BABUSH: A TROJAN HORSE? Babush has finally made it to the cabinet, and although many may think the move will lend some sort of stability to the Digambar Kamat-led government, there are a few in the government that think otherwise.
Babush's induction means, the cabinet now has a little less than half its members who are non-Congress MLAs -- Jose Philip D'Souza and Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco of the NCP, Ramkrishna (Sudhin) Dhavlikar of the MGP, Vishwajeet Rane (Independent) and Babush himself. Could this prove to be the government's waterloo? Consider these facts. In the 39-member House (Pale seat is vacant after Gurudas Gawas' death) the Congress has a strength of 17 MLAs. It's in government because it has the support of the three NCP MLAs, Vishwajeet, MGP's Dhavlikar brothers and now Babush, which makes the tally 24. So, if you keep the Speaker, Pratapsing Rane out, that means the Congress has as many as nine MLAs who are not ministers. And, this figure of nine includes two wounded soldiers in Dayanand Narvekar and Pandurang Madkaikar. The last time such a thing happened, post-1999 elections under the leadership of then CM Luizinho Faleiro, the Congress lost a government. Too many non-Congress MLAs in the ruling benches meant the loyalists like Francisco Sardinha, who so famously said he was angry because "his tail was stamped", led the coup to tie up with the BJP and run a government for 11 months. Now, will history repeat itself? Is there an omnimous sign in Babush refusing police security? Has he forgiven Digambar Kamat for the police brutalities (sic) against him, his wife Jennifer and son? Will he play Trojan Horse? Let's wait and see. PARRIKAR IS BACK The BJP's media propaganda machine seems to have got a sudden overhaul in the last two weeks. The reason? Obviously Manohar Parrikar. The Leader of the Opposition was away in the United States for almost a month and boy, didn't we miss him! Evidence of that is in the editions we produced in the days after his return. 'Special Status' for Goa, he thundered, forcing perhaps all newsrooms to splash the news on their Page Ones. A refreshing change for the Opposition party, at least as far as us journos is concerned. The saffron brigade's press conferences were indeed getting increasingly boring with their spokesmen holding fort solo sans Parrikar. While, Govind Parvatkar has a signature monotone, Rajendra Arlekar just doesn't seem to look beyond Jose Philip D'Souza and his Civil Supplies portfolio. MIND YOUR TONGUE Not all Goan politicians have forked tongues. There are exceptions. Chandrakant alias Babu Kavlekar the boyish looking MLA from Quepem (fourth from right) has a tweaked tongue as you can see from the photo taken by our photographer. There's actually a very valid reason as to why we have called him boyish. Even at this age, Chandu still hankers after chow. Remember all the fuss he created over the food park? It almost seemed like he was undergoing a prolonged spasm of hunger, going by the way Chandu held onto the 'food' project. But could there be another reason Chandu has tweaked his tongue? Why would an honourable MLA elected by several thousand voters chose a photo opportunity to take his tongue out for a walk. Is it inspired by the sight of Manohar Parrikar congratulating Babush Monserrate? Maybe, because remember a short time back (that's 'long ago' in Goan politics) it was Parrikar who gave Babush, his first taste of sarkari power. That's exactly about a year after Parrikar had alleged that a certain 'money lender' from Taleigao, along with a certain minister's son were partners in a sex racket. WHAT'S THIS JOURNO BASHING? After Gomantak's Soiru Komarpant was beaten by cops in June, another journalist Raju Naik from Tarun Bharat was beaten by some beer swilling bikers along the Ribander patto. Be it the cops or anti-social elements, a beating anyway hurts. Journalists as a fraternity are not going to forget this very soon. And there's something else that we are going to remember for some time to come now. That's the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kishen Kumar's 'off record' comment to the media following the incident. When reporters questioned him about the incident, Kishen Kumar said that the media was making a fuss about this incident only because it was a journalist that was beaten up. He also claimed that it was only a 'coincidence'. Has Kishen Kumar forgotten the extent to which the cops went, when some of the policemen were 'beaten' by the Monseratte-led mob which attacked the Panjim police station. It's time to act for Mr Kumar. First, curb the rate of crime, and then maybe some of your 'off record' comments. OF JAMIR, PARRIKAR AND HEARING AIDS Governments are often hard of hearing. That's what Bhagat Singh thought and hence he thought of that blast in the parliament ruse. But looks like the malaise has spread to governors too. One of the reasons why Parrikar is so desperate to get the information on the former Governor S C Jamir's expenses is the guv's expenditure, on rather awkward personal effects. Parrikar is supposed to have told a group of journos some time back that the forme governor had billed the state government for two hearing aid pieces, which were worth Rs 34000 each. While the finance department had dithered from paying the same, earlier they were nudged into paying up. The other expensive piece of body appendage purchased on state cost by the former governor were two gold teeth. We don't now how much these cost, but by now we have a pretty sure idea how tough Naga politics actually is. FOOT NOTE: We were incidentally delivered a small note of irony from a GT reader who found Manohar Parrikar's hue and cry about him being denied information by the governor's office amusing. Rui Ferreira, a resident from the foothills of Altinho, Panjim, claims that during Parrikar's regime, a similar fate was meted out to him. "The government, during the BJP regime had gone to the High Court against the Information Commissioner's order, denying me some banking related reports, which were not as sensitive as the one Parrikar is now demanding from the Governor," Rui rues. Compiled by Ashley do Rosario with inputs from Mayabhushan Nagvenkar Derek Almeida and Vithaldas Hegde. Feedback to [EMAIL PROTECTED]