Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party

Defying Anti-Incumbency, BJP Set To Retain Power in Goa

The BJP’s win will be particularly sweet for Pramod Sawant, a rookie MLA who took over as chief minister in 2019 after Manohar Parrikar’s death.

Panaji: Beating anti-incumbency sentiments, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to return to power in Goa for a third consecutive term. The saffron party won 20 of the 40 seats in Goa’s legislative assembly, and is expected to form the government with the help of three independents, and possibly the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which won two seats.

“Independents are coming with us, MGP will also help us form the government,” the BJP’s Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said in Panaji.

The Congress, which was expected to better its 2017 tally of 17 seats, managed only 11. A huge factor that weighed against the Congress was the presence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), both playing out their pan-India political ambitions for a slice of the secular vote in this state.

AAP took two seats in the once Congress stronghold of Salcette taluka. In Navelim, a Catholic-majority constituency which the former Congress chief minister Luizinho Faleiro (who moved to the TMC for a Rajya Sabha seat) had won seven times, the fierce contest between the Congress, TMC, NCP and AAP allowed the BJP candidate, Ulhas Tuenkar to sneak in with a consolidation of the minority Hindu vote.

Accepting the verdict of the people, the Congress’ senior leader P. Chidambaram pointed out that the non-BJP voters were hopelessly divided. In some constituencies, Congress candidates lost by thin margins.

The BJP’s win will be particularly sweet for Pramod Sawant, a rookie MLA who took over as chief minister in 2019 after Manohar Parrikar’s death. Sawant survived a scare earlier in the day when he was trailing in the count but made it through with a margin of just 666 votes over the Congress challenger Dharmesh Sanglani.

Apart from Sawant, prominent winners from the BJP include Vishvajit Rane and his wife Divya and Babush Monserrate and his wife Jennifer. Luck also seemed to smile on the BJP in this election. The former Congress chief minister Ravi Naik – who moved over to the BJP, scraped through with a margin of just 77 votes in Ponda.

Luck didn’t however favour Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal, who contested as an independent from his father’s constituency, Panaji. He lost to Babush Monserrate by just 716 votes. Monserrate, the fulcrum of defections from the Congress to the BJP in the last term, was among only three defectors (out of 12) to survive voters’ wrath. The nine others were sent packing.

Babush Monserrate. Photo: The Wire

Monserrate reacted angrily to his and his wife’s much reduced margins of victories. He lashed out against his own party, saying the result showed the BJP workers haven’t accepted him and his wife into the party. “They worked against both of us. I never accepted this result of such a reduced margin. The BJP did not help us win. We won because of our own workers,” the leader said. Monserrate said this showed a failure on the part of the BJP’s leaders.

With Sawant’s position firmly cemented with the party victory, it is unlikely the BJP will see the need to change the chief minister, despite the rising angst against Sawant even in business circles for his poor leadership qualities and his litany of failures – the mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis, the restarting of mining, the ups and downs of the tourism industry, the damage to the environment from the three linear projects and a host of others.

Another trend is the consolidation of the Hindu vote, which has given the poor performing BJP and its RSS-bred chief minister yet another term.

Unlike Parrikar, Sawant made no effort to reach out to Catholic constituencies. All through the campaign, he focused primarily in keeping the AAP and TMC in play, banking on a division of the non-Hindu vote; he constantly parroted the BJP central leadership’s attack on Jawaharlal Nehru; talked of rebuilding temples that had been destroyed by the Portuguese to build churches.

He also trained his guns on Mamata Banerjee, trying to paint her as a supporter of “Muslims and Rohingyas”, primarily to damage the MGP – which had a prepoll alliance with the TMC. The strategy appeared to have worked. The MGP was expected to take at least five seats managed just two, which makes it all the more vulnerable now to being leaned on by big brother BJP.

How Notorious Smuggler Sukur Bakhia Gave Police the Slip and Waltzed Out of Prison

An extract from the book ‘The Most Notorious Jailbreakers: Untold Stories of Escaped Convicts’ by Abeer Kapoor.

Sukur Narayan Bakhia was a notorious Gujarat-based smuggler in the 1970s and ‘80s. Politically well connected, he controlled a large operation that brought in gold, watches and other contraband into the country. He also started a crossword contest that was a cover to convert black money into white.

Bakhia was eventually caught by the law and order authorities but managed to escape from Aguadaa jail in Goa.

In this excerpt from The Most Notorious Jailbreakers, Abeer Kapoor recounts how the smuggler slipped out of the hands of the police.

The past few years had been tumultuous for Bakhia, as he had to leave the country during and after the Emergency. He refused to give up smuggling even despite Jayaprakash Narayan asking all Indian smugglers to stop in the aftermath of the Emergency. His closeness with the INC was something he took for granted and thought it would give him political cover, but that was not the case.

In May 1982, Bakhia’s appetite for his vices got the better of him. He began to prey on young girls but made the folly of hunting in Daman. The family of the girl he had tried to act fresh with ratted out the entirety of Bakhia’s operation to the authorities, who seized his incoming shipments and arrested his son-in-law. What followed was a miraculous game of cat and mouse.

The man, who had been on the run from the customs department for more than a decade, was finally caught after four months of painstaking sleuthing. The tip from the family had opened a pandora’s box. Now, as the investigation began to take shape, the layers of secrecy and security that were required to arrest him were watertight. Police officers working on the case kept the facts of the investigation to themselves. Only a handful of cops knew what was happening, and when and where he would finally be caught. Bakhia was lodged at Fort Aguada Jail.

Bakhia began plotting his escape the moment he entered the prison. He had worked too hard to be put away with such ease and permanence. It only took him two months to free himself from within the walls of the jail.

