It is so outrageous but comes as no surprise that the BJP did not care to even remember their former Mapusa MLA and ex- Deputy Chief Minister our late Adv. Francis D’Souza on his birthday today. The fate of the other Altar boys lingering in the saffron party will be no different as the BJP has distinguished in its crafty manoeuvres of ‘use and throw’.
In his death on 14th February this year Goa lost a very thorough gentleman politician that the late Francis always was. I was privileged to know him for over four decades. Over the years Francis D’Souza was openly misused by the saffron brigade and consistently politically undermined besides being sidelined, despite his over two decade long unflinching loyalty to the BJP.
On 24th September last year the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who himself was very ill had that rank audacity to backstab and axe a very loyal Francis D’Souza from the cabinet on health grounds despite his lengthy unwavering support to the party. Manohar Parrikar did not even show that minimum courtesy of informing Francis about his ouster having deviously politically butchered the longest serving altar boy in the saffron brigade.
The conduct of the BJP towards the minority only shows that they value them no more than toilet paper. Less said the better on how in October 2000 the then BJP coalition Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha was dispatched on a voyage to see the Kangaroos in Australia and was here very unceremoniously and sneakily unsaddled from the throne by Manohar Parrikar.
Nothing more needs to be said on how after having vowed to carry on Matanhy Saldanha’s legacy, Manohar Parrikar and the BJP reneged on everything that Matanhy stood for. In 2017 Alina Saldanha, despite being the lone lady MLA, was craftily kept out of the cabinet. The BJP’s deceitful agenda is in the open and there for even the blind to see.
