by Rajan Narayan
GOAN OBSERVER, MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2007
Vote out the Sangh Parivar and its collaborators - Churchill Alemao’s Save Goa Front and the Monster Rat’s United Goan Democratic Party.
NOTWITH-STANDING the loud and shrill claims by senior BJP leaders that they do not have an alliance with Churchill’s Sink Goa Front or Babush Monster Rat’s United Goons Party even a casual glance at the final list of candidates contesting the June 2 general elections confirms the collusion between the BJP and its dubious devious partners - Churchill’s Sink Goa Front and Babush Monster Rat’s UGDP.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, in its seat adjustment pact with its paid agent, Churchill’s Sink Goa Party has not put up candidates against Churchill Alemao in Navelim and also in four other constituencies in Salcete where the Sink Goa Party has put up candidates. The BJP has left the Curtorim, Loutolim, Benaulim and Velim seats to Churchill’s Sink Goa Party. Even more revealingly, the Sink Goa Party has returned the favour done by Churchill in funding and financing the party by not fielding a candidate in Panjim against Manohar Parrikar - the man who sealed the pact with Churchill’s Sink Goa Party.
Churchill’s Sink Goa Party has also obligingly refrained from fielding candidates against the other hard core Sangh Parivar leaders like Laxmikant Parsekar, the former president of the BJP, and Ramrao Desai in Curchorem. The Sink Goa Party has fielded candidates in Vasco against Rajendra Arlekar and in Margao against Sharmad Raiturkar. But this has been done to split the vote to ensure the victory of the hard core saffron candidates.
SOFT COMMUNALISM
IT will be recalled that the manifesto of the Sink Goa Party sought to gloss over the BJP’s communal agenda. The SGF manifesto insists that there is no difference between the soft secularism of the Congress and the mild communalism of the moderates in the BJP. This mischievous sentence in the SGF manifesto is a deliberate attempt to deceive voters by projecting Manohar Parrikar as a moderate who only indulges in mild communalism.
Presumably for the SGF, the vandalisation of the masjid at Socorro when the BJP was in power, the storming of the Bishop’s palace by Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists ostensibly to claim a structure looking like a shiv ling and the destruction of Portuguese name plaques in Fontainhas all amount to mild communalism. And presumably the systematic targeting of Muslim minority houses and shops by saffron lunatics and fanatics also constitutes mild communalism. At the press conference at which the manifesto was released, Churchill declared that he would have no objections to entering into an alliance with the BJP.
BISHOP’S PALACE
IT is not only the SGF that the saffron brigade has tied up with. It is clear that Manohar Parrikar also has entered into a covert alliance with Babush Monserrate in particular and the UGDP who helped him become the chief minister after the 2002 general elections. After a late night meeting in Hotel Mandovi last week with Manohar Parrikar, Babush Monserrate is reported to have directed the Mayor of Panjim, Tony Rodrigues, and all the other councillors who owe allegiance to him to support and campaign for Manohar Parrikar, including Uday Madkaikar who was caught with half a truckload of beer at Bhatlem.
SABOTAGE
AS a quid pro quo, Manohar Parrikar has sabotaged the candidature of his own party candidates in Taleigao and Santa Cruz. Manohar Parrikar, who lured Agnel Silveira into the BJP, has abandoned him. Agnel was given the Taleigao ticket by Manohar Parrikar and company to facilitate the re-election of Babush Monserrate and neutralise the Catholic votes in the Taleigao constituency. Parrikar is well aware that Catholics will not vote for the lotus symbol. Reports from Taleigao indicate that BJP workers are refusing to campaign for Agnel Silveira. In the case of Santa Cruz Jennifer Monserrate is herself on record that BJP cadres are campaigning for her in Chimbel and other parts of the Santa Cruz constituency even though the official BJP candidates in Santa Cruz is Anil Hoble.
There is further evidence that the BJP has a secret understanding with the United Goons Party which is once again being taken over by the Monster Rat from Taleigao. The BJP has already announced that it is extending support to the UGDP candidate for the Cortalim seat, Matanhy Saldanha. Presumably Matanhy is being rewarded for his loyalty to Manohar Parrikar and the BJP during the attempts to topple the then BJP government by the Congress party. The UGDP has allegedly put up a minority community candidate, Ibrahim from Benaulim to undermine the minority vote bank of Vijai Sardesai, the Congress candidate in Fatorda to secure the re-election of the BJP candidate, Damu Naik. The UGDP has extended support to Joseph Sequeira, the Calangute Sarpanch to split the minority community vote and facilitate the election of the BJP candidate, Anjali Malik.
NO COINCIDENCE
IT is not a coincidence that Manohar Parrikar and other BJP leaders reserve all their venom for the Congress. It is rare, if ever, that even national leaders of the BJP criticise the Sink Goa Party or the United Goons Party. Manohar Parrikar himself, who was so vociferous against Babush Monserrate at the height of the anti Regional Plan 2011 agitation has not said a word against Babush Monserrate ever since the two entered into a pact to support and help each other in Panjim and Taleigao with BJP support for Jennifer in Santa Cruz being the icing on the cake.
The bitter ground reality is that the Sangh Parivar has now expanded to include not only hard core BJP lunatics and fanatics but also their collaborators like Churchill Alemao and the Sink Goa brigade and the Monster Rat controlled United Goons Party. The BJP or at least Manohar Parrikar is keeping all its options open including post electoral alliance with the MGP. Significantly, the MGP has not put up a candidate against Manohar Parrikar in Panjim. The MGP is primarily targeting the Congress and has deliberately fielded weak candidates against BJP stalwarts.
Either to deepen the divide within the Congress or because Manohar Parrikar has always had a close and warm relationship with the Ranes, a weak candidate has been fielded against Vishwajit Rane in the Valpoi constituency. It will be recalled that it was Manohar Parrikar who gave Vishwajit Rane his first office of profit as the Chairman of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation for his help in first installing Francisco Sardinha as the chief minister and later abetting in the toppling of the Sardinha government.
The BJP is officially contesting 33 seats, having left five to the Save Goa Front and one to the UGDP. The BJP is also supporting the independent candidate in Cumbharjua, Nirmala Sawant. Except in Mapusa, the BJP has put up Catholic candidates only to split the votes and help the SGF. So the BJP is actually contesting only 30 seats and it is relying on the SGF and the UGDP to form the government.
REJECT BJP
THE Congress has put up 32 candidates officially. It has lost two seats by virtue of the revolts by Babush Monserrate and Vishwajit Rane. The SGF has put up 17 candidates, the GDP ten and the MGP 25. The prominent independents in the fray are Nirmala Sawant, Christopher Fonseca, Piedade Noronha and Floriano Lobo.
Voters in the general elections being held on June 2, 2007 should reject not only the BJP but the candidates of the Sink Goa Party and the United Goons Party aswell. Because the vote for SGF or UGDP is really a vote for the BJP. That cannot be any doubt in anyone’s mind that the SGF and the UGDP are part of the Sangh Parivar.
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