Also read: Chained Muse: Notes from Prison by Varavara Rao

According to a report by Ramakant Khalap of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, a regional political party from Goa, the smuggler enjoyed immense freedom and limitless perquisites inside the jail. Much to everyone’s surprise, he had written that ‘Sukur Bakhia seems happy’, and when he escaped from prison, Khalap went hammer and tongs against his political rivals, the INC (I), with a massive ‘I told you so’.

Abeer Kapoor’s ‘The Most Notorious Jailbreakers: Untold Stories of Escaped Convicts’ (Rupa, September 2020)

After one of his jail visits, Khalap was of the opinion that the prison would not be able to hold Bakhia much longer. There was also growing evidence that the don had begun to spend lavishly in prison, giving out money to the jail officials. Favours and privileges can be bought in jail, even from the prison guards who are as impoverished, underpaid and desperate as the prisoners. The leader of the regional party was not wrong in assuming that there was collusion even in the Goa Assembly, and in the Parliament, there was a standoff. MPs wanted answers to how smugglers of repute were waltzing out of prison if there was no patronage. He had been a beneficiary of political patronage; his family was also linked to the INC from Daman to Goa.

The Bombay High Court, after one of his several pleas, said that there was little or no ground on which he could be detained. And the police and the customs department were not ready or willing to release him from custody just yet. The enforcement and customs authorities were afraid that once out, he would go right back to smuggling.

As a remedy, they decided that Bakhia should be transferred to Gujarat and interned at a prison there. As the case proceeded in his time, the man known as Ganpati grew restless in prison. He even sent his brother-in-law, Haribhai Tandel, who was also a local politician, to request for his release.

On the morning of May 29, 1982, two police officers from the Gujarat State Police came with an arrest warrant in the name of Bakhia. When they reached the jail, they realized that they could not re-arrest Bakhia till the time he was released from prison. A quick fix was sought. They rushed to the lieutenant governor, who signed the order on the night of the 29th. Then, the police officers from Ahmedabad went to the jail, where the superintendent of the jail, S.U. Kamat, met them. They made Bakhia read the order, who claimed he could not read it due to poor light in the cell.

The next morning, they reached the gates of the jail but were not permitted to enter by Kamat. He flatly refused to let them in and said that Bakhia would be brought out to them.

The police officers waited, and few minutes turned to half an hour and then eventually an hour when they realized that Bakhia was not coming. The police officers were furious and made their way into the jail, and to their utter shock, found that Bakhia had fled from the backdoor as they had been waiting outside! It turned out that the mafia don was led out of a tiny side gate, to get to which he walked past Cell 16. From there, he climbed a ladder that was placed just for him. He climbed up the stairs and onto the other side of the wall to freedom, where allegedly two cars were waiting to drive him away.

There was another theory that said that there could be a high chance of Bakhia escaping from the country in an Arab dhow.

Also read: Ludwig Lewisohn’s 1927 Book Has Lessons for Indian Minorities Today: A Review From Jail

Investigations into how Bakhia flew the coop revealed that he had found a willing ally in Kamat, a man he had known for years. Kamat was the assistant motor vehicle inspector in the department in Daman, and an old associate of Bakhia. He was known as a man who advanced his career by usurping authority and was seemingly very comfortable with being corrupt. This was a known fact! Kamat was transferred to Goa after the government changed in 1980. He was posted here previously as part of the education department. He, in a power bid, claimed seniority, and he was made in-charge of Fort Aguada Jail.

When his old friend was interned in the same prison as the one he served in, it should have been a foregone conclusion that an escape was imminent.

In the aftermath of Bakhia waltzing out of Fort Aguada Jail, Kamat’s and his assistant Fernandes’s houses were raided. In these raids, they found gold ornaments worth ₹2 lakh, fixed deposits worth ₹99,000. Kamat refuted these allegations of corruption and claimed that whatever was found were his life’s earnings. Despite Kamat’s protests, he was arrested for colluding with Bakhia. It became quite obvious that there was no other way that the smuggler could have made it out of prison without some help from an insider. And in this case it was quite apparent that the help came from an old friend. In a spate of arrests, 12 people were put behind bars. Things got a bit murky with the sudden disappearance and death of Sadanand Apa Parab Salcar, the jailer, whose body was found on a beach two days later.

However, a few months later, Bakhia decided to turn himself in, but not after carefully playing his cards. He got his wife, Manekben, who was expecting their child, to file a writ petition to the court of G.F. Cuoto, the judicial commissioner of Goa. The judicial commissioner stayed the detention order and gave Bakhia strict orders to visit the police every Monday till he appeared in court on 31 July 1982. In the interim, the income tax department wrote to the Daman police demanding the arrest of Bakhia on the variety of bailable and non-bailable offences against him, but they did not respond.

He was finally going to be tried for the crossword scheme of 1969.

Abeer Kapoor is a reporter, data visualiser and his interests are agrarian issues, politics and foreign policy. He has a masters in development studies and loves food.

Chief Minister Parrikar Returns to Goa After Treatment

Manohar Parrikar’s absence had created a significant power vacuum in the state of Goa.

Panaji: Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar arrived in his home state Sunday afternoon from New Delhi, where he was undergoing treatment at AIIMS for pancreatic ailment.

Parrikar, 62, was flown in a special flight and later taken to his private residence at Dona Paula near here, in an ambulance.

The flight landed around 2:35 pm at the state’s Dabolim airport and the ambulance was brought out from the gate of the naval enclave INS Hansa, which is a part of the Navy-run airport.

Earlier, Parrikar was on Sunday morning discharged from the AIIMS.

According to sources in AIIMS, he was in the morning shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a while after his condition deteriorated. But later, the administration decided to discharge him.

The state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital here has made elaborate arrangements at his private residence with a team of doctors on standby to take care of his health.

Parrikar was admitted to the AIIMS on September 15.

On Friday, Parrikar met Goa BJP’s core committee members and ministers from coalition partners at AIIMS to discuss ways to ensure his government functions normally during his absence from office due to ill health.

