Panaji : Two years ago he accused the army of hogging land in Goa’s state capital. Former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was Sunday sworn-in as union cabinet minister and he is widely tipped to hold the defence portfolio.
Parrikar’s accusation on the floor of the Goa legislative assembly, that it was “easier to get the army to vacate from Lahore, but not from even an inch of land in Panaji” may have been a hyperbole, but his likely elevation as the defence minister may just give the 58-year-old IITian an opportunity to set things right within India’s military.
The three-time chief minister has conveyed an image of being a humble, soft-spoken, unassuming qualified metallurgist with unkempt salt and pepper hair, who wears crumpled bush-shirts and scuffed sandals to work.
The public obsession with Parrikar’s visage, however, has ensured a consistent glossing-over of his actual performance and delivery of good governance.
Parrikar, is the first politician from this tiny state, often considered politically insignificant, to become a full fledged cabinet minister.
Goa already has representation in the central ministry in North Goa MP Shripad Naik, who is the union minister of state (independent charge) for tourism and culture.
Parrikar’s initial reactions to defence-related queries have given an all-but-brief window about what to expect from the defence ministry functioning under him out of South Block.
His responses were both emotional and earnest.
At his last post-cabinet briefing Friday as chief minister, Parrikar was asked to respond to the sailors killed in a naval accident off Vishakhapattanam.
“When I heard the news of a sailor dying, I was pained. My heart bleeds for any person who dies for nation. My heart bleeds still more if we have wasted the life of a defence person,” Parrikar said.
Coupled with ambition, his ability to put his foot-in-the-mouth on the most sensitive occasions, has proved to be his Achilles heel.
In 2009, his likening of party stalwart L.K. Advani to “rancid pickle” put paid to his chances of being party president. Parrikar also had to do a lot of firefighting to play down the controversy when in an interview to the New York Times a year ago, he was critical of Modi’s handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots and compared his own chief ministerial skills to Modi’s.
Oral earnestness has never been in short supply with the former Goa chief minister, who has been handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the coveted cabinet post.
While Parrikar has single-handedly driven the BJP in Goa to unprecedented heights with his carefully cultivated charisma, planning, and doggedness, once he landed in the seat of power, his inadequacies appeared to take over.
Barring popular welfare schemes involving cash doles for housewives and senior citizens, nearly none of the major promises on policy issues made by the BJP in its poll manifestos have come to fruition under his leadership of the state.