Goa has 'glorious'
history of defections !
By Sandesh Prabhudesai
29 November 1999
Our politicians have one thing any Goan can be proud of -
their defection skill ! They seem to know quite well how to
govern the game of defections rather than governing the affairs
of a tiny state, which is smaller in size than the smallest
district of Maharashtra. They roam political parties like
the foreign tourists roam Goan beaches, from one to another.
As tourists seldom wear clothes, our politicians their 'ideology'.
Nudism on beaches is banned, but not the ideological nudism
in Goan politics. On the contrary, it's flourishing day by
day…
No doubt the word 'defection' has become synonymous to immorality,
shamelessness and greed in the last decade. But revolting
against the leadership, leaving the party, forming another
group and facing the electorate has been the tradition of
this youngest state of the country, right from the time it
formed the first Legislative Assembly of Goa, Daman and Diu
in 1963.
And who was the first leader to engineer defections to save
his seat of power ? Yes, it's the most respected first chief
minister of Goa - Bhausaheb alias Dayanand Balkrishna Bandodkar
! No doubt he was a visionary having a mass line and mass
appeal. But he was also the master manipulator as far as politics
(sic !) was concerned. Throwing all the norms of morality
to winds, the political mentor showed an easy way to save
power - engineer defections !
None of his successors could carry on his vision and mass
line in terms of working selflessly for the welfare of Goan
masses and planning developmental works keeping in mind the
social upliftment and all-round progress of the state. But
it appears they considered Bhau as their guru in manipulations,
taking it to the ultimate height of selfishness and utter
greed for money and power, no matter the fund management and
state development is ruined to the optimum.
Goa has witnessed eight Assemblies till date, with two of
them dissolved prematurely with the imposition of the President's
rule solely due to defection games. In fact, only one among
them was defection-free -- the sixth Assembly elected in 1984!
All the rest recorded revolts in some or other form, writing
a 'rich history' of defections.
But it's different a bit. Most of the defections in the past
were either due to the serious ideological difference of opinions
or to save the ruling governments. But the 'modern trend'
has a sole aim of uprooting the existing seat of power and
snatch it at "any cost". Financial lobbies work hard than
ideologies for the dream come true of even the freshers, who
compete with each other in stooping as low as possible to
seize positions, either in the cabinets or the state-run corporations.
REVOLT AGAINST JACK SEQUEIRA
The first Legislative Assembly of 30 seats, formed two years
after Goa's liberation, established a clear divide between
the pro-merger Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the United
Goans Party, fighting for Goa's independent identity. Bhausaheb
Bandodkar was made the first CM without getting elected, with
the support of the 14 legislators MGP had in the House. Vasant
Velingkar later vacated the seat to get him duly elected from
Marcaim.
But Dr Jack Sequeira's 12-member UG could not last intact
till the end. Three MLAs from his party revolted against Sequeira's
allegedly autocratic functioning and formed UG (Furtado),
under the leadership of Navelim MLA Alvaro de Loyola Furtado.
St Cruz MLA Joaquim Arauzo and Curtorim MLA Eno Antonio Pimenta
joined him.
Significantly, this revolt arose when the UG had won the historic
opinion poll in January, defeating Bhau's pro-merger designs,
by 34,021 votes. The UG succeeded in keeping Goa's identity
intact, but failed to keep its own House equally strong and
united. The Assembly here was dissolved prematurely, imposing
the President's rule for three months from December 1967,
allowing level-playing field for the supporters of don pana
(two leaves) and gulabachem ful (rose).
The UG (Furtado) group fielded altogether six candidates in
the second Assembly election held in March 1967, including
three of the former MLAs, from Calangute, St Cruz, Cuncolim,
Benaulim, Navelim and Curtorim. None of them, except Arauzo
contesting against Sequeira from St Cruz, could even save
their deposits. This was the first lesson to the defectors,
taught by Goan voters.
OVERNIGHT DEFECTION, COURTESY BHAU
The second Assembly, which lasted for the full five-year term
from April 1967 onwards, was the period of major political
turmoil Goa witnessed, showing Bhau's skill of engineering
defections. Toeing the line of their opposition, a group of
seven legislators including Jiva Gaonkar, nominated by Bandodkar,
revolted against the CM's authoritarianism and submitted a
letter of withdrawing support to the 16-member strong MGP
government on 28 July 1970.