Leaders of the ruling BJP and its allies, who met Parrikar separately, had ruled out any change in leadership in the coastal state.

The core committee is the BJP’s key decision-making body in Goa, comprising senior leaders like Parrikar, Union minister Shripad Naik and party state chief Vinay Tendulkar, among others.

Parrikar has been ailing since mid-February and has been treated at different hospitals including those in Goa, Mumbai and the US.

As reported by The Wire, Parrikar’s ill health had sparked an intense power struggle in Goa. The BJP relies on a segregated bunch of coalition partners all of whom were vying for the spot of chief minister. Among them were Ayush minister Sripad Naik and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Ramkrishna Dhavlikar.

After two of his ministers were hospitalised Parrikar was managing 48 portfolios of the state and his absence created a stark power vacuum in Goa. “Parrikar’s dominance over BJP affairs in Goa, his brisk moves to nix any challengers such as Union AYUSH minister Shripad Naik and the concentration of all decision-making in his hands amplified the “strong leader” cult. But it also prevented the rise of a second-rung leadership in the party,” wrote Devika Sequeira, reporting for The Wire.

Union minister Naik told reporters in Panaji earlier in the day that it is okay if Parrikar undergoes treatment in Goa but he needs to take rest.

“There has been an improvement in his health compared to what it was when he was flown to AIIMS last month,” the AYUSH minister said.

The minister also said he had met Parrikar on Friday.

“I got the news that he is coming back but I can’t believe that he is returning. His health is improving and he was expected to stay at the AIIMS for a few more days,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

Naik dismissed any possibility of dissolution of the Goa Assembly and expressed confidence that the Parrikar-led government will complete its five-year term.

Questions over the stability of the Goa government have been raised by the Opposition Congress because of Parrikar’s illness.

In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Parrikar-led government has the support of 23 MLAs.

These comprise 14 BJP MLAs, three each from the Goa Forward Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) as well as three Independents.

The Opposition Congress is the single largest party in the state Assembly with 16 MLAs.

(with PTI inputs)

Goa Congress MLAs to Meet Governor to Seek Dismissal of Parrikar

The leader of the opposition said the BJP has a habit of forcing governor’s rule in a state where they fail to rule, and the Congress will not allow to happen it.

Panaji: Goa Congress legislators will meet governor Mridula Sinha on Tuesday evening with a demand for dismissal of the Manohar Parrikar-led government and allowing the opposition party to stake claim for forming an alternate government.

The move comes at a time when 62-year-old Parrikar is admitted in the AIIMS in Delhi for a pancreatic ailment.

Goa is being ruled by the BJP-led alliance headed by Parrikar.

The Congress, which has 16 members in the 40-member state assembly, yesterday submitted a memorandum to the governor in her absence, urging her not to dissolve the assembly and instead invite the party to form the alternate government.

All the 16 Congress MLAs, led by their leader Chandrakant Kavlekar, had submitted the memorandum to the governor’s office.

Speaking to PTI, Kavlekar said the governor, who was away from the state, arrived in Goa at 3 pm today and her office called him for the meeting of the Congress legislators with her at 6.30 pm.

“We all 16 MLAs will be meeting the governor and will request her to dismiss the present government. We will also ask her to invite us to form the new government,” he said.

He said the Congress has support of legislators from other parties and can form the government if given a chance by the governor.

He, however, refused to spell out who all are supporting the Congress.

“We will prove our majority on the floor of the house, Kavlekar said.

The leader of the opposition said the BJP has a habit of forcing governor’s rule in a state where they fail to rule, and the Congress will not allow to happen it.

The BJP has 14 seats in the assembly, and its allies Goa Forward Party and MGP have three each. Three independents and an MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party also support the BJP.

BJP leader Ram Lal had said yesterday that the Goa government was stable and no demand had been made for a change in the leadership.

He stated this after a meeting with party MLAs, former legislators and core committee members.

He said the BJP’s alliance partners – the Goa Forward Party (GFP), the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and independents – conveyed that they will agree to any political decision taken by the saffron party.

Earlier too, the Congress had staked claim on May 18, 2018 to form the government in Goa, citing the example of Karnataka where the largest party BJP was invited to form the government after the assembly polls threw up a fractured verdict.

The Congress had said that it had not been invited to form the government in Goa after the assembly polls in March last year despite it emerging as the largest single party.

The party had also met the governor on September 7, 2018, urging her to intervene as the state administration was suffering due to sickness of the chief minister.

(PTI)

BJP Rules out Leadership Change in Goa, Says Parrikar Is Fine

BJP president Amit Shah has sent three senior members of the party – B.L. Santhosh, Ram Lal and Vinay Puranik – to Goa to take stock of the political situation in the coastal state in view of Parrikar’s indisposition.

Panaji: The BJP on Sunday ruled out change in leadership in Goa, claiming chief minister Manohar Parrikar, admitted to New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), is fine.

“Whatever was discussed today will be briefed to you tomorrow. There is no issue about the government and there is no demand of change in leadership from anyone,” Ram Lal told reporters after a series of meetings with state BJP leaders and MLAs here.

The three-member team, which is on a two-day visit to Goa, also met BJP’s allies in the state.

He declined to divulge details about the meetings, but Goa BJP president Vinay Tendulkar said there is no question of leadership change in the state as Parrikar is fine.

“During the meetings with central observers today we discussed organisational issues. There is no issue of leadership,” Ram Lal said.

Parrikar has been admitted to the AIIMS for follow-up treatment reportedly for a pancreatic ailment.

The 62-year-old IIT engineer-turned-politician is running the BJP-led government with the help of two regional allies – the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) – and three independents.

When pointed out that the GFP has asked for a “permanent solution” for the situation arising out of Parrikar’s indisposition, Tendulkar said there is no need to change the leader.

“The chief minister is in good health and there is no need to change the leadership. The core committee (of the Goa BJP) will meet tomorrow,” he said.

