Friends in the mid-1980s and early-1990s, bitter enemies competing for the Kodel in the late-1990s and the new millenium, and now, back to square one in a you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours kind of a relationship.
Luizinho sure owed one to Rane after the latter took the 'Mickey' out of his khumpar, Churchill Alemao, leaving the gigantic politician from Varca ranting, raving and panting to prove the merger of his SGF with the Congress was above board. And boy, didn't Luizinho pay back!
Out of the blues last week, R Kothandaraman, the man who becomes Legislature Secretary every time Rane Sr occupies the Speaker's chair, quit. And, according to the DI press release, he did so for 'personal reasons'. It now turns out that the bespectacled Kothandaraman's 'personal reasons' were in fact his preference for the cooler climes of hilly Meghalaya, over humid and 'hot' Goa.
Less than 48 hours after he quit as Goa's legislature secretary (that's about the time it takes to travel to Meghalaya), he took over as Principal Secretary of the legislature in Meghalaya, where Luizinho is said to have played a role in installing D Lapang as Chief Minister.
Aires Rodrigues isn't amused. This thorn in the side of Goa's public figures it so happens, was in Kothandaram's side too. Apparently, a few RTI querries raised by Rodrigues pertaining to the legislature secretary's appointment sent Rane Sr, Kothandaram and Co, scurrying for cover. That's when the chopper-hopping Luizinho in Meghalaya came in handy!
‘Piqueno’ in a hurry
A nurse who administers ‘Dettol’ instead of ‘Crocin’ to an infant at a Primary Health Centre (PHC) gets passed off as a “good nurse”. Days later, another nurse at the GMC deserves to be “suspended” because she's presiding over a Paediatric ward that had a bed with a torn bedsheet. Why? The answer my friend, is in the 'VOTE': The first nurse is registered as a voter in Valpoi constituency, while the second god knows where!
These double standards of the Health Minister couldn't be seen through the whole of last week by the media. Instead, it tom-toms this young man, (Piqueno in our colloquial... oops colonial Konkani) across its front pages with another of his young-man-in-a-hurry PPP initiative -- a 'free insulin' scheme promoted by a pharma multi-national with obvious hidden costs to the state.
But thank heavens sycophancy is not yet an epidemic, at least not in places where it matters most. At GMC for instance, where Dr V N Jindal, said enough is enough and decided to call it quits.
After all, the GMC is not a machine where you put a pig into one side and bring out sausages from the other. Nor is it a garage where Dr Jindal is the chief foreman. It's a public hospital for all you know, manned not by ITI mechanics but doctors, most of who compare with the best in the state, if not the country.
SAFF GAFFE
‘Goa, a destination of film fests', crowed Chief Minister Digambar Kamat at the opening ceremony of the South Asian Film Festival (SAAF). With Kala Academy chairman, Pratapsing Rane, in tow, Kamat even made a pitch for Goa as the ‘permanent venue' for SAFF. Two days later, in Kamat's own backyard at Margao, all of four men occupied the 1,200-seat Ravindra Bhavan to watch a SAFF film: So much for Goa's much-touted ‘film culture'. Let's stick to the Tiatrs, Mr Chief Minister!
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