Goa BJP eyes on rally, not Gujarat
Sandesh Prabhudesai
11 April 2002
The whole country is curious to know what
transpires at the three-day BJP national executive meeting
beginning here tomorrow in the background of Gujarat carnage,
Ayodhya episode and party's debacle in all the polls, but
not the Goa leaders.
For the ruling saffron brigade in Goa,
the eyes are set on a huge mammoth rally, to be addressed
by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other top party
leaders tomorrow evening, as a launch for the campaign of
Assembly polls scheduled next month.
"Goa will begin a new chapter, showing
the road towards victory", claims Laxmikant Parsekar, the
local party president. Perhaps this is the reason why the
local leaders impressed upon the central leadership to shift
the meeting venue from Pune to Goa.
Though they are little worried because
of the ongoing communal tensions in Gujarat, the Goa leaders
feel that one impressive rally by Vajpayee and home minister
L K Advani could change the minds of the educated lot of
Goa. They have demanded that Pramod Mahajan, the star speaker
of Goa, also speaks.
Breaking all the past records of any party
till date which was not more than 15 to 20,000, the saffron
brigade is targeting for around one lakh crowd at Campal
grounds, along the river Mandovi in Panaji.
Besides arranging 800 buses and other private
transport, the ruling party has sent special invitations
itself to around 5000 dignitaries of the state to attend
the rally. Amidst tight security arrangements, the rally
will begin at around 5 pm.
Separating media totally from the delegates
by setting up a media centre almost one kilometre away from
the meeting venue - Hotel Marriott Resort near the Miramar
beach, the office bearers will meet there tomorrow morning
to finalise the agenda.
Party president Jana Krishnamurthy, who
arrived here today morning along with other office bearers
as well as former president Kushabhau Thackeray, will inaugurate
the meeting at 4 pm tomorrow, before they proceed for the
public rally.
The actual national executive meeting would
thus begin only on Saturday morning, while the secular-minded
citizens of Goa have organised a silent protest march in
the city against the communal tensions being whipped up
in the country, especially in Gujarat.
"No journalist will be allowed to enter
near the banquet hall of the Hotel Marriott where the meeting
will be on", says Sanjiv Desai, the local party treasurer.
Claiming it to be precaution for security reasons, they
are prepared to get any leader, even for the interview,
at the media centre - Hotel Nova Goa. All the official press
briefings will also take place at the media centre, situated
in the heart of the city.
It will be thus a tough time for the journalists
to dig out the news, besides official briefings on political
and economic resolutions, as the party will not only introspect
on debacles in polls but also the Gujarat situation vis-à-vis
agenda of Hindutva, which may ultimately also decide fate
of Narendra Modi.