Earlier, alliance partners had asked the BJP’s central observers to a provide permanent solution to the situation arising out of Parrikar’s illness and his absence from day-to-day administrative work.

All the three MLAs of the GFP and the independent legislators met BJP observers this evening in a city hotel.

The series of meetings began in the afternoon when BJP legislators and leaders met the emissaries. This was followed by the BJP’s alliance partners meeting them.

“We have put forth our points about present political situation in Goa. We have asked them to provide permanent solution,” GFP president and agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai told reporters outside the hotel after meeting the observers.

He said the discussion centred around the current political situation in Goa and also preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

BJP leader and deputy speaker Michael Lobo said the future strategy of the state government would be decided after the observers submit their report.

Lobo said there is no problem in the party but the chief minister not keeping well is a problem.

“The observers are sent by the party high command and they are monitoring the situation. Let them report to the high command and come back to us with the solution for the problem,” Lobo said.

Health minister Vishwajit Rane of the BJP said he has given his views about the political situation to the observers and it is now for the party to take a decision.

“We have briefed them about the facts. Each one of us has our own view and we briefed them about it. It is not right to come out in public with what we discussed,” Rane said.

All the three MLAs of the MGP separately met the BJP observers but did not speak to media persons.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress said it is closely watching the developments.

The BJP currently has 14 legislators in the 40-member Assembly, while the GFP and the MGP have three each. The national party is also supported by three independents.

The Congress has 16 MLAs while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has one legislator.

The Congress said Sunday it may explore the possibility of forming a government but “not by compromising the state’s interest.”

“Our stand is very clear. We will definitely explore all possibilities but that does not mean that we will do it by compromising the ideology or the interest of Goans,” All India Congress Committee secretary A. Chellakumar, who is also Goa in-charge of the party, said.

“We are not in a hurry to capture power by compromising the interest of the people of Goa. The Congress is accountable to the people,” he said.

“All our MLAs are together. We are watching what is going on in the ruling camp. The internal bickering has already started. The cabinet ministers have started throwing stones at each other,” he said.

The Congress leader said all legislators in Goa, cutting across party lines, should take a stand for the sake of the state.

Parrikar was admitted to the AIIMS Saturday morning. He had undergone a three-month-long treatment in the US earlier this year.

The MGP had said Saturday it was “high time” Parrikar handed over the charge to the senior-most minister in his cabinet during his absence.

(PTI)

End Soft Approach Towards Sanatan Sanstha, Says Writer Facing Threat from Right-Wing

Seeking closure of Sanatan Sanstha, Konkan writer Damodar Mauzo says common people should rise up to the occasion to combat the culture of fear propagated by right-wing outfits.

Panaji: Almost a decade after the October 2009 bomb blast in Margao brought the shadowy activities of the Sanatan Sanstha into the open, the recent police disclosure that well known Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo also figures on the list of those marked for elimination by the group has hit a raw nerve. The Sahitya Akademi awardee was provided security cover after intelligence reports from Karnataka alerted the Goa government of the threat to Mauzo.

The Goa writer has been in the cross hairs of extremist outfits for some time due to his outspoken criticism of the culture of fear fomented by right-wing extremism. In January 2016, speaking at a seminar in Dandi, Gujarat, Mauzo had said he was proud of his Goan roots because the state is an example of harmonious co-existence, but added that he was ashamed the Sanatan Sanstha had its base there. His scathing attack on Hindutva and the complicity and silence of intellectuals – made in his address at the Sahitya Akademi’s Festival of Letters in February in Delhi – would have not gone unnoticed either. “How free are Indian writers?” was the topic up for debate and Mauzo was disappointed by the superficiality of the other speakers and the tepid response of the audience.

“Such tame acceptance only emboldens the right-wing,” he told The Wire. “I am insignificant in the larger picture. What is important is to do away with the ill designs of the right-wingers based in Goa. I hope the government takes some action now.”

With the Sanatan Sanstha headquartered in Goa, many see it relevant to ask: has the government’s soft approach and the unambiguous political patronage the organisation enjoys (from leaders of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and their families, who are ‘sadaks’ of the Sanatan) only emboldened its members?

Two members of the Sanatan Sanstha died when the improvised explosive device they were carrying to plant at a pre-Diwali procession in Margao exploded. Mauzo believes strong action then might have prevented the killings of many intellectuals since.

Writer Damodar Mauzo. Credit: Goa Arts and Literature Festival.

Among the key figures identified by CBI in the 2013 killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar is Sarang Akolkar. Akolkar is among four Sanatan Sanstha men who’ve gone missing since 2009 after they were linked to the Margao bomb blast. The Karnataka Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also found links between Akolkar and the men arrested for Gauri Lankesh’s killing, the Indian Express has reported.

Mauzo says thatone cannot blame the BJP alone for the Sanatan’s growth and the spread of its toxic ideology. The Congress too showed little inclination to probe the organisation and its activities. Matters have however, only worsened in the last four years, he feels. “Why am I being threatened, can [chief minister] Manohar Parrikar answer this? Now is the right occasion to go to the root and ask for the closure of these rogue outfits. Today it is me, tomorrow it will be somebody else. But unless the common people rise to the occasion and demand an audit of the Sananta Sanstha, not much will come of it,” he says.

A public meeting to protest the threat to the Konkani writer has been scheduled in Panaji on August 1. Solidarity has also been expressed by several other writers, with the Indian Writers’ Forum asking the president of the Sahitya Akademi, Chandrasekhara Kambara, to take a stand in the Mauzo case. “As you and the Akademi are well aware, this is not an isolated case. Only a week ago, the Kerala Sahitya Akademi winner S. Hareesh withdrew his novel Meesha, which was being serialised in Matrubhumi, because of threats to him and his family,” the forum said in its letter of July 31.

