Headlines
Not Congress, Goa BJP's own MLAs its bitterest critics
By
Mayabhushan NagvenkarWith deep fissures within the
Congress rendering the main opposition party virtually toothless, the
main opposition to Goa's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be
from its own camp.
Two first-time legislators from the saffron
party, Michael Lobo (Calangute) and Vishnu Wagh (St. Andre) over the
last few weeks have been upping pressure on Chief Minister Laxmikant
Parsekar, accusing their own government of turning a blind eye to
rampant prostitution, corruption and unchecked police atrocities.
Lobo,
on Monday, took his protest against the BJP-led coalition government a
notch higher by going on a day-long hunger strike to "highlight" rampant
prostitution in the beach shacks in his constituency, which hosts
internationally renowned beaches like Calangute and Candolim, and a
brutal assault against ayoung student by two police constables.
"Something
had to be done to bring these issues to light. How can you turn a blind
eye to prostitution and shacks serving as dance bars? Women in my
constituency are unsafe at night. The government has not been doing
enough," Lobo told IANS.
Lobo, incidentally, has been accused in a
First Information Report (FIR) last Saturday for razing down night
clubs from where dance bars were allegedly functioning.
"There
was prostitution happening there and the public reacted against it
because the government wasn't doing anything," Lobo added.
Wagh,
the other BJP legislator on the rebellion path, has been critical of his
party's functioning over issues related to governance and stifling of
popular dissent against the government's policies.
A noted writer
and dramatist, Wagh earlier this month upped his ante after the state
government started preparing the groundwork towards setting up of a
censor board to monitor tiatr, a more than 100-year-old form of popular
Konkani theatre.
"There should be absolutely no censorship of
creative art," Wagh, who has been critical of the BJP on a whole range
subjects in recent times, right from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
controversial name-emblazoned pinstripe bandgala to the recent
vandalisation of churches in Delhi, told IANS.
Apart from party
MLAs, other independents MLAs like Rohan Khaunte, who had been
supporting the BJP-led coalition government until last November, when
Manohar Parrikar was chief minister, has also switched hats for the
moment.
"If this is the way the government is going to operate, I
do not want to be a part of the support structure," Khaunte, a
legislator from Porvorim, a suburb of Panaji, told IANS.
The BJP
however claims there is no threat to the government and that the conduct
of its MLAs, especially Lobo and Wagh, was unbecoming.
"These
are anti-party acts. We, as a party, will never succumb to them," Goa
BJP chief Wilfred Mesquita told IANS when asked to react to the dissent
within the party.
He also said that the BJP had a robust intra-party structure to discuss differences of opinion.
"As MLAs they should have approached the chief minister to resolve any problems which they face," Mesquita added.
The
BJP would however take solace in the fact that, despite dissent, the
government is well-placed as far as assembly-floor arithmetic is
concerned, especially at a time when the Congress is a bitterly divided
house.
The BJP has 21 legislators in a house of 40 and is also
supported by two regional parties and their five legislators. Two other
independent MLAs are also a part of the treasury benches, for an
effective strength of 28.
(Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at [email protected])