Precarious Perch

In Parrikar’s absence, the fate of the BJP government in Goa may depend on the Lok Sabha election results

- Dnyanesh Jathar

The year was 1994. For the first time, the BJP had won seats in the Goa assembly. Manohar Parrikar, 39, and three of his par-ty colleagues—Shripad Naik, Digambar Kamat and Narhar Haldankar—were elected.

The Congress, which had won 18 of 40 seats in the assembly, made its satrap Pratapsingh Rane chief minister. Parrikar told his colleagues that they had to launch an offensive against the Rane government in the first year itself. It was the surest way to create an impression in the minds of the voters, he said. He then identified four ministers who faced the most number of corruption charges, and launched a campaign against the “gang of four thieves”.

The campaign had double impact. First, it put the Rane government on the back-foot; second, Parrikar emerged as the leader of a party that was relatively new on Goan soil.

After that year, Parrikar never looked back. He went on to become opposition leader, chief minister and defence minister. His star kept rising and rising, till he succumbed to pancreatic cancer on March 17. He was 63.

Parrikar had been in and out of hospital since January last year, undergoing treatment in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and the US. Despite his serious illness, he continued to be active as chief minister. Some say he did so because he wanted to die immersed in work, just like Bhausaheb Bandodkar had. The legendary Bandodkar, Goa’s first chief minister, had died in office in 1973.

Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar was born in a traditional Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family at Parra village. His father, a simple man who led an austere life, had a grocery store in Mapusa. As a child, Parrikar started attending an RSS shakha so that he could play with a large group of boys. Subhash Welingkar, the former RSS chief in Goa who later fell out with Parrikar, often described him as ‘Bal Swayamsevak’.