The letter goes on to say:

“Many writers, artists and scholars had protested in 2015 when M.M. Kalburgi was killed and the Akademi did not take a bold, public stand on the matter. We hope this would not happen in your dispensation and that this big literary institution will take a brave stand now. We expect the Akademi to condemn this crude assault by lumpen elements against the person and dignity of writers, thinkers and artists and their families. The Akademi needs to extend all possible support to Damodar Mauzo, S. Hareesh, and all writers being victimised in the name of religion, ideology or under any other pretext.”

The letter has been signed by Keki Daruwalla, Nayantara Sahgal, Githa Hariharan, K. Satchidanandan, Shashi Deshpande, Sara Joseph and Manohar Shetty.

A complex web of handlers, recruiters, facilitators and assassins has emerged from the arrests made by the Karnataka SIT in the Gauri Lankesh murder. The journalist was gunned down on September 5, 2017 outside her home in Bangalore, ostensibly eliminated for her outspoken views on the toxic ideology of the ultra-right groups. The SIT caught a break in the case in early March with the arrest of K.T. Naveen Kumar, the founder of a satellite hardline group Hindu Yuva Sena. Kumar’s arrest led investigators to Parashuram Waghmore, Lankesh’s assassin, who was arrested on June 11. The arrest also prevented the murder of K.S. Bhagwan of Mysuru, who was the next target of right-wing terror groups.

Eleven people have been arrested in the Lankesh case so far, with the most recent in Hubli on July 22. As the case unravels, what stands out is that the network Karnataka police calls “a secretive group formed to eliminate those harming Hindu dharma” converges on the Sanatan Sanstha and its sister organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS).

In its coverage of the case as it unfolds in court proceedings, documents and police interviews, the Indian Express reported:

“Investigators believe that the secretive group carried out the initial shootings in 2013 and 2015 (Narendra Dabholkar, 2013; Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi in 2015) using core cadre, but with links emerging to the Sanatan Sanstha and HJS in many investigations, including the arrest of a former HJS coordinator Virendra Tawade, by the CBI in June 2016, for coordinating the Dabholkar murder conspiracy, they shifted to a tactic of recruiting people from smaller Hindutva groups to execute the assassination plots.

“The alleged shooter in the Gauri Lankesh case – Parashuram Waghmore, 26, who is linked to the Sri Rama Sena, and a key provider of logistical support for the murder K.T. Naveen Kumar, 37, who is linked to a small outfit called the Hindu Yuva Sena, were recruited as part of this new strategy after careful evaluation of their Hindutva credentials by Kale and others, police sources said.”

Amol Kale and Amit Degwekar, who were arrested by the SIT in May, were part of the core team who plotted the Lankesh murder. Kale was convenor of an HJS branch and Degwekar, 38, has lived in the Goa Sanatan ashram for over a decade and worked on the desk of the outfit’s mouthpiece, Sanatan Prabhat, at one point. Degwekar also supplied cash for the recruits in the plot.

The Sanatan Sanstha claims it was set up in 1990 and shifted base to Ramnathi, Ponda, Goa in the late 1990s. It was registered by a trust deed in the state in March 1999. HJS, a sister concern of the Sanatan, was set up in 2002. It appears to supply foot soldiers for the forceful propagation of its ideology and to give the Sanatan the façade of a ‘spiritual’ centre.

Emboldened by the BJP’s rise in the state, the Sanatan Sanstha staged the first All Indian Hindu Convention “for establishment of Hindu Rashtra” in Goa in 2012. The annual convention has since evolved into a forum for propagators of Hindutva and the extreme right to converge and network. In his statement to investigators, one of the first conspirators to be arrested in the Lankesh killing, Naveen Kumar has spoken of how the 2017 Ponda convention offered him a platform to speak his mind about using weapons and arms to “protect the Hindu dharma” and how he could procure them. Kumar found a lot of support for his views and was soon after enlisted for the job.

In Parrikar’s Absence, Goa’s Governance Is Adrift and Politics Is in Turmoil

Both the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward have made their stand clear – their support to the BJP would stay only so long as Parrikar remains at the helm.

Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s protracted absence from his state is leading to instability and has also raised concerns over who is actually calling the shots in the state government, which has faced some embarrassing moments in the courts and elsewhere.

One such moment is the handling of a major agitation against the closure of mining which, for want of cohesive orders from the top, spiralled into violence on the streets of the capital on March 19. Last week, the high court ordered a halt to the transportation of iron ore, which had been permitted to continue despite a Supreme Court ruling mandating a shutdown of illegal mining operations in Goa from March 16. The high court noted that it had been constrained to pass the ad interim order because no state official was prepared to own responsibility for allowing the ore transportation.

Parrikar, who took ill in mid-February, was flown to the US for treatment earlier this month. But official updates on his health have been few and far between. The last one, sent to the media a fortnight ago, claimed that Goa speaker Pramod Sawant had briefed Parrikar about “general and administrative matters” and the chief minister had “appealed to the people of Goa not to believe in rumours about his health being spread by vested interests”.

With the future of its coalition government in Goa at stake, and with no second-rung leadership to speak of, it serves the BJP to keep news of Parrikar’s health under wraps, as it does to question the propriety of journalists and opposition parties who have dared ask a few uncomfortable questions. In Goa recently, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said there would be no change of leader because Parrikar was merely on a two-month “transition period”.

Such assurances, however, haven’t cut much ice with its own MLAs, who have begun to grow restive with the vacuum of leadership, leading to squabbles between ministers and outbursts from its non-cadre MLAs Michael Lobo and Nilesh Cabral, who said there was no “functioning” government in Goa currently.

With strong voter bases in their constituencies, Lobo’s and Cabral’s links with the BJP are tenuous at best. Lobo told the media that he would have to seriously reconsider his ties with the party if Parrikar were to step down from the chief minister’s chair. “The minority leaders have been unhappy due to the BJP’s national policies, but they have been quiet because of Parrikar,” said Lobo. Seven of the 14 BJP MLAs are Catholics and most supported his point of view, he further claimed.

