The monsoon session of the Goa
Legislative Assembly is on. With the
opposition yet to take off, it looks to be a tame affair. The opposition has to
be strong if a democracy is to function properly. Strong does not imply that it
has to be obstructive or destructive. The best situation is when the opposition
is firm, persistent, vibrant and yet constructive: a sign of hope to those who
are not happy with the government, to those who are looking for future
alternatives. It doesn’t have to depend on numbers. One man can make the
difference as has been amply shown in the past. In our present assembly, we are
still looking for that one man. However, I must admit, that at least two
legislators have shown some potential so far.
The government has been doing quite
well till now. And the honeymoon phase with the people is still on.
Nevertheless, the opposition members must look around with eagle eyes to find
out people’s problems and point them out in the assembly. Perhaps the
opposition MLAs, especially the ones who were ministers in the last government,
are afraid that for every finger that they point out, three fingers may point
back at them. Such a condition makes the opposition ineffective. But it can
also make the government complacent, rather than keeping it on its toes. The
end result is a government which is not at its best, and therefore the people
do not receive the best.
Goa has never had a dearth of leaders
in the opposition for the last forty-eight and
half years since the first assembly was elected in December 1963. The
greatest of them was the Leader of Opposition in Goa’s first Legislative
Assembly, Dr Jack de Sequeira. The numerical division was ideal for the house, eighteen on the ruling
side and twelve in the opposition. Dr Sequeira was not only an opposition
leader in the house, but also outside the house among the people because the
issues on the agenda were very crucial to Goa and its future. Goa’s first Chief
Minister Dayanand Bandodkar was also a
leader of the masses. The issue of Goa’s merger with Maharashtra was of epical
proportions, and the pro and anti merger leaders, Bandodkar and Sequeira, were
also looked upon as larger than life by the people.
Dr Sequeira continued to be the
leader of the opposition till the time of split in his United Goans Party
during the third term of the assembly in mid nineteen-seventies, and even after
that as an eminent leader of his own group and of the Janata Party from 1977 to
1979. That was the longest stint of any opposition leader in Goa stretching
over sixteen years, and Dr Sequeira played it to the hilt.
Anant Narcinva Naik, of United Goans Party
and later the Congress Party, was an effective opposition leader in the second
half of nineteen-seventies. Madhv R Bir, elected on the Janata Party ticket
from Panaji in 1977, also played an effective role in the opposition during his
short tenure of two years. When the Congress captured power in 1980, the
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party was reduced to seven MLAs, and further to
just two after a group of five deserted the party to join the ruling Congress.
Ramakant Khalap led his MGP group of two in a thirty member house, playing a
significant opposition role. The opposition ranks swelled in 1983 when Dr
Wilfred de Souza formed the Goa Congress with nine MLAs, having split from the
Congress which he had led to victory for the first time in Goa. Luizinho
Faleiro and Herculano Dourado became the leading voices of the opposition
though Dr Wilfred was the leader. It must be noted that Dr Wilfred has not been
as much of a vocal opposition leader in the Assembly as he has been outside of
it, performing political operations to change governments with surgical skills.
The December 1984 elections brought
in the independent MLA Uday Bhembre, known for his oratory, and MGP MLA Dr Kashinath
Jalmi, known for his sharp criticism. Both these new MLAs, along with Luizinho
Faleiro and Ramakant Khalap, played a leading role in opposition to the ruling
Congress. In fact, Khalap and Jalmi raised the pitch for the MGP so much that
their party almost won the November 1989 elections.
After the 1989 Assembly elections,
defections and manipulations became the order of the day. We had so many chief
ministers and opposition leaders during the nineteen nineties. Nothing
significant happened during this period. In November 1994, the Bharatiya Janata Party
entered the assembly. Manohar Parrikar began to make his mark in the opposition
benches. He achieved high ratings as an opposition leader. When Parrikar became
the chief minister in 2000, Dayanand Narvekar became one of the leading voices
in the opposition. Pratapsingh Rane was never impressive as the leader of the
opposition. When the Congress came back to power in 2005, Parrikar once again
played the role of the leader of opposition, winning for himself the people’s
acclaim and subsequently a victory in March 2012.
As a tailpiece, I must mention Mathany
Saldanha who was a natural opposition leader all his life. But he never played
the opposition role in the assembly as he was on the side of the ruling BJP
during his membership of the assembly, and was disqualified by the speaker when
the Congress came to power midway. His disqualification was set aside by the
judiciary subsequently, but we missed his voice in the opposition ranks in the
assembly.
The opposition in Goa needs to be
revived after a short lull. Those who have shown the potential must rise to the
occasion. As in the past, the people of Goa will not only applaud but will
reward them at the right time.
Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 22.07.2012
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