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THE FIRST SPLITS
By Valmiki Faleiro
Goa’s Opinion Poll of Jan 16, 1967 was historic. It was India’s only
referendum, ever.
The first MGP government had demanded Goa’s merger with Maharashtra. Big
Brother,
Maharashtra’s powerful lobby in Delhi, vigorously pursued the idea. The
argument was
that Goans had spoken their mind, pro-Merger, in the Dec-1963 elections. If that
reasonably valid line was not accepted by New Delhi, and an Opinion Poll held,
it was,
primarily, thanks to two Goans: Purshottam Kakodkar and Dr. Jack de Sequeira.
Kakodkar almost strained his sanity, and his personal equation with the Nehru
family,
selling the Opinion Poll idea. Sequeira shrewdly activated the then Mysore
State lobby,
led by the towering S. Nijalingappa, to counter Maharashtra’s influence.
Queerly, the Opinion Poll led to free Goa’s first split, down the middle of the
UGP. The
second, in the MGP, occurred three years later. Both were genuine splits.
Unlike later
day `splits,’ naked defections actually, resorted to evade disqualification
under the
central Anti-Defection Act. The law stipulated that if one-third of a party’s
elected
strength broke away, it would be a ‘split,’ not a defection. Let’s look at the
first splits.
The UGP demand all along was for a plebiscite on lines of `Merger’ or
`Statehood.’ The
Congress Working Committee was meeting in Bangalore, ahead of the Sept 13, 1966
Congress Parliamentary Board’s resolution favoring an Opinion Poll in Goa.
Karnataka
leaders invited UGP leaders. Dr. Sequeira and some colleagues attended. The CWC
agreed to recommend a poll on "Merger - Yes or No," not "Merger or Statehood."
Without consultations, Dr. Sequeira agreed.
Party MLAs back home rebelled against Dr Sequeira’s unilateral decision. They
argued
that a golden chance to secure forever Goa’s future as a separate State had been
squandered. A poll victory would now mean Goa’s mere continuation as a centrally
administered Territory, not an independent State.
Of its twelve, six UGP MLAs split: Dr. Alvaro de Loyola Furtado, Joaquim Luis
Araujo,
Dr. Sebastiao Mazarello, Dr. Maurilio Furtado, Enio Pimenta and Urminda Lima
Leitao.
To their eternal credit, they did not quit immediately. They stayed back,
campaigned
hard against merger, and only after the Opinion Poll results, walked out. The
Election
Commission recognized them as the UGP-Furtado group.
Goa’s second split happened in June-1970. DBB’s persona made him a much-loved,
much-hated man. The masses worshipped him. But his legislature colleagues hated
him, at least privately. DBB generally regarded people derogatorily. IAS
officers were
‘Sogle bonde,’ IPS men ‘Te burr...’ and freedom fighters ‘blackists.’ FF Subodh
Shetye
actually kicked the CM. DBB addressed legislature colleagues in demeaning terms.
Only a Brahmin, Minister of State Achut Usgaonkar, could swallow DBB’s insults
and
survive. DBB promised but did not deliver, particularly to his MLAs. He
instantly
believed in confidantes, seldom crosschecked. He chucked people.
On June 6, 1970, DBB chucked party Gen. Secretary MS Prabhu, ostensibly for
defalcating funds, and inducted 10 new members into the MGP Executive Committee,
without any party consultations. In six years as CM, DBB was used to ‘yes’ men.
There
now were seven with self-respect, who decided to put some controls on his
autocratic
functioning. On June 8, seven MLAs including two ministers, led by KB Naik,
party Vice-
President since 1967, questioned DBB’s "dictatorial acts." Two days later, the
old
Executive Committee ‘censured’ him. On June 11, the rebels demanded that DBB
quit,
or face withdrawal of support. On June 19, ministers Anthony D’Souza and Gopal
Mayenkar quit the four-member cabinet.
Air was rife with DBB’s imminent fall. Dr. Sequeira told DBB those were his
last days in
the CM’s chair and that he (Sequeira) would soon sit in it. DBB muttered,
"Bhoila aand."
Quizzed, Dr. Sequeira and asked his deputy, Babu Naik, what that meant. Babu
told the
story of a fox that forever followed a bull, in the hope that the bull’s
tantalizing testicles
would someday fall and the fox would get to eat them. It never happened. The
chair
remained forever elusive to Dr. Sequeira. How DBB survived when reduced to a
minority, we shall see next Sunday.
On June 23, 1970, seven of MGP’s 16 (plus two nominated) MLAs broke away, to
later
form the `Nava-MGP’: party Vice-President KB Naik, ex-Ministers Anthony D’Souza
and
Gopal Mayenkar, Dy. Speaker Manju Gaonkar, Gajanan Patil, Dattaram Chopdekar and
nominated MLA Jiva Gaonkar.
Two lessons from Goa’s first two splits hold relevant. Both the UGP-F and
Nava-MGP
contested ensuing elections, ’67 and ‘72. None won. Goans, then, did not
approve of
even legitimate splits -- forget repeatedly re-electing naked defectors as in
later years.
Politicians, then, were men of some honour. Once rejected, they stayed home. Of
the
13, only two who had tasted power, Anthony D’Souza and Gopal Mayenkar, joined
the
Congress.(ENDS)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330
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The above article appeared in the February 11, 2007 edition of the Herald, Goa
