Panaji: From between the mountainous heaps of illegally mined ore and humungous moral craters of political corruption, a nervous Goa peers out in worry as March 3 approaches.
A chief minister (Digambar Kamat) and several cabinet ministers have been linked to a multi-crore illegal mining scam. A home minister and his son (Ravi Naik and his son Roy) have been accused of links to the drug mafia by a foreigner in court. An education minister (Atanasio Monserrate) has been accused of leading a mob attack on a police station.
Given the three facts above, optimism in matters of governance and political probity are issues which Goa and Goans have forgotten some years back.
Without a doubt, the ruling Congress-led coalition government is trapped in a quagmire of corruption, scandal and non performance.
And a relatively newfound genetically surcharged trend for nepotism in its ranks is not helping matters much.
Consider this scernario.
The list of kin of Congress ministers and senior functionaries lobbying for a Congress ticket or a ticket of the alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is burgeoning like a Sachin Tendulkar kitty of international cricket records.
Public works department (PWD) minister Churchill Alemao is pushing for a Congress ticket for his daughter Valanka Alemao from the Benaulim constituency. Churchill's brother, Joaquim is rooting for a ticket for his son Yuri from the Sanguem seat.
Home minister Ravi Naik is now rooting for two Assembly tickets for his sons Roy and Ritesh.
Speaker Pratapsing Rane, a veteran Congress legislator and a former chief minister, and his son Vishwajeet are already both sitting legislators.
Education minister Atanasio Monserrate is rooting for a ticket from the St Cruz constituency for his wife Jennifer.
Congress MP from South Goa Francisco Sardinha is backing his son Shalom's claim for an Assembly ticket from the Curtorim Assembly segment, the seat he had vacated at the time of his election to the Lok Sabha.
Chief minister Digambar Kamat's former private secretary Prakash Velip has been positioning himself as a candidate from the Quepem Assembly constituency in South Goa.
A party which had taken a firm, voluble stand on the "one family, one ticket" in the 2007 state Assembly polls, has a telling silence on the same issue in 2012, with a large number of top leaders rooting for their blood and friends.
Over the last four years, the Congress-led coalition government, which includes the NCP and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a once-powerful regional party, now tottering on the brink of political survival, has survived scams and scandals virtually every month in office.
If the captain at the helm, Kamat, wasn't himself battling charges of corruption in an Excise scam in 2010, he was on the brink of ouster for his alleged links to a multi-crore illegal mining scam, which is reported to be a lot 'redder' in hue than the Bellary mining scandal.
While home minister Ravi Naik was named by Fiona Mackeown, mother of slain UK teenager Scarlett Keeling, in court for his alleged links to the drug mafia, his son Roy was named by the a former girlfriend of an Israeli drug dealer, for having links to her Israeli drug dealer boyfriend. For the record, both father and son denied any such links.
If education minister Atanasio Monserrate's son was accused of sexually assaulting a minor German girl in 2009 (he was later exonerated by a trial court for lack of evidence), the father was also chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for leading a mob attack on the Panaji police station and arson. Atanasio Monserrate was also detained at the Mumbai airport earlier this year for carrying foreign currency in excess of stipulated limits.
The list goes on.
Given the rather long story of woe, listed above, one would expect chief minister Digambar Kamat to be buried under humiliation and caved under in worry. Truth is, Kamat, a deeply religious fellow (a leading national newspaper recently photographed him kneeling on his haunches praying at the feet of Ongole's - Andhra Pradesh - Ramavadhoota Swamy alias 'Transfer baba', with his wife Asha in tow), who has coils of red sacred thread tied to his wrist which are thicker than Jupiter's misty rings, does not seem really perturbed, even with the polls only two months away and the Congress needing a massive image makeover exercise in order to 'cure' public perception about the tainted partymen.
When asked by the media during one of the many crises, if he was worried about his chief ministership, Kamat has responded eloquently - more than once - that whether he continues in power or not was "up to God".
In truth however, apart from God, Kamat has another valuable friend. Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar.
Parrikar, a former chief minister, first made national headlines a couple of years back when during the run up to the BJP national presidency race, he likened the ageing LK Advani to 'rancid pickle'. Articulate and intelligent, Parrikar has been successful in digging out a string of scams during the five years with Kamat at the helm. But what has been consistent and conspicuous about Parrikar's exposes is his repeated inability to convincingly pin down the scams on Kamat, be it the mining scandal or the excise scam.
Parrikar's 'weakness' to land the killer blows to Kamat's solar plexus could have something to do with the fact that the latter was a virtual number two in the Parrikar-led BJP-coalition government which ruled Goa from 2000 to 2005 and close confidante of Parrikar, before switching to the Congress, during a switch in power.
The blunted killer instincts of Parrikar and other state BJP leaders including state president Laxmikant Parsenkar has resulted in an Opposition which has failed to cash in to the hilt, on the plethora of chances which were handed to it on a platter by a discredited and dissent-ridden ruling alliance.
The cosiness, which crucial members of the Opposition appear to share with Kamat, could be a key factor in deciding their electoral fortunes, during the polls in Goa, where relatively small margins of victory are not surprising.
The Congress currently boasts 20 legislators in the 40-member house and is the senior partner in the ruling coalition, which also has three members of the NCP and two from the MGP.
Not surprisingly, the Congress is keen on repeating the 2007 coalition formula and is keen on teaming up with the NCP and the MGP. While talks with the NCP vis-a-vis a seat sharing arrangement are on currently, the MGP appears to be looking at a partner swap, with the party leaders openly flirting with the BJP, both of which share a similar base of voters.
The Congress has already dispatched its first shortlist to the High Command in Delhi, which is expected to vet the names, while the BJP leaders claim that the process of candidate selection was on over the last few months.
Apart from the four major political parties, three regional parties have suddenly raised their hands in the political arena, within days of the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the dates on Christmas eve last year.
While Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is all set to open a Goa chapter of its party, which is likely to be headed by former chief minister Dr Wilfred de Souza, former NCP MLA. Ex-tourism minister Francisco alias Mickky Pacheco has re-launched the 'Goa Vikas Party', a non-consequential political outfit which was formed a few years back, before slipping into dormancy.
Pacheco, a chargesheeted legislator who in the course of the last five years has been booked for criminal charges ranging from bigamy, foreign exchange violations, extortion, attempted murder, etc, has the potential to be a spoiler in the Christian-dominated Salcete region of south Goa (which has seven Assembly seats and is known to be a Congress bastion). He is scouting for disgruntled Congressmen and combining regional parties like the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) into an electoral force.
As far as the optimists' lot in Goa are concerned, the March 3 elections could be just the chance to resurrect Goa from morass after a heady Christmas and New Year. And for the pessimists, the polls could be just another hangover after a New Year blast on the beach.
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