His discontent, said to have been prompted by the party’s move to project RSS insider Sawant as an alternative to Parrikar, highlights how the BJP’s over-dependence on a single leader in Goa for close to a quarter century – formerly a huge advantage over a squabbling Congress – is now showing a downside.

Parrikar’s medical condition has also brought into focus the shakiness of the current coalition to stay the course for a full term. “He is the glue that holds us together,” Goa Forward (GF) leader Vijai Sardesai told The Wire. Sardesai, who is part of the three-member cabinet advisory committee – an arrangement he disparages as “CM divided by three” – set up by Parrikar to run the government in his absence, seems once again to hold the key to keeping the coalition government afloat or floundering.

Goa Forward’s unexpected plunge into a tie-up with the BJP, spurning the Congress which emerged as the single largest party in last year’s election in Goa, catapulted all three of its MLAs to the cabinet. The BJP, with just 14 seats (in a house of 40, the Congress has 16, the Nationalist Congress Party one), is propped up by three members each from Goa Forward and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), and three independents.

Most significantly, in Parrikar’s absence, both MGP and Goa Forward wasted no time in making clear their stand – their support to the BJP would stay only so long as Parrikar remained at the helm. “They cannot push anyone they want down our throats,” Sardesai said.

Still shaken by the recalibration of the Goa mandate by Amit Shah and Gadkari with the tacit backing of governor Mridula Sinha, the Congress has played a wait and watch game, one that could now be turning its way. Goa Forward’s attempts to poach Congress MLAs haven’t worked so far. Facing a re-election, these MLAs unsure of winning on a non-Congress ticket – a risk they’re not willing to take.

The BJP’s calculated leaks suggesting it planned to call fresh elections in Goa with the Lok Sabha polls next year finds few takers in the state assembly. As one minister told The Wire, such a decision wouldn’t make it past the cabinet dominated by non-BJP MLAs. “The BJP may think it is smart, but are we fools? No one wants to face an election so soon, when not even a third of our term will be finished next year.”

Devika Sequeira is a freelance journalist based in Goa.

How Political Patronage Has Kept the Sanatan Sanstha Afloat in Goa

Starting out as just a fringe irritant, the shadowy organisation has been emboldened by the Goa government’s support

The headquarters of the Sanatan Sanstha in Ponda. Credit: Sneha Vakharia

Panaji: With the needle of forensic findings now pointing to a clear link between the killers of journalist Gauri Lankesh, Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi and communist leader Govind Pansare of Kolhapur, the spotlight is once again on the shadowy Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha.

Almost two decades after the hardline Hindutva organisation parked itself in Goa – it was registered by a trust deed in the state in March 1999 (a copy of the deed is with The Wire) – very little is known of what goes on inside the Sanatan Sanstha’s ‘ashram’ in Ramnathi, Ponda, or who actually calls the shots there, as its reclusive founder, Jayant Balaji Athavale, a Mumbai based hypnotherapist who turned 75 this year, stopped making public appearances at the ashram since 2004.

It isn’t clear if it was Athavale’s wife’s Goa links, or the fact that he received a warm embrace from saffron-leaning politicians in Goa, that prompted the shift of the Sanatan headquarters from Panvel in Maharashtra, to Ponda in Goa.

But Ramnathi, in Bandora village, Ponda taluka, would have seemed the natural choice. As home to a cluster of some of the biggest and best known temples in Goa, Ponda is both a religious and cultural hub.

The taluka is also the political base of the controversial Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) politicians Sudin and Deepak Dhavlikar, who are the Sanatan’s biggest benefactors and supporters in Goa. Both the Dhavlikar brothers’ wives, Jyoti and Lata, are sadhaks at the Sanatan, something they propagate quite openly. The Dhavlikars have said their wives are Sanatan members to “help promote our Hindu dharma and culture”.

Lata Dhavlikar, whose husband was a minister in the Goa government till he lost the election earlier this year, waded into a controversy two years ago when she publicly asked parents to stop sending their children to convent schools, and pronounced rape was on the rise in the country because Indian women were becoming more and more westernised.

A politician with the ability to cling to power even though the MGP has not won more than three seats in each of the last four elections in Goa, Sudin Dhavlikar is currently a minister in the BJP-led coalition government and holds the lucrative portfolios of PWD and transport, among others.

Why did they support an organisation suspected in the killings of three rationalists, I asked Deepak Dhavlikar before the election in February this year. He was enraged by the question. “Why are you studying this so deeply? If some members are involved, does it mean all Hindus are guilty?” was his reply, before he slammed the phone down.

But shouldn’t the presence of two Goa ministers – both Dhavlikar brothers and their families attended prayer functions in the Sanatan ashram last year – in the premises of an organisation linked to the murders of at least three people who were outspoken in their criticism of intolerance in the country, raise questions in Goa?

The Sanatan’s move to Goa and its furtive functioning was viewed with both suspicion and open hostility in Bandora village, long before its violent intent came out into the open in the Margao bomb blast that killed two of its sadhaks, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik in October 2009. There were complaints and cross-complaints in local police stations, and the right-wing group even moved the courts in 2004, claiming it was being defamed by some locals. The defamation case was dismissed by the high court in 2007.

But it was in 2012, after the BJP won a majority on its own in Goa in the election that year – propelling Manohar Parrikar to the chief minister’s post again – that the Sanatan Sanstha and its offshoot, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), became all the more publicly and visually assertive. The Sanatan and HJS went into overdrive to put together the first All Indian Hindu Convention “for establishment of Hindu Rashtra”. The convention took place at Ramnathi in June of that year, and the right-wing organisation crowed that not for 125 years had such a large gathering of pro-Hindu groups taken place.

