PANAJI
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have deftly put up a facade of composure but the startling and blunt allegations of political corruption hurled by one of its own leaders, former minister Pandurang Madkaikar have ruffled if not rattled the leadership, both at the government and party level.
Madkaikar’s public censure of the party’s government on as sensitive an issue as political corruption is being viewed seriously and is being internally assessed and investigated by the party internally.
BJP State President, Damodar (Damu) Naik, told The Goan that independent of the government’s response, the party is carrying out its own inquiries.
“Of course the party has taken cognisance of it. I have not met him (Madkaikar) on the matter except once on the occasion of Mahashivratri in the temple. It was not a time to discuss these matters. But I will call him for a meeting and discussion on his allegations,” Naik said in a telephonic conversation.
Madkaikar, a multiple term legislator and minister, is no political lightweight although his own reputation on Goa’s political corruption canvass, is not spotless. Despite his physical health and disability following a stroke having pushed him to the political margins, the BJP had nominated his wife Janaki as its candidate from his bastion Cumbharjua in the 2022 assembly elections.
In a rare interaction with the media recently, he alleged that ministers are “busy making money” and had gone on to add that he himself had paid off a minister for personal work, albeit without naming him, all on camera.
The same day, he had met with the BJP’s top central leader B L Santosh where, media reports said, he conveyed his intentions to re-enter the fray in 2027 and expects the party nomination in 2027. It is not however known if his allegations of corruption against the party government featured in the Madkaikar-Santosh tete-a-tete.
When asked if Santosh broached the subject of Madkaikar’s allegations with him, party State chief Damu Naik replied in the negative.
“He (Madkaikar) must have taken an appointment with Santosh-ji and they met. But I am not aware about what they discussed. However this issue of corruption allegations against ministers, I will take up with him (Madkaikar),” Naik said.
“On the government’s part will take its own course. That is Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s prerogative and he will take appropriate steps. But the party will do its own exercise,” Naik said.
For the record, the State Police’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) is seized with a complaint filed by a group of citizen-activists based on Madkaikar’s allegations but has thus far stayed short of formally registering a case.
The government has also not formally taken any steps to address Madkaikar’s allegations other than Sawant saying there was nothing incriminating about himself in the allegations.
A handful of other ministers including, Mauvin Godinho, Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate and Vishwajit Rane, arguing that the minister he (Madkaikar) has alleged he paid off be named.
It is rare in Goa’s political discourse for a politician to call out his own colleagues for bribery and corruption. Now that Madkaikar has made the allegations he did, time will tell if the matter runs its full course, unless the Opposition lets the government slip out of the tight corner.
