With Manohar Parrikar's methodical approach to governance Goa may see better days ahead, says Aditi PhadnisLast week, when a grey-haired man wearing a blazer with
chappals alighted from a cab in the foyer of a five-star hotel in Mumbai and announced he was Manohar Parrikar, the chief minister of Goa, the doorman was on the point of snorting and retorting, "Yeah right and I'm the president of the United States." But Parrikar's car hadn't arrived on time and rather than getting late, he flagged down the nearest taxi and reached the hotel.
This is the paradox that is the new chief minister of Goa. How can a man whose biggest failing is said to be his arrogance, be at once so simple in his personal habits? No convoys of cars accompany Parrikar, there are no Gypsy vans loaded with personal security. Local newspapers noted how he tended to -- in the newly expanding cities of Goa that are choked with cars but no civic consciousness -- get out of his vehicle to spontaneously start directing traffic. He was once spotted eating fruit salad at a roadside shack in Panjim.
But it is also a fact that while Parrikar became chief minister of Goa for the first time in October 2000 -- raising the strength of the Bharatiya Janata Party from four MLAs in 1994 to 17 in 2002 -- he could stay chief minister for just two years. He made several mistakes, lost power and was back in office four months later to rule as chief minister till 2005, when he lost the elections largely because of his tendency to believe that only he was honest and everyone else was a thief.
Little was heard of the BJP in Goa after that and for Parrikar, the 2012 Assembly election was a make or break one for his political future. His nearest rival is Shripad Naik, who has been contesting the Lok Sabha elections because the BJP leadership did not want to create rivals in the state. But in this election, the BJP projected no chief minister: so that both Parrikar and Naik would have an equal chance of a stab at the job. If Parikar hadn't won, the mantle would have passed on.
Parrikar hates being compared to (Gujarat CM) Narendra Modi but it is hard not to compare them. Both are considered good administrators but both have made similar mistakes. Parrikar is not known to say sorry easily but he confessed that during his last tenure, withdrawing Good Friday and the Feast of Francis St Xavier as government holidays was a mistake.
The BJP has understandably not been popular
with the Christians in Goa. But in the run-up to the 2012 elections, Parrikar made a special effort to reach out. In 2006, Wilfred Mesquita joined the BJP and contested the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency on the symbol of the lotus.