When Chief Minister Pramod Sawant pulled off the coup in September 2022 barely six months after the assembly election, getting eight of the 12 Congress blokes to jump ship and land into the saffron hull, everyone thought it was a winning political strike by the diminutive Sanquelim politician.
Now, nearly two years later, it's proving to be his 'problem of plenty' as the wobble in his super-majority government witnessed during and after the recent monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly, indicates.
Five bills were withdrawn. On the sidelines of the session, a cabinet meeting was held where all hell broke loose with ministers exchanging barbs and some even letting out cuss words. As if all this was not enough, days after the session ended, a bunch of ministers took to newsrooms and television studios indulging in a round of blame-game theatrics. It's all happening, proving yet again that politics is a game of numbers but numbers alone do not make politics.
The drama is on and we can bet that the closing scene of this theatre of politics is yet to come.
How about Camel safaris in Panaji?
After all the sweat, toil, hardship, chaos and fluff for over three years, there's now a chance to finally experience Panaji's 'smart city' aspirations. It also offers Minister Rohan Khaunte's department and Goa's tourism czars an opportunity of a lifetime, which could potentially give the pink city Jaipur a run for its tourism money: Camel Safaris.
The condition of all the city's roads, which incidentally were freshly re-minted after three years of battering from the 'smart city' contractors, is such that a ride or drive on them instantly gives one the feel of a cool, camel ride. No kidding.
What takes the cake is the stretch of road from the TB hospital at Tonca to the SFX Chapel at Portais, literally a kilometre of humps, literally like a camel's back. Recently, taking advantage of the dry spell, the authorities stepped in and paved a good 100-meter stretch of this road with interlocking tiles, only to be battered by 48 hours of showers later making the scene worse.
Now, the government has pledged to set it all right in 15 days. Before the Bombay High Court at Goa. Fingers crossed, lest it turns out to be like the administration's deafening success in enforcing the sound laws in the northern coast!
*With inputs from Agnelo Pereira