The rebels, led by Shiroda MLA Krishnanath Baburao Naik, also
included both the cabinet ministers Anthony D'Souza and Gopalrao
Mayekar and deputy speaker Manju Gaonkar, besides Gajanan
Patil (Mormugao) and Dattaram Chopdekar (Bicholim). Bandodkar
was left with his sole state-rank minister Atchutrao Usgaonkar
while his government was also pushed into minority with only
11 members left in the MGP.
Efforts made to make peace between both the groups, which
also included Bhau's proposal to make Patil the chief minister,
failed as the monsoon session approached. It was a shock for
the whole state when a group of five UG legislators led by
Orlando Sequeira Lobo (Aldona) voted across the bench, in
favour of the vote of confidence in the House. The remaining
four defectors were Abdul Razak (Curchorem), Valentin Sequeira
(Calangute), Elu Miranda (Bicholim) and Rock Barreto ((Curtorim).
Subsequently, only Miranda joined the MGP. On the other hand,
among the MGP rebels, D'Souza, Mayekar and Patil joined the
Congress while the rest formed Nav Maharashtrawadi Gomantak
party to contest 1972 elections. But the voters rejected all
14 candidates of the NMG while Mayekar and D'Souza also lost
on the Congress tickets. Patil, who was offered CM's post
by Bandodkar, could not even contest.
The fate of UG defectors was no different. Only two among
the five, Miranda (Navelim and Benaulim) and Barreto contested
to face a miserable defeat. The remaining three, including
their leader Orlando Lobo Sequeira, withdrew themselves from
the electoral politics. Goans once again proved that defection
cannot be rewarding, though none of them had defected for
positions.
YOUNG TURKS INVITE PRESIDENT'S RULE
The third Assembly of 1972, which lasted for over five years,
was a smooth sailing for Bandodkar with a three-member ministry
of Usgaonkar and Pratapsing Rane holding cabinet positions
and his daughter Shashikala Kakodkar as the state minister.
He was in a comfortable position of 18 while UG had reduced
to 10. After the sudden demise of Bandodkar on 12 August 1973,
Shashikala took the reins in her hands, completing the term
successfully.
Difference of opinions arose at the fag end due to Shashikala-tai's
alleged self-centred functioning. Under the pretext of expiry
of the term of the Assembly, which had to be extended by two
more months due to the infamous emergency imposed by Indira
Gandhi, two Bhau loyalists - Jaisingrao Rane (Pedne) and Punaji
Achrekar (Tivim) - resigned in disgust, forming a separate
group. They later joined the Janata Party, but lost the '77
Assembly elections against Rane and Chandrakant Chodankar
respectively.
Lots of young blood was brought in with Tai at the helm of
the affairs for post-emergency elections held in June 1977.
The UG, on the other hand, split and merged into the Janata
Party and the Congress. Despite the national wave, the MGP
won 15 seats, once again forming the government with the support
of two independents from Daman and Diu. Tai's cabinet still
remained at four, with Shankar Laad and Vinayak Chodankar
holding cabinet ranks and Raul Gonsalves the state minister.
This was the first election for today's politicians like Ramakant
Khalap (Mandrem), Dayanand Narvekar (Tivim), Surendra Sirsat
(Mapusa), Sadashiv Marathe (Sanguem), Dilkhush Desai (Rivona)
and Vasu Paik Gaonkar (Canacona). Goans also voted in favour
of the national wave, electing Rane (former MGP) and Babu
Naik (former UG) as well as new faces like Francisco Sardinha,
Froilano Machado and Shaikh Hassan on Congress tickets. Janata
Party also made a debut in the Assembly with Dr Jack Sequeira
(former UG) as well as Madhav Bir and Ferdin Rebeiro.
While the MGP's infamous rule during this period faced state-wide
violent agitations of ramponkars and students, Narvekar and
Dilkhush waged open war against Tai's alleged autocratic rule
by voting against the government in the Assembly. With voting
pattern shifted to 14 each on both the sides, even the budget
had to be passed with the speaker casting his vote in favour
of the government.
The last blow however came when Laad resigned from the cabinet
and joined the rebels, pushing Shashikala government into
minority. As this led to unprecedented chaos in the Assembly
Goa ever witnessed, the centre preferred to prematurely dissolve
the Assembly and impose the President's rule for six months,
from 27 April 1979. While Narvekar and Dilkhush could win
the polls once again by joining the Congress camp, Laad and
Marathe had to say goodbye to politics forever.
Era of defections with Congress formation
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