Sandesh Prabhudesai
18 August 2000
Can Congress in Goa bring back its past glory of two long decades and rule the state once again without readmitting the major chunk of defectors who are presently hobnobbing with their ideological rivals like the Bharatiya Janata Party ?
Opinion within the Congress is divided over it while the Congress is also divided into four different factions. The 'original' Congress, which won 21 seats in the 40-member House, is left with only ten even after engineering defections in three parties and increasing its number by five more during its initial five-month rule.
Following a split led by chief minister Francisco Sardinha in November by forming Goa People's Congress to form a coalition with the BJP, it faced a second jolt this week with five more leaving Goa's one-time undisputed ruling party, forming Congress (Shaikh Hassan group). The fourth group is led by Dr Wilfred de Souza, the sole legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Dr de Souza had already split the ruling Congress in 1998, forming the Goa Rajiv Congress. After running a coalition government with the BJP for only four months, he was toppled by his defector colleagues, bringing Congress back to power in November. The 'political carnival' finally ended into imposition of the President's Rule by February last year.
"I do not rule out the possibility of the Congress coming back to power", opines Dr de Souza, who feels that the high command could simply decide to readmit all the 16 defectors and allow Sardinha to continue in power by fulfilling common demand of all the defectors – removal of Goa PCC chief Luizinho Faleiro.
The Shaikh group has come down heavily on Faleiro, CLP leader Ravi Naik as well as AICC general secretary Prabha Rao, in-charge of the Goa desk. "She literally threatened us to leave but not to drop Faleiro when we had gone to meet her in Mumbai", recalls Shaikh, alleging that the high command did not take any corrective measures to unite the party.
In fact his arch rival Faleiro has proved to be the real strength of Sardinha. "As long as he remains the PCC chief, even more people will leave the party", states Shaikh. But flaying these charges, Faleiro claims that his party organisation has remained intact in spite of splits, while the CLP getting cleaned up of all the selfish elements.
There was a time when the Congress was strengthened by splitting the then opposition Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party umpteen number of times since 1977, till the BJP took over the MGP's vote bank. Quite a few also left the Congress, obviously to become the chief minister or ministers, and then came back to the party fold.
While the trend has started reversing now, CLP spokesman Jitendra Deshprabhu feels that they would once again try and come back since "Congress is the only loved party of Goan masses". Admitting that embracing the defectors was a major mistake committed by the leadership, he is strongly opposed to readmit any defector in future.
Introspecting a bit deeper, former Goa PCC chief Shantaram Naik however points out at a fault that lies in neglecting organisational base and cadres. "Instead of running behind these leaders, the party observers should talk more to the district and block level people to know our weaknesses", he suggests.
Though Deshprabhu calls it a party of the masses, year-old defector to the Congress Ramakant Khalap feels the problem lies in having too many leaders in one party, with everyone trying to seek a position. "Let more people go if they want to. Who can stop them", asks Naik, the CLP leader.
While the party is weakening day by day, Naik and Faleiro are busy passing the buck over owing responsibility for the split. According to Faleiro, the defectors had asked the CLP leader to arrange money (in lakhs) to repay the loans they had taken to contest elections. Naik expresses total ignorance over any such demand.
"Even a five-year child will tell you why they have left the party", says Faleiro. Reason for defections is no more a secret in Goa, including the ones engineered by Faleiro – thrice during his five-month term last year or when he engineering a split in de Souza's group in November 1998.
Everyone in the Congress lives in a glass house today, but does not leave a single opportunity to throw stones at others. In fact, only two legislators can claim to be 'original Congressmen' while rest are all defectors. The 'culture of greed' is deep-rooted in the party, which had ruled Goa for the ten long years since 1980.
Though the defection games began since 1990 when the third consecutive Congress government was toppled, the politics of power always remained moving around the Congress. But in the heat of converting politics into a pure money-making business, the party has been left in shambles with nobody bothered about its revival.
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