rashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
But the prospect of a f loor test in the assembly in the
wake of a change of guard was deeply disconcerting. The
BJP has only 14 MLAs in the 40-member assembly. It is
backed by three legislators each from the MGP and Goa
Forward Party (GFP) and three independents.
Apart from CM Parrikar, two other ministers, Fran-
cis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar, are undergoing
treatment (in the US and in Mumbai). So the ruling coal-
ition’s effective strength was effectively 20 members—
exa ctly the halfway mark. Furthermore, while Naik was
unacceptable to both the MGP and GFP, the indepen-
dents and the GFP loathed the prospect of Dhavalikar as
their leader. It was evident to Shah that the government
could fall if there was change at the top. “We had no
option but to continue with Parrikar,” says a senior BJP
leader from Delhi. Meanwhile, the Congress is linking
the BJP’s decision on Parrikar with the contentious Ra-
fale deal. “Shah and [PM] Modi don’t have the courage
to ask the ailing Parrikar to step down as he has informa-
tion on the Rafale deal,” opp osition leader Chandrakant
Kavalekar says.
Amid widespread
criticism that gover-
nance was in limbo be-
cause of the indisposed
CM, the BJP sought
a measure of damage
control by relieving
D’Souza and Madkaikar
on September 24. Party
MLAs Nilesh Cabral
and Milind Naik take
their place. State BJP
chief Vinay Tendulkar claimed the resh uff le was signed
off by Parrikar. “He is not well, but bhai keeps watch
from his hospital bed,” he says.
But that’s not the end of it. MGP chief Dipak
Dhav alikar says the second seniormost minister in the
cabinet ought to have been given charge as interim CM
until Parrikar recovers. The independents and the GFP,
led by Vijai Sardesai, contest this.
The BJP leadership is now contemplating a steer-
ing committee of senior ministers to run Goa in Par-
rikar’s absence. The whole episode has highlighted the
BJP’s failure to nurture a second-rung leadership in
Goa. When Parrikar was moved to Delhi in 2015 as the
defence minister, Lakshmikant Parsekar was made the
chief minister. But he failed to impress. Indeed, it very
nearly cost the BJP the 2017 assembly polls; its tally
dropped to 13 seats from 24 (Congress MLA Vishwajeet
Rane defected later, taking its tally to 14).
Analysts say that if Parrikar doesn’t recover in time,
the BJP’s campaign for Goa’s two Lok Sabha seats next
year will be back to counting on PM Narendra Modi.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
A police officer lays floral wreaths on the coffins of the
slain policemen, Shopian, Sept. 21T
he September 21 kill-
ings of three Jammu
& Kashmir police
personnel—Firdous Ahmad
Kuchey, Nisar Ahmad
Dhobi and Kulwant Singh—
in Shopian district have set
off a wave of panic in the
Valley. The government and
security establishment tried
to downplay it, but there has
been a f lood of resignations,
particularly among the low-
est ranks of the force.
Coordinated appar-
ently by Hizbul Mujahideen
commander Riyaz Naikoo,
police officials say some
two dozen militants carried
out the pre-dawn strikes
in Batagund and Kapran
villages. In a replay of earlier
cop killings in south Kash-
mir, the policemen were
taken from their homes atgunpoint and shot at point-
blank range. The victims
include the breadwinner
of the only Rajput family
that had stayed on after the
exodus of Hindus from the
Va l le y i n t he 1 990 s.
Just days earlier, Naikoo,
who was recently resp ons-
ible for the abduction of a
number of policemen’s fam-
ily members, had issued an
ultimatum ordering SPOs
(specia l police of f icers) to
quit or face death. Describ-
ing them as “silent killers
being used by India against
the [Kashmiri] freedom
struggle” in a Facebook post,
he accused them of tipping
off security forces about
militant movements and
hideouts in the hinterland.
Posters bearing a similar
warning also appeared at aTHE ALLIES
WILL NOT
BACK ANYONE
OTHER THANPARRIKAR FOR
THE CM POSTBy Moazum Mohammad in SrinagarPANIC IN
THE RANKS
The militants’ stratey of targeting policemen
in the Valley is taking a toll on the forceJAMMU & KASHMIRSRINAGARABID BHATOCTOBER 8, 2018INDIA TODAY 15