New Delhi: In what the Congress could only view as a beyond unfortunate series of events, the party simply imploded in Goa with 10 of its 15 MLAs jumping ship and tying the knot with the BJP. The BJP’s presence in the state assembly has now swollen to 27 out of the 40 seats – a sea of change as compared to where the party stood at the end of the assembly election in 2017.
Before Goa, all eyes were on Karnataka. With the floor test set for July 18, the sorry saga of the Karnataka state government is likely to continue in the weeks to come.
The problem with Congress-mukt Goa
A general refrain of unhappiness has followed the political turn of events in Goa. Many took to social media to ask whether the BJP in Goa is now more the Congress than the saffron party.
Among those to put similar views out was Giriraj Pai Vernekar, the former officer on special duty (OSD) to Manohar Parrikar, the former chief minister of the state.
According to him, in an article published in OpIndia this past week, on the face of it, the “midnight surgical strike by the Goa BJP… sounds brilliant” as the BJP now has “brute strength” in the state.
Vernekars put forward why he is troubled by how politics is playing out in Goa after Parrikar’s death.
“With the latest wholesale deal of 10 MLAs though, there is a completely different colour to the Goan BJP. Out of 27 MLAs, almost 20 of them are of Congress gotra (i.e. having some ties with Congress and some point of time). The current CM Pramod Sawant could be the only one considered to be an RSS linked MLA remaining in Goa.
This fact begs the question: Goa is Congress mukt, but BJP has become the new Congress?”
The religious angle is also a major worrying factor for Vernekar, after all, there are now almost 15 Christian MLAs in the BJP.
“The 10 MLAs have also shifted the religious balance of the Goa BJP… In Goa, the Church still calls the shots (covertly and sometimes overtly) as far as elections are concerned… videos show that the Church campaigned for 1 of the 10 MLAs who have been inducted into the BJP now. How will this group of 15 behave?”
After going into the tainted pasts of some of the new inductees, he asks a few questions:
“How is BJP then a party with a difference? How can BJP now provide shelter to the men it despised in the past? How can BJP’s core now be around Congressmen in BJP’s clothing?”
Vernekar harks back to Parrikar’s days and says the way BJP has dropped its allies now to make way for Congress-turned-BJP ministers would have never happened under the reign of the late chief minister as “Parrikar publicly stated that his principles did not allow him to abandon an ally”.
Vernekar ends with a few statements:
“BJP’s core is now the Congress. One wonders how far BJP’s ideology will be carried forward by this current set of MLAs. The worst outcome of this could be the possible ganging up of the Congress Gotra MLAs and demanding a leadership change, with a CM from within them. They have the numbers to form a pressure group amongst themselves, and some of them are extremely ambitious, wily and cunning operators.
The Congress has been dealt a life-threatening blow. Down to 5, it has virtually nothing it can do in Goa. Some of the 5 remaining MLAs were also rumoured to be on their way to BJP, and they may be left wondering now why they were left behind by BJP.”
Finally, the votes of Goa are in for real confusion. Those who voted for BJP the party got Congress in BJP’s clothing.
Also read: #RightSideUp: ‘Shri Ram, the Secret of BJP’s Energy’; Mahua Moitra, ‘the Outsider’
‘No more Pakistan’
A news report published in RSS mouthpiece Organiser reported the happenings of a discussion organised by the Tamil Nadu chapter of the Forum for Awareness of National Security (FANS) on national security that was attended by “intellectuals cutting across various walks of life”.
The chattered largely centred on the idea of ‘no more Pakistan’. To this end, the speakers “explained why there will be ‘No More Pakistan’ in near future”.
Dr V.P. Nedunchezhiyan, associate professor, department of defence and strategic studies, Guru Nanak College, Chennai, reportedly spoke “at length on the origin and the manner in which dissatisfied elements in the society are slowly and steadily transformed into hardened terrorists”.
According to Nedunchezhiyan, it is protests and agitations in Tamil Nadu that are “the first step towards recruitment of operatives”.
“Tamil Nadu today is the breeding ground for terrorism. The agitations in Koodamkulam, Jallikattu, Methane, Neduvasal are the ones in which suitable operatives are selected by the recruiters, contacted, nurtured, brainwashed and trained… the manner in which the number of churches has grown manifold and that all churches are modern and well equipped. The foreign funding sources stand exposed now. The church had a hand in agitations in Koodamkulam, Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi.”
Another speaker, former principal of the Army War College, Pune and Military Strategic Studies Institute, Lt. General L. Nishikant Singh “explained why all the regions of Pakistan, except Punjab, are not happy” while elaborating on the plight of the Pashtuns and human rights violations committed by the Pakistani Army.
The solution advocated by the speakers appear to be this:
“The emergence of ‘Indian Confederation’ would be a guarantee of regional peace and development.”