The second Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Adhiveshan in June 2013 saw Narendra Modi, who was then still Gujarat’s chief minister, sending a message of greetings to the organisers. The event is still held every year. In March 2017, a reporter reported about the convention for The Wire.

Narendra Modi’s message to the Second All India Hindu Convention, 29013.

How much financial and other backing is being ploughed by politicians and other below-the-radar admirers of the Hindu right into this convention we’ll never know. But what started as a dismissible gathering of the loony fringe that no one in the media paid much attention to is now offering a platform to the most obscure and the most hardline saffron elements to test the fine balance of tolerance in the state and the country. As it did, when the young Sadhvi Saraswati used this year’s convention in June – the fifth in a row – to say that “those who eat beef should be hanged in public”.

Though widely reported in the national media, Parrikar saw no reason to condemn the provocative statement. Nor has the BJP ever criticised the Sanatan or its foot soldiers, the HJS. Yet earlier this month, the party vehemently attacked the Goa Church, calling it communal for daring to use an article that drew a parallel between Nazi Germany and Modi’s rule. The article that appeared in the Church’s pastoral bulletin Renovacao before the by-election to the Panaji seat which Parrikar was contesting, cautioned voters to look beyond the narrow prism of state politics to the growing traits of fascism in the country. The Church’s decision to set up its own fact-finding team to look into the recent desecrations of cemeteries here also angered the BJP.

The fact that the Sanatan enjoys political patronage in Goa has helped it weave its way into virtual social acceptability. Despite strong objections by many of journalists in the state, Sanatan Prabhat, the hardline Hindu rashtra proponent’s mouthpiece has been given accreditation by the Goa government. The paper has been associated with threats and warnings to writers and activists. As documents in the monsoon session of the state assembly showed, Sanatan Prabhat also gets government advertising support. Indeed, Sudin Dhavalikar told the Times of India in 2015, “We support Sanatan Sanstha through government advertisements.”

Though the BJP and its parent body, the RSS, may pretend to have nothing to do with the Sanatan, its backhand support and silence provides more than ample endorsement.

Congress Emerges Single Largest Party While AAP Draws a Blank in Goa

Meanwhile, the BJP’s incumbent chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and five of its ministers lost their seats.

Congress supporters celebrate in Goa. Credit: PTI

Panaji: Saffron may have won in Uttar Pradesh, but it failed to significantly retain power at India’s popular tourist destination. The Congress – which had suffered its worst defeat in decades in the last election – emerged the single largest party in Goa, taking 18 seats (including an independent) in a house of 40. The BJP, which had a simple majority of 21 in 2012, managed just 13 seats and has the support on one independent.

Meanwhile, AAP, which had made a strong bid for a political breakthrough in Goa by contesting 39 of the 40 seats – more than any other party – drew a blank.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Digvijaya Singh said the party would stake the claim to form the government early tomorrow after a meeting of its core committee with the elected MLAs. The BJP had lost the moral right to try to make a bid for power, Singh said, reacting to the rumour that the saffron party was possibly trying to win over the two local parties to its side. But the Congress’s claim, as well as the political stability of this state, now hinges largely on the two regional parties – Goa Forward (GF) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) – which have won three seats each. The NCP claimed one seat and is expected to throw its lot in with the Congress.

At a press conference after the BJP’s poor showing, outgoing chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who was soundly defeated, said he feared the fractured mandate would bring instability and “affect development” in Goa in the next five years. This statement signals that the BJP could still try and make a bid for power, trying to cobble up the numbers. Parsekar also took consolation from the fact that the BJP had managed a higher share of the vote (32.9%) than the Congress (27.9%).

So far, neither the GF nor the MGP have revealed their hand – though the MGP did announce before the counting that in the event of a hung assembly, they would most likely prefer to align with the BJP. The MGP, which broke off its alliance with the BJP before this poll, has been in government with the Congress in the past as well. GF, a breakaway from the Congress, is most likely to tilt to the side that makes it the best offer given its recent fallout with some Congress leaders like Goa PCC president Luizinho Faleiro. GF MLA Vijai Sardessai is known to drive a hard bargain and sees himself as chief minister material.

The strongest message from the electorate appeared to have been directed at a number of the BJP’s stalwarts – many of them staunch RSS men like Parsekar and speaker Rajendra Arlekar who were resoundingly defeated. Four other ministers also bit the dust. For a party that just a few elections ago had a hard time convincing minorities to contest on the Lotus symbol, the BJP was in fact well served by its Catholic faces. Seven of the 13 BJP MLAs who won are Catholics. One of them, Mauvin Godinho, crossed sides from the Congress just a few weeks before the election and finds himself on the losing side once again.

Though Arvind Kejriwal had drawn a lot of media attention after his well-attended public rally in Panaji in May last year, AAP seemed to have been taken in by its own spin and divorced from ground realities. In most constituencie, the party didn’t even touch four digit figures. But AAP did damage the Congress to some extent – Congress’s vote share slumped to 27.9% to the BJP’s 32.9%. The AAP debuted with 6.1% of the vote.

And if one thought politicians have a shelf life, those elected on the Congress side proved otherwise. The party fielded and brought back to power a number of ‘senior’ leaders, among them former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane (who will touch a half century in the Goa house sometime later this term), Faleiro (who returns to state politics from his AICC venture), former chief ministers Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat, and another old hand Isidore Fernandes, not to mention Churchill Alemao of the NCP. As Singh said, with anti-incumbency trailing the BJP, what seemed paramount in the voters’ mind in Goa was a change of government – particularly after the numerous U-turns by the BJP in the last term.

With Several Players in the Electoral Fray, Goa is Proving Difficult to Call

The BJP is campaigning fervently to hold on to Goa after its break with Sudin Dhavlikar and the MGP, while a fractured Congress, AAP and independents contest over small electorates.

