Jose Philip begins resignation
drama
Sandesh Prabhudesai
3 March 2002
As an obvious fallout of the sudden dissolution
of Goa Assembly last week, revenue minister Jose Philip
D’Souza is now the first minister to quit Manohar Parrikar
government as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party.
He was among the two Christian ministers
in the BJP cabinet, which was formed by engineering defections
in the Congress in November 2000. While quitting, D’Souza
has now alleged harassment to minorities during the BJP
regime.
Though Parrikar had claimed that recommending
dissolution was an unanimous decision of the cabinet, D’Souza
disclosed that he had objected to it while requesting Parrikar
to resolve internal bickering within the ruling party amicably
and not by resorting to such a drastic action.
The 32-month old eighth Assembly was dissolved
by governor Mohammed Fazal after the Parrikar-led BJP government
ruled for 16 months, with the help of the Congress rebels.
Among 21 BJP legislators in the 40-member House, the saffron
party has only 10 ‘originals’.
The Congress had alleged that Parrikar
recommended dissolution, fearing eight members leaving the
ruling party. BJP state secretary Govind Parvatkar had also
admitted that a group within the BJP was planning to split
and join hands with the Congress to form an alternate government.
D’Souza has however flayed the rumours
that he was among the eight to topple the BJP government.
Though there were rumours that Parrikar will also drop four
ministers after dissolving the House, the chief minister
had quipped: "Why should I ? Let them resign and go".
Perhaps it has begun with D’Souza’s resignation.
Even if nobody is prepared to name the probable defectors
or whether they will be given tickets to contest polls,
BJP secretary Parvatkar had indirectly admitted that quite
a few may be denied party candidature.
D’Souza, while quitting, has announced
that he will definitely be in a fray but does not know whether
he will join the Congress. Luizinho Faleiro, the Congress
leader, has welcomed D’Souza’s statement, adding that more
such confessions are likely to follow, indicating more resignations
from the BJP.
D’Souza has however flayed all these speculations,
claiming that harassment to minorities by the Sangh Parivar,
in collusion with the ruling BJP, in Goa and the country
was the sole reason for his quitting the saffron brigade.
While joining the saffron camp along
with another Christian and Muslim legislators two years
ago, D’Souza had said they had positively responded to the
then BJP president Bangaru Laxman’s appeal to the minorities
to join the BJP.
This is the fourth time D’Souza has quit
the party, after getting elected as the United Goans Democratic
Party MLA in June 1999. He had then defected to join the
then ruling Congress within a month but quit the Congress
in August, to ultimately join
the BJP in October 2000.
He is presently in search of a party, to
contest polls from Vasco, the port town and his home constituency.
