In March next year, Goa’s third Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane will complete 50 continuous years as MLA. This distinction of being Goa’s first MLA for an uninterrupted half a century, without losing an election, is testimony to his steadfast political loyalty.
He started his innings in 1972 as a Minister and went on to become the Chief Minister. He held the office of Speaker of Goa Legislature as well. At one time, it fell to his lot to be the Leader of the Opposition as well as the Deputy Leader of Opposition.
Pratapsingh Rane first contested on a MGP ticket and joined the Congress just before the 1977 elections. He has been with the party for the last 45 years, something rare in today’s political circus. I had the privilege to meet Pratapsingh Rane first in 1973 while he was the Law Minister.
The degradation of politics in Goa started in March 1990 when Churchill Alemao revolted against Pratapsingh Rane to become Chief Minister for 21 days.
Ever since, Goa has been witnessing unending defections with party ideology and principles thrown to the winds. And the stereotype justification is that the defection is for the sake of development and progress of the constituency, when the whole world knows that it is for the greed of power and money.
The latest in this string of unprincipled party hopping will be Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte who is all set to embrace the BJP so very shamelessly after that same party unceremoniously threw him out of the cabinet, not so long ago, on 13th July 2019.
Politics makes strange bedfellows and it is chronic political prostitution that Goa has been enduring. Even those in the world’s oldest profession do it better in terms of personal integrity.
