Congress backstabs its youth By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
This Monday, while the High Court strengthened the faith of the general public in the judiciary by denying bail to disgraced MLA and former Tourism minister Mickky Pacheco and his sidekick Lyndon Monteiro, the Congress party in Goa disgraced itself, its supporters and more importantly the youth congress members by accepting Taleigao MLA and Education minister Babush Monserrate in its partyfold.
I know the judiciary and political parties are poles apart, but the feeling of the general public or the aam admi was one of elation and at the same time of despair. While the judiciary was trying to bring a high profile MLA to justice, the Congress party was resurrecting another equally brash legislator with a criminal record.
Whatever said and done about the country’s oldest party, a large section of the population has some faith in the Congress, but very often this goodwill and hope of the masses is sought to be crushed, when this particular political party indulges in hara-kiri. Acceptance of Babush Monserrate in the partyfold is termed as the return of the prodigal. I fail to understand in which party the Taleigao MLA will not be a prodigal. He started his political career with the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP), then joined the BJP, thereafter the Congress, then back to UGDP and now back to Congress. In the bible the prodigal son returns to his father. In case of Babush Monserrate he returns to the party in power as to safeguard his interests and be in power. Moreover the prodigal son in the parable offered to be a servant of the father, I dare the Education minister to resign as a legislator and be a pen-pusher in the party office. Only maybe then, he could be seen as a prodigal otherwise a despot.
If one analyses Atanasio Babush Monserrate’s track record, be it political or otherwise, it is crystal clear that he is sort of a maverick and a rebel. He is not the kind of a person to stick by rules or act according to the book. He has got his own mind and has never accepted ‘no’ for answer. He himself has confirmed this trait of his, when the Congress refused a party ticket for his wife Jennifer to contest assembly election from St. Cruz in 2007; he had made his unhappiness amply clear to the party and walked out of the office in a huff. After ditching the Congress in the eleventh hour and filing nominations on the UGDP ticket, he had told the journalists, “I had told the Congress that I would teach them a lesson and I did it, I am a man of my words.” These words are recorded in the archives of the electronic media in Goa.
The Congress party in Goa is like a brothel, where anybody and everybody are free to come and go, as and when they feel. In 2007 the then Congress spokesman Sanjay Nirupam had said the party wouldn’t have any truck with Monserrates in future as he ditched the party at the eleventh hour, but today you see just the opposite. And it is not surprising because most of the Congress ministers and MLA’s in Goa have left the party at one point or the other including the chief minister and party president, infact Subhash Shirodkar has the dubious record of leaving the party highest number of times to be closely followed by PWD minister Churchill Alemao.
Be that as it may, in January this year scion of the Gandhi family Rahul visited Goa, now he is seen as the force behind the Youth urging the youngsters to join politics to cleanse it, his exact words were “You either play the game or go home. Don’t be a commentator be a player.” The acceptance of Taleigao MLA in to the partyfold is bound to demoralize members of the Youth Congress, because in the year 2007, many members of the youth wing of Congress were brutally assaulted by Babush and his supporters when they were holding a morcha to demand resumption of work at the Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat in Dona Paula, which was forcibly stopped by Taleigao MLA. The youth are still nursing a grudge against the legislator for his action. However now they are left gaping as Madam Sonia Gandhi gave the green signal for Babush’s entry, while Rahul Gandhi has been left to swallow his words.
That aside, the youth Congress do not have the nerve to stand up and object to Babush’s entry nor do they have the will to denounce the move of the Congress president to admit Babush into partyfold. The question now, will Rahul Gandhi come to the aid of the members of the Youth Congress, who already faced blows, lathis and stones at the hands of the Education minister. Their demand for a thorough probe into the merciless attack on them is bound to be vitiated or take a backseat. Furthermore, will the Youth Congress members have the guts to depose against their own minister or will they accept Babush’s largesse and clamp-up is to be seen?
If the youth congress members have any pride in themselves, they should resign en-masse and demand disqualification of Babush Monserrate not only from the party but also from the assembly under the anti-defection Act.
Furthermore, what will be fate of the vandalism at the Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat in Dona Paula, will the government probe the matter or will that too be shelved. The very fact that GPCC president Subhash Shirodkar has said that he had no role to play in the entry of Babush and it was High Command that decided the matter, indicates that Taleigao legislators does not care two hoots for the low command in Goa. GPCC president should spell out how he intends to make Monserrate to toe the party line. Furthermore the strongman of Taleigao has a number of extortion cases registered against, besides being chargesheeted in couple of other cases.
In conclusion, masses of India had given the Congress party a mandate not only for good governance but also to clean up its house of unwanted elements, but the party bigwigs do not seem to have realized the opportunity and are indulging in the same political expediency which was the reason for their downslide a decade ago. (ENDS)
====================================================== First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - June 24, 2010
