Indeed, the chickens are coming home to roost for these two politicos, what with the power subsidy scam of the mid-1990s and the alleged IFFI scam of the mid-2000s coming under public scrutiny, ironically, both at the same time.
And, it couldn’t have been better, if only for the sake of accountability of our politicians and political system!
Last week, when the Supreme Court adjudicated a bunch of petitions filed by companies who were deprived of a few crores in power subsidy when the government rescinded Mauvin’s scandalous notifications a decade ago, it revived the ghost of the long forgotten power subsidy scam.
Although the apex court held that its judgement could not be construed to be a statement on the conduct of Mauvin as a minister, it nevertheless upheld the Bombay High Court verdict, that what he did to retrospectively make Extra High Tension (EHT) power consumers eligible for the power rebates, was wrong.
Worse still for Mauvin, unlike Parrikar who has Digambar, Rane, Filipe Neri, Babush, Aleixo, Zantye and a whole load of others for company to account for the IFFI sins, he has none, except perhaps the then power secretary Rakesh Mehta. Because, between Godinho and Mehta, the duo had cooked the power subsidy goose, keeping the cabinet and the rest of Goa in the dark. Now, Parrikar is asking that the CBI do the same to Mauvin what its doing to himself in the IFFI case. Ironically, Parrikar had filed the FIR against Mauvin in the power subsidy case. In the IFFI case, the roles are reversed - Mauvin is the complainant and Parrikar the accused.
This bout is sure gonna have many more rounds. And, unlike the genuine ‘dhirio’ we don’t need two other bulls from Curtorim to lock horns for its legalization. This one’s perfectly legal. So, let the game go on!!
Subhanna’s waterloo too
Interestingly, when Mauvin Godinho made a brief comeback in the cabinet in the 11-month Francisco Sardinha government, he went gunning for the lanky bureaucrat who refused to play ball with him and Mehta in the power subsidy racket.
PS Subhanna, who unquestionably holds the distinction of being Goa’s longest serving law secretary, had refused to give the Godinho-Mehta jugglery any legal ‘all clear’ before and after the scam broke out in 1997.
And so, Godinho under Sardinha hounded him out with a skeleton they picked out from the files of the Mayem Evacuee Property, of which Subhanna was the custodian for many, many years!
The ex-law secretary, credited to have had a way out for everything that any politician in power wanted done - whether black, white or any shade of grey - was summarily dismissed during the ‘Naal Sorkar’ regime, courtesy revenge for Mauvin.
Why’s SP (North) still ‘acting’?
It’s about a month since Bosco George was sent marching to the Raj Bhavan as ADC to Dr SS Siddhu, apparently due to the unchecked activities of his younger brother in the dark alleys of Anjuna-Siolim. Yet, Arvind Gawas continues to be only the ‘Acting’ Superintendent of Police of North, in addition to his position as SP (Traffic). Well, the same old traditional war in the ranks - IPS officers v/s state cadre officers - has reached the point of no return.
In fact, DGP Bhim Sain Bassi, is facing an extremely cold-shoulder from almost every state cadre officer. And, with almost every operational position in the force occupied by them, the top officer is finding it next to impossible to have his writ run in the force. So, despite the air-conditioned cabin, the temperatures at the headquarters are too hot for Bassi to handle.
So, when the whole police-drug mafia story broke out, the ‘saraswats’ of the Police Force (read IPS lobby) saw an opportunity to corner Bosco George, and corner him they did, flaunting the shady activities of his younger brother in the nocturnal businesses of Anjuna-Siolim. All of this, because Bassi wanted the only SP-ranked IPS officer in the force - Veenu Bansal - to occupy the North Goa SP’s post. Unfortunately for Bassi, no politician who heads the home ministry is going to let this happen, what with IPS officers naïve about the political nitty-gritties of Goa. Remember? What happened when Ravi Naik had Neeraj Thakur heading the North Goa Police? The Monserrates will know better.
Now, Ravi, according to a mole in the DGP’s office, is refusing to let the office of SP (North) be occupied by an officer who is not a Goan. That’s why, the expected order transferring Bansal as SP (North) is just not happening. So, the SP (Traffic) will continue to also be SP (North), at least until Ravi and Bassi have made another deal!
Clearly, all is not well in the top echelons of the Goa police and it’s showing. Or else, an Anti-Narcotic Cell would have nothing to do with searching and arresting a ‘so-called’ naxalite and his associates, would it?
Band stand’s ready… are the musicians?
Stripped naked in the hurry its MLA, Manohar Parrikar was in, ostensibly to have Panjim all decked up, mascara and all, for IFFI-2004, Panjim’s iconic bandstand at its municipal garden is up and ready.
The garden itself has a few more months of work to go. Yet I wonder if when it’s ready, Goa’s musicians will be to once again occupy this space which decades ago played host to the wizardy of almost every Goan musician - brass bands, the Bondos, Remos, Nandinhos, Alexandres, Augusts, etcectra, etcectra. Or, will we have to wait for an event management company to commercially exploit this public rare public space for us to listen to our musicians display their skills?
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