At war again!

All the pretence has now been exposed. It's finally out there in the open that there is no lasting understanding, deal, or whatever you call it, between the Alemaos and Mickky. The war of words at the fag-end of last week's cabinet meeting clearly said so. In fact if tongues were fists, quite a few ministers would have been black-eyed today.

Unfortunately, there's a woman (and it can't be a minister because Diggu's team does not have any), in south Goa who's ended up with not just a black eye, but a whole black face.

Mickky's out-of-the-box advances on Salcete's political turf through the Zilla Parishad elections provoked the initially-caught-napping Congress Salcetians, including Churchill, Joaquim, Aleixo Sequeira and Felipe Neri Rodrigues into a real big fight and the victim in the bargain happened to be Nelly Rodrigues.

The former South Goa ZP chairperson, though elected unopposed has completely lost out in the end game and is left with only Mickky for mercy. Not a very enticing situation for the Jr College lecturer, especially with Sister Farrel firmly entrenched in the decision-making mechanism of Churchill-led ministries!

This latest bout has also left the Group of Seven (G-7) open to retaliatory fire from the Congressmen. As they say, politics in Goa can never get dull. And, trust the politicos that come from Salcete to give it the muscle and colour, it so often wears!

Women’s reservation v/s Mandalisation?
Last week the world celebrated the Centenary of World Women's Day and India's Upper House scripted the first stanza of a chapter in its history book with the passage of the Women's Bill in the Rajya Sabha, despite the Yadav hiccup on Women's day itself. But there still is a long way to go before reservation for women in the country's highest decision-making corridors -- Parliament and State legislatures -- becomes a constitutional reality.

The Yadavs, who came to attain goliathian stature on the national political canvass post-Mandalisation -- Lalu, Mulayam and Sharad -- will do everything in their might to raise hurdles in the House of People.

Obviously, they (the Yadavs) sense that the quota for women will dent the advantage that VP Singh's mandalisation gave them, and therefore, their demand for quota within the women's quota for dalits, OBCs and Muslims. They will not buy the argument that they should let the Women's Bill pass for now and get their concerns for backwards and the 'quota within quota' tackled later. Because, the veterans that they are, the Yadav trio knows only too well that if it (quota within quota) doesn't happen now, it will never happen.

Take Goa's case for instance. About the time when Justice Kuldip Singh Gill and his team at the Delimitation Commission was holding public hearings on the exercise here in Goa, the Government of India issued the notification including the Gawdas, Khunbis and Velips in the Central List of Scheduled Tribes. So, if the reservation law was to be followed in letter and spirit, then like Dhargalim (now 'Pernem' in the post-delimitation era) at least another four to five seats should have gone reserved. A plea was made but it fell on deaf ears at the Delimitation Commission's hearings. Now, it's unlikely to happen in any hurry.

It isn't therefore surprising that Prakash Velip of the BJP has raised the 'quota within quota' banner here in Goa. For, without a quota, they stand no chance of being nominated to any seat even if numbers favour them. Take the last elections for instance. Cortalim, Loutolim, Curtorim and Fatorda, the four seats that have huge ST populations saw all the major contending political parties -- Congress, BJP and Save Goa Front/ UGDP -- nominate upper-caste candidates.
For the women here in Goa, (I mean the political women ie A's wife, B's sister, C's daughter and D's daughter-in-law) meanwhile it will be a bonanza! Donno if it'll help the Norma Alvareses, the Sabina Martins, the Albertina Almeidas, the Shanti Maria Fonsecas and the others of their ilk though.

CCP self-goal?
On Sunday, Leader of Opposition, Manohar Parrikar, tried his hand at dinner diplomacy with journos. He, along with the half-a-dozen Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) corporators owing allegiance to him and the BJP hosted a press conference followed by dinner at the Mandovi.

The theme?: Obviously Elections 2011.

Led by Portais's Menino D'Cruz, the corporators ranted and raved in the presence of their mentor, about the scams and mess in the CCP over the last four years of their tenure. Market scam, parking scam, 'ghost workers' scam, etc., etc. In the next one year, they said they will launch a public awareness campaign to sensitise the Capital's citizenry about the goings-on in the CCP, as if the poor aam admi doesn't already know.

Clearly, Parrikar knows he's band of men and women in the CCP have fared miserably in making a mark. Much of the credit for exposing most of the scams his corporators are now raving about, lies in the pocket of his long time rival Surendra Furtado and the 'Chanakya' of Goan politics it seems is hoping to neutralise this with the year long mass contact campaign he and his corporators unveiled on Sunday. Too little too late?

Tailpiece
The ghost has indeed disappeared. Six months after Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao promised of action on the floor of the House in the 'ghost workers' scam at the CCP, there's none of it.