A BJP rally in Panaji on January 28. Credit: Twitter

Panaji: Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Ramkrishna Dhavlikar – also known as Sudin Dhavlikar – has been called a politician for all seasons for his propensity to lean on the side closest to the winning post and and his ability to corner plum portfolios. For most of the 18 years that he has been an MLA, Sudin has managed to latch on to a government – Congress or BJP – even though his party had only a smattering of seats. In 2002 and 2007, the MGP managed just two seats and in 2012 it picked up three. With their alliance off the rails in this election, the BJP is calling its former partner ‘Maximum Grab Party’.

The vitriol is perhaps deserved, because the MGP has signalled that they would be open for business, provided Sudin becomes chief minister. He told the Times of India in an interview recently: “You will be surprised. We are doing very well. It is good we are not in an alliance with BJP. They are trailing. We would have faced the same music from the people,” adding, “If anyone wants us, they should support us.”

Not many would have heard of the MGP outside Goa. The party came into existence after Goa’s 1961 liberation from Portuguese rule. It came to power in 1963 riding on the popularity of the bahujan samaj leader Dayanand Bandodkar and ruled for 16 years, after which it was dislodged by the Congress. But the party, formed with the express intent to merge Goa into Maharashtra, was stopped in its tracks by India’s only referendum, the Goa Opinion Poll of 1967, which voted decisively against the merger.

The MGP has since struggled with the ‘Maharashtrawadi’ association, which was making it politically irrelevant. It even suggested that journalists use only the party’s acronym, rather than the full form.

In an election that’s proving difficult to call, the role of lesser players will assume significance after March 11 – if neither the BJP nor Congress manages a majority. The MGP currently seems positioned to do better than it did in the past three elections, which could propel it to dictate terms if it came to power sharing. It is contesting 33 of the 40 seats in a saffron alliance with the Goa Suraksha Manch and the Shiv Sena. This tie-up of hardliners is making the BJP seem less ‘saffron’ than its adversaries.

One of the big ironies of the ‘resurgence’ of the MGP, which espouses the cause of the bahujan samaj in Goa, is that it is run and entirely controlled by the upper caste Dhavlikar brothers – the younger of the Dhavlikars, Deepak, is contesting for a third term from Priol – with strong ties to the Sanatan Sanstha.

Sudin Dhavlikar at an event. Credit: PTI/Files

Sudin Dhavlikar of the MGP at an event. Credit: PTI/Files

The Dhavlikars have never denied their links to the fringe right-wing organisation whose members are being investigated for the killings of leftist leader Govind Pansare and scholar M.M. Kalburgi. They’ve even defended their right as a “priestly family to help our Hindu dharma” by supporting the Sanatan. The wives of both the MGP politicians are ‘sadaks’ in the organisation which is headquartered in Ramnathi, Ponda.

The fracture between the BJP and MGP has brought a certain edge to the election and the BJP is using everything in its arsenal to take down its ‘saffron’ opponents. In Priol, it has thrown its weight behind an independent, Govind Gaude, contesting against Deepak. It has compelled Sudin to spend a lot of time campaigning here to save his brother’s seat. The older Dhavlikar, who has held lucrative portfolios in PWD and transport, and is known to look after his voters – he gave the Sanatan government advertisements – is standing for a fifth term from Marcaim.

Congress battles itself

Though the newcomer AAP promises change for its supporters – many of them young Goans – political heavyweights still lumber across the election landscape, some of them quite visibly struggling to stay relevant. The Congress which has brought in 60% of the new faces has four former chief ministers in the contest – Luizinho Faleiro, Pratapsingh Rane, Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat. Faleiro, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief, was sent back to revive a squabbling, demoralised side. Though he has managed to recoup the organisation to some extent, his campaign to return to state politics is not proving easy.

In Navelim, South Goa, where he is standing, the contours and demographics have altered dramatically in the 10 years he’s been away. Jogging shoes on, Faleiro trudges the dust. Every vote counts. His campaign manager bitterly complains that there are less than 24,000 voters here and seven candidates – some of them ‘sponsored’ by those inside the Congress. The BJP is supporting the strongest competition to Faleiro, an independent Avertano Furtado, and is said to have propped up the virtually defunct Goa Vikas Party to further fragment the ‘Catholic’ vote in these parts.

The election has not been fought yet, but some Congress leaders are already surveying the power stakes post the results, its members say. Kamat who ran the government in the worst years of illegal mining, is contesting the Margao seat for a seventh term has been a wily player. He survived the anti-Congress wave in 2012 despite the campaign against his role in the mining scandal.

But the constituency that’s attracting the most attention is Panaji, where the BJP run is being challenged by the rank outsider and maverick politician Babush Monserrate. This is a contest not so much between the BJP and the Congress, which is playing it by proxy through Monserrate (contesting from the United Goans Party), as it is a challenge for defence minister Manohar Parrikar to prove he still carries weight. Parrikar had won the Panaji seat five times since 1994. His move to the Centre saw his protegé, Sidharth Kuncalienkar, take the seat in the 2015 by-election. But a year later, a panel floated by Monserrate turned the tables on the BJP in the city corporation polls.

Babush Monserrate. Credit: Twitter

This is the first time Monserrate is contesting this seat. In the market, the chaiwallas are rooting for the underdog, but there are also 3,000 Saraswat (Brahmin) votes in contention that have usually stood by the BJP.

The extent by which the Goa election has turned into a prestige issue for Parrikar is evident from his relentless campaigning here – turning up at the smallest corner meetings in market places with his security detail in tow. This correspondent caught one such meeting at 9 pm at the Taleigao market on Sunday. A few rows of chairs were lined up on the narrow streets facing the podium from which the defence minister addressed the crowd even as traffic barely wended through. The BJP supporters were ecstatic. Never before have our meetings here drawn so many people, one of them said. But Parrikar had never before addressed a meeting in this constituency, I pointed out. This is how intense the challenge to hold on to Goa has become for the BJP.