The recent and what appears to be an improvised meeting of the coalition government which has been billed as a review rather than a cabinet meeting has informed voters in Goa that they, the coalition ministers are shock absorbers! When I heard it I laughed loudly.
I laughed, in fact, so loudly that I woke myself up and then realized I had been dreaming. But, was I really dreaming? I had to confirm this fact for sure, and so I went to check the news program which I vaguely remember had informed us about the news of how our elected cabinet members have now become shock absorbers. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who is very ill and is in hospital has not been able to attend to the duties of the state, as is to be expected of anyone who is very ill. What is unexpected is to discover the news about how his cabinet ministers are shock absorbers and have been able to absorb the shocks that the administration has inevitably given to governance and to the administration of the state. Is the Chief Minister roaring with laughter in his hospital bed or is he shocked to hear this idiotic news from Town and Country Planning Minister Vijay Sardesai who was lauded and applauded prior to the elections for criticizing the BJP government unremittingly with a missionary zeal for a couple of the years prior the elections. He then gave a high-voltage shock to voters all over Goa, and especially to his own voters in Fatorda - the epicenter of the political shock - when he did the grandmother of all U-turns and joined the BJP. Maybe a lot of his Fatorda voters have not recovered from the intensity of the U-turn shock which he inflicted on them. Now, he has given the people of Goa another shock by calling the ministers of the coalition shock absorbers. Is he a shock absorber or is he shock proof or the source of shocks? Isn't this behavior shocking? I sympathize with the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who is seriously ill, and is now given an added headache by the shock absorbers in his cabinet!
