute to the cult of the mother goddess. Shakti is also a symbol of women’s power which is promoted by the BJP as a nari shakti. Paying only superficial tribute to it and not because the BJP is a great admirer or believer in women. The BJP realizes that 50% of the voters in India are women. Women voters in India make up their minds and do not necessarily vote for male politicians.
Rahul Gandhi abused the word “shakti.” When Modi counter-attacked Rahul made it worse by claiming he was referring to evil Shakti. In a silly speech he insisted that Modi Shakti was in the enforcement directorate. It was in the CBI and Income- Tax department. That it was locked up in the EVMs. Why use a powerful female metaphor for Modi? This is an insult to nari shakti. Wherever Rahul opens his mouth he digs his own grave.
Earlier he insisted that Modi had no parivar excepting the Adanis and the Ambanis. Modi hit back by insisting that Bharat is his parivar. Rahul gives Modi enough ammunition to start new campaigns against the Congress and India. Rahul should know better than to provoke the anger of the goddess shakti. His grandmother Indira Gandhi was considered the supreme shakti. His mother Sonia Gandhi is also seen as a symbol of women’s power. If the BJP get 400 seats it will be thanks to Rahul Gandhi.

SOUTH GOA MYSTERY!
AND a few stray thoughts on the delay in announcing the candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats of Goa. Though the schedule has been announced the Congress has not indicated who its candidates are going to be as final choice. At least the BJP has announced five-time MP Shripad Naik as the candidate for North Goa. Francisco Sardinha has projected himself as a south Goa Congress candidate, but the party has not confirmed this. The election schedule is already out.
The BJP cannot agree on the candidate for South Goa. Amit Shah suggested a women candidate. The BJP in Goa could not recommend a winnable women’s candidate. Within the Congress the “langar” lot want Francisco Sardinha to take a rest. Girish Chodankar is keen on contesting from the south Goa. Amit Patkar is lobbying for the north Goa seat. Yuri Alemao is also interested in South Goa. Goa Forward is waiting. If Francisco Sardinha is a Congress candidate, Vijai is likely to contest against him. Everyone is waiting for the other party to decide the candidate.

CONGRESS VISIBILITY
AND a few stray thoughts on the Congress have not being visible much in the picture in North Goa, except the last time in 1971 when Purshottam Kakodkar was the winning north Goa MP. The MGP won four times including electing the first woman, MP Sanyogita Rane, from north Goa. The last Congress MLA to get elected was Ravi Naik in 1998. Then from 1999 to 2019 it has been Shripad Naik.
In the south it was the UGP Erasmo de Sequeira who won the election twice. Thereafter it was Eduardo Faleiro who won the south Goa seat five times. The BJP won the south Goa seat when Ramakant Angle was their candidate in 1999. Thereafter Churchill Alemao won the south Goa seat once and Shripad Naik once. In 2014 riding the Parrikar way Narendra Sawaikar won the south Goa seat for BJP and in 2019 it returned Francisco Sardinha who is now the seating candidate. All this information is courtesy Sandesh Prabhudesai in his new just released book “Double Engine, History of Goa Lok Sabha Election.”

CYBER WEALTH SCHEMES
AND a few stray thought on the get rich quick cyber investment schemes. On Facebook there are a lot of promotions of cyber currency investments. The claim is that Narayan Murthy, Mukesh Ambani and even Amitabh Bachchan, are promoting these investments. Is you invest Rs22,000 you are guaranteed a return of Rs5 lakh within a month. According to Facebook the well-known journalist Karan Thapar admitted that this get rich quick schemes were a scam.
Karan Thapar in an interview with a Tamil news channel persuades the anchor to invest Rs20,000. Indeed, he invests the money on her behalf on her mobile phone. The TV anchor asks Karan Thapar how he makes money. This was soon after the Covid pandemic. Karan admited he was doing promotion for a cyber investment company. The office of Narayan Murthy has denied that he is promoting any such scheme. All the celebrities like Mukesh Ambani are tired of issuing clarifications.

YOUNGEST INFOSYS SHAREHOLDER!
AND a last stray thoughts on the youngest shareholder of the Infosys family who is only four months old. The four-month-old owns 0.4% of Infosys shares valued at Rs350 crore. This was a gift by loving grandfather Narayan Murthy to his grandson. The luckiest investor in Infosys shares is Sudha Murthy. It is her initial investment of Rs10,000 that laid the foundation for the Infosys emperor. Sudha Murthy is reported to hold 15% of the Infosys share, around 3% of the shares are owned by Akshada Murthy who is a wife of the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
When Sudha Murthy went to visit her daughter and son-in-law in the UK she shocked the immigration officials at the airport. When asked for her address in London she told them it was 10, Downing Street. The British officials could not believe that this old lady in a saree was claiming to be the mother-in-law of the Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak. When they cross checked they learnt that Sudha was telling the truth.