Friends turned foes? (January 26, 2010)

If Goa’s newspapers last week were to be reviewed, it would seem that the rumblings (or should we call them the Monserrate 'tantrums' that hardly managed to 'tickle' Diggu??) are still on. Diggu was summoned to New Delhi by the High Command, according to the Paper You Can Trust. It also said that the CM and the High Command held discussions over dropping a minister or two, the reference, clearly to two heavyweights and the chief movers and shakers of the political storm of the week before -- Monserrate and Churchill.

Now, now. Diggu is no 'action man'. He's more in the mould of Pratapsing Rane, a status-quoist, rather than a clone of the action-packed Manohar Parrikar or Dr Wilfred de Souza. So, he's unlikely to drop or add anyone to his team and he'd rather let the boat sail, however choppy the waters. So, there'll be no dropping or adding. Not for now at least. What Diggu went to Delhi for, according to a very, very reliable source, was a meeting with the Planning Commission, on the record, and off-the-record, to slam Speaker Pratapsing Rane, who for some unexplained reason isn't on the best of terms with the High Command. According to a bird that flew from Delhi to Goa to avoid the severe winter there, Diggu was bitterly complaining to the Cong bigwigs in Delhi about the 'retired hurt' Rane Senior's sudden readiness to open another innings in Goa. Diggu reminded the High Command that not very long ago, Rane Sr had spurned the offer to open the innings at the strikers end in North Goa. He had cited 'health reasons' and retired to the pavillion, asking 'Baba' instead to do the needfull in Bicholim and Sattari for the candidate "loaned" to the NCP -- Jitendra Deshprabhu. 'How come he’s now fit as a fiddle and all set to open in Goa again?' Diggu is said to have asked the High Command.Diggu, it appears, has made up his mind that only Rane Sr can unseat him, and that too, only if blessed by the High Command. Because not many, if any, within the Congress in Goa would want to see Rane Sr back in the saddle. So, Rane Sr it is that’s gonna be Diggu’s principal foe and he'll spend the customary pilgrimages of obeisance that all CMs of Congress-ruled states have to pay to Delhi in the next few months, trying to convince 10 Janpath how Rane Sr as CM would be bad for the party.

Aires ka chamatkar
There’s something cooking!Suddenly, the gushing flow from Aires Rodrigues’ outbox to our inbox here at GT has slowed down into a mere trickle.

Every other day, the inbox of GT’s official email ID (gteditor@gmail.com) received press releases from the wily and witty advocate-cum-social activist from Ribandar. My enquiries reveal he used to send the same to the inboxes of all the other newspapers as well. And gosh!! Wasn’t he loved by the press corps for this - his language journalistically impeccable and therefore a story for the day on the platter with the least of labour for us journos!

If on one day there was a preview of the next hearing in his legal battle with the Advocate General, Subodh Kantak, the next day it was a virtual ball-by-ball review of what happened at the hearing. And oh my! Juicy stuff it all was for almost every daily to carry. Days later it was ditto with his other VIP foe in the courts - Rane Jr. Preview of a hearing one day and review with expert legal comments the next. Now suddenly the stuff from Aires’ outbox has slowed down to a trickle. We’ve not heard a word through Aires since late November of the ‘threat to kill’ which he’s alleged was delivered to him by Rane Jr through the Idea cell phone connection of Mrs Rane Jr. Ironically, the last we heard from Aires on the ‘threat to kill’ was his (Aires) own threat to keep fighting the Rane scion the day a vernacular daily screamed a report quoting sources from Valpoi that he’s kissed and made up with the headline-hitting advocate from Ribandar. Nothing more since then!

We are beginning to wonder whether there’s something cooking….or has it already been cooked, tasted and eaten?!?

R-Day trivia
There's this little tit-bit I learnt last week.

Current Home Minister, Ravi Naik, is perhaps the only Chief Minister in India to have taken the Republic Day salute in his home State. It happened on January 26, 1991, after he became Chief Minister following that famous ‘tripartite pact’ between him, the then Leader of the Oppostion in Goa, Dr Wilfred de Souza and the late Rajiv Gandhi.

Kursheed Alam Khan was the Governor of Goa then. But a few days before the R-day, he was also given charge of neighbouring Karnataka and had to be in Bangalore to take the salute there. So, Goa had no Governor to take the salue and the privilege fell on the lap of the five-day-old CM Ravi Naik, who lapped it all up.