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The Rediff Interview/Dr Wilfred de Souza

'I have no plans to rejoin the Congress'

You see, when the Congress came to power for the first time in Goa in 1980, I was the state party president. We had promised to Goans to make Konkani the official language and grant statehood. But we found that then chief minister Rane was not inclined to do so. That's why 10 of us decided to go out and fight the Congress. We lost miserably in the '84 elections because of the sympathy wave created throughout the country due to Indira Gandhi's assassination.

We continued to fight for the two principles, due to which the state witnessed the tremendous upheaval in 1985-86. It's not that the Congress gave Konkani the official language status and statehood to Goa. We fought for it. We achieved it by '87, after which nothing was left to fight for. Then the Congress approached us and we rejoined the party in June '89.

Exactly. Now there is speculation that you are trying to get five more Congress legislators on your side with a dual plan: to sideline the BJP which is supporting your government from outside and to project your group as the real Congress before Sonia Gandhi. This would facilitate your homecoming.

Who told you I am trying to get five Congress MLAs? I always said, they are talking to me. Why should I try when 24 is a big enough number to run the government in the 40-member House? Why should I sideline the BJP when we have come together for a purpose? And why should I rejoin the Congress?

Because you are ideologically no different from the Congress. Secondly, you have done it earlier.

No, no. Earlier I went back much later. Almost after five years. Who knows what would be the position five years later? I don't know. It's difficult to predict what will happen. At this moment, I have no plans to rejoin the Congress.

There is only one in the GRC, who is thinking of going back to the Congress, that is my Irrigation Minister Dayanand Narvekar.

Why does he want to rejoin the Congress? Why doesn't he stick with your group decision?

You know why. He wanted all those portfolios, with which he wanted to do... you know what. He did not get it. I don't see any other reason.

You are claiming to fight corruption and you have ministers in your own cabinet who are alleged to be corrupt, like Narvekar....

I am still fighting him, don't you think so? The way I acted with him, I have fulfilled the first point of my programme -- to fight corruption. Whatever manner I have to do it in, I am doing it.

Don't you fear some of your colleagues joining him to destabilise your government?

Not at all. Why should they sit in the opposition? And what makes you feel the Congress can form the government, even if they go back? You may end up from the frying pan to the fire, with dissolution of the house.

What is your plan for elections, which are hardly 13 months away? Will the existing coalition fight it together?

So far that is the plan.

Can you state firmly that your group would not join the Congress on the eve of elections?

My dear friend, nothing in politics is static. Politics is a dynamic subject. What will happen tomorrow, nobody knows. And I am not an astrologer to tell you what would happen in the days to come.

As a former Congressmen, you always called the MGP and the BJP communal....

Did I say that? That means you don't know history of Goa. In 1980, the Congress-Urs got a majority under my presidentship while late Purushottam Kakodkar was the Congress-Indira president in Goa. While Kakodkar admitted former MGP chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar into the Congress, we also merged into the party along with former industries minister Babu Naik. All three of them got together and went to Indira Gandhi to throw me out, to be replaced by Shashikala.

Why it did not happen? Because the entire MGP did not join the Congress. My two good friends Ramakant Khalap and Babuso Gaonkar, who were the only elected MGP candidates, remained outside. I told Gandhi that only the leader has joined her, but that the masses were with the two of them. Gandhi then changed her mind, and the MGP also survived. Whom do you think the credit goes to for this?

Arre baba, I have played lot of politics in my life. I have never called the MGP communal. In fact, if Khalap won the Lok Sabha elections last time, lot of credit should go to me.

Didn't you call the BJP communal?

I don't know what they are. But they are not part of my government. They are supporting me from the outside. Today is the era of coalitions. Do you think George Fernandes or Jayalalitha are communal, just because they are supporting the BJP-led government?

Secondly, why call the BJP communal? There may be communal people in it. They are not doing anything to me at least, or the minorities in Goa, which is harmful.

But the MGP and the BJP also called you communal, while you have also projected yourself as the leader of minority Catholics in Goa...

I have never ever projected myself as the leader of Catholics. In 1980, I got the Congress elected to power, winning 23 out of 28 seats. It was possible with the backing of Catholics as well as Hindus. I cannot win elections in my Saligao constituency without the support of Hindus. The vested interests are trying to dub me communal.

There is an allegation even now that you have consciously brought only Catholic officers in good position...

Show me where. There are no Catholics to bring in good position. Hardly three or four. It is totally false.

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