As is inherently inevitable with a brutal 33 vs 7 majority, the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led treasury benches, in the end, had their way in the short four-day winter session of the Goa legislative assembly which concluded a little over an hour short of midnight on Thursday. On Mhadei, its tactic of getting a rather antagonistic Opposition on board to push through a resolution unanimously and cool off the issue, for now, was successful. Nonetheless, the Opposition, saddled as it is with low numbers, political fragmentation and inexperience, had its flashes of brilliance.
ASSEMBLY SESSION: FAST REWIND
The four-day session of the Goa legislative assembly is done and dusted. And as expected, the government headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, came out virtually unscathed largely owing to its brutal majority aided by the mass defection of eight legislators from the Opposition Congress last September.
Apart from enabling it to fend off its more than disadvantaged position on the controversial and narrative-hogging Mhadei issue, another glaring example of the government using the brutal majority to its advantage was the hurried passage of as many as 10 government bills with little or no debate of note.
Some of these bills, particularly those dealing with land issues, give the government sweeping powers. One, the Goa Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2023, virtually affords the government the power to modify the regional plan at a drop of a hat. Yet another, the Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building Construction) Amendment Bill, 2023, gives it the power to violate any provision of the building regulations under the garb of promoting "affordable and inclusive" housing.
Govt, Oppn confrontation
The session began on a highly confrontationist note, escalated by the re-ignited Mhadei water-sharing dispute with Karnataka, with the Centre's approval through the Central Water Commission to the detailed project reports (DPRs) of the two dams the neighbouring state plans to build at Kalasa and Bhandura to divert the river waters.
Unsuccessful in getting the government to agree to an additional day dedicated to the Mhadei issue, the Opposition escalated the confrontation by raising a ruckus on day one itself when it interrupted the Governor, PS Sreedharan Pillai when he took the podium to deliver his address.
Raising slogans and holding placards, the Opposition members even trooped to the well of the House demanding that the Governor first speak on the 'burning' Mhadei issue and speak the government's mind on it.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar may have brought in the marshalls to eject them from the House, but the Opposition seemed to have scored a brownie point when the Governor's entire one-hour-long address completely skipped the Mhadei issue, a faux pas which earned the government widespread criticism. Even members of the treasury benches raised the issue of the Governor's address omitting Mhadei entirely, in their speeches on the motion of thanks.
The tone for the government v/s Opposition confrontation was set even before the session began when the latter's demand for a longer session fell on deaf government ears. The Speaker's ruling citing rule 307 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, which gives him unquestionable power, that in terms of Rule 37 (21) legislators will be permitted to seek through LAQs past information pertaining to up to just five years, raised the heckles of Opposition members further.
While the rule states that LAQs may not "ordinarily ask information of past history" Tawadkar defined 'past history' as beyond five years and in one stroke of his ruling, prohibited access to government information before 2017 to the legislators through the handy tool of a LAQ.
Another reason why the Opposition was ticked off by the government's move to restrict the session to just four days was the complete elimination of the private member's business day, provided for by the Rule 31 of the Rules of Conduct of Business. Given their low numbers, the private member's business (resolutions and bills) is a tool available to members, particularly those in the Opposition, to espouse their political and constituency-level agendas.
Attempts by the Opposition, led by Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, had failed to get the government and the Speaker to do any adjustments or change in the schedule of the session. This was one major reason that deepened the government v/s Opposition confrontation as did the Mhadei issue.
Mhadei: Resolution, House Committee buys time
When the Goa v/s Karnataka battle for Mhadei got re-ignited with the CWC approval for the neighbouring State's DPRs to build dams at Kalasa and Bhandura to divert the river waters, clearly the Sawant-led government was put in a bind -- unable to defend the development which punctured its oft-repeated 'Double-Engine Sarkar' slogan to denote the coupling of the two governments -- State and Centre. But three weeks later, the unanimous passage of the government-sponsored resolution by the House, asking the Centre to withdraw the CWC consent to the DPRs and urgent constitution of the Mhadei Water Management Authority, has earned it a long breather.
How did the government manage to navigate the difficult Mhadei issue in the House? The numbers, obviously. It is the brute 33 v/s 7 advantage that enabled the government to go through with its resolution and the setting up of a House Committee, with zero concessions to the views and propositions of the Opposition.
Almost every member of the Opposition, save the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP), was attempting to get the government to articulate a deadline for getting the Centre to withdraw the consent to the DPRs: simply ignored.
Then, Alemao and Goa Forward Party's Vijai Sardesai suggested precipitating a 'Constitutional Crisis' with all 40 legislators resigning: ignored. And then you had the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas proposing notification of the Mhadei Tiger Reserve to strengthen Goa's case on grounds of protection of Wildlife: summarily rejected.
United Opposition?
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao is a first-timer. Yet, the Alemao scion has demonstrated an appreciable performance in floor management bringing his politically fragmented benches to demonstrate some sort of unity. The cracks are there and visible but Alemao's effort and his outcomes to bring all seven to the discussion table is noteworthy.
Inherently, the seven-member Opposition has a few handicaps apart from its low number. First, it is fragmented into four distinct parties, all jostling for political space and constituencies. Second, barring Sardesai and Carlos Alvares Ferreira, they are all gen-X politicians who may have trouble reconciling to conventional politics. And lastly, they are all first-time legislators, save Sardesai, who is serving his third term.
Like Alemao though, almost all the Opposition legislators have demonstrated they are fast learners and have improved leaps and bounds from their outing in the last assembly session in July last year.
Just 10 months into their term, they indeed have a long way to go. And as Alemao says with respect to the outcome of this session: "There's another session coming up in March. Let's see."
