http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1009121

'Goa minister issued notice for perpetual foul mouth'

Pushpa Iyengar


PANAJI: First Mickky Pacheco dared to use an expletive against
Margaret Alva, AICC general secretary and Goa in-charge. Then he
carried out a public tirade against chief minister Pratapsing Rane.
Now he has begun attacking his own boss, National Congress Party (NCP)
president Dr Wilfred de Souza.

Pacheco, state's agriculture minister and NCP vice-president, was
issued a show cause notice, on orders from national president, Union
agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. That triggered another bout of
tantrums from Pacheco who threatened to meet Pawar over the issue.

Says NCP general secretary and spokesman Surendra Furtado, "Pawar
thought that the JD(S) imbroglio in Karnataka might harm us here
politically as this issue has similar connotations and ordered the
show cause." Questioned if Pacheco had officially been asked to
apologise by de Souza, Furtado told DNA, "We sent our message through
his friends."

In response, Pacheco told DNA, "There won't be an apology, because 20
of the 21 general secretaries concur with me, including the
coordination committee and executive committee. It is de Souza's ego
now that is also angering party workers because only he and I were
rewarded with cabinet berths." The NCP has only two MLAs in the
coalition Congress government.

Earlier he was stripped off the tourism portfolio in the BJP
government over problems he had with former chief minister Manohar
Parrikar. In July 2005, he contrived to bungle the simple exercise of
voting in a Rajya Sabha election and got his vote invalidated.
Pacheco's politics of blackmail (he wanted better portfolios then) did
not go unnoticed, stimulated abundantly by him from June last year.
'Rane works in slow motion,' 'The Parrikar government worked faster,'

'This government is not functioning' etc have been some of his common
refrains. In October, he summoned the director of animal husbandry and
abused him over an issue. As far as rebellious politicians are
concerned, Pacheco has rivalled south Goa's MP Churchill Alemao, by
coincidence also from the same village of Benaulim, which curiously,
stages Goa's only illegal bull fights.
--
Cheers,

Gabe Menezes.
London, England

Reply via email to