New Delhi: The Goa government of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who returned for a second innings after the 2022 state elections, has been facing attacks not only from the Opposition but also from within the party and cabinet. Goa Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude is the latest to up the ante against his government, levelling corruption allegations against the CM-led tribal welfare department.
“The files of contractors are handled in secret at the Shram Shakti Bhavan. Something is taken from them (contractors), and then, they are allowed to submit their files. And they think we do not know about such things,” CM’s cabinet colleague Gaude said at an event Sunday. “A huge amount of taxpayers’ money is allotted to the tribal welfare department. When it fails to organise any programmes efficiently, it shows a lack of government control over the administration.”
“Construction of a tribal bhavan is a long-pending demand of the tribal community, which even gave land for the project. The foundation stone was laid when I was the tribal minister, but the project has been stuck for the last three years,” Gaude added.
Gaude’s statement caused a political storm in the state, and opposition parties quickly demanded a formal inquiry into the charges against the chief minister. Congress leader Yuri Alemao, the Leader of Opposition in the Goa assembly, demanded an “anti-corruption bureau probe”.
The chief minister then came out to defend his government. Pramod Sawant warned that “appropriate action will be taken against the minister for speaking”. “A responsible minister should speak responsibly and avoid making irresponsible statements. I have taken cognisance of his statement, and appropriate action will be taken,” he said.
As the controversy escalated, Gaude told The Print that his statement was “misquoted”. “It was not at all directed towards the chief minister but towards officials of the [tribal welfare] department. Despite instructions or earlier-taken decisions, department officials do not complete projects on time, which affects the reputation of the government, not just the department. I have met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and told him I have full faith in his leadership, and it was not against him,” Gaude said. “I respect you, I told him.”
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Gaude vs. CM Sawant
This is not the first time that Gaude has clashed with Sawant. In December 2023, on the eve of a programme by the Goa tribal welfare department, Gaude, who comes from a tribal community, was not invited to the function. Chief Minister Sawant and Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, also the chairperson of the SC/ST commission of Goa, attended the function in Gaude’s constituency.
In a subsequent viral audio clip, Gaude was heard saying, “Speak to the Speaker, Ramesh Tawadkar, and tell him that I will go to his office and slap him. You are organising a programme in my constituency and I, along with the sarpanch, have not been invited. Do you want me to teach you politics? Tell the CM and Speaker in the same tone—the programme should not happen.”
He was also heard using several expletives against Sawant in the clip.
The clip was later played at a meeting, which BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade, CM Sawant, Speaker Tawadkar, and Gaude attended. Tanavade told Gaude, “If you have the guts, resign from the BJP and contest in the Priol constituency on any other ticket. See if you can win.”
Before this entire incident, Tawadkar and Gaude had a fight in the assembly during which the Speaker accused the art minister of misappropriation of art department funds. The CM and the BJP state president had to intervene to resolve matters.
Commenting on the current situation, a BJP MLA told The Print, “Cabinet expansion is around the corner, and one lobby wants to drop Gaude from the cabinet. The minister sensed he could be sacrificed, so he made a pre-emptive strike against the government to shift the blame of the Kala Academy scam [involving corruption around renovations] and bring the chief minister’s office into the net, thus making corruption a systematic problem in Goa, not an individual one.”
Govind Gaude, who won the 2017 election as an Independent and later joined the BJP, had also clashed with a senior leader and minister from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) at a time when the late Manohar Parrikar was chief minister. The MGP, then an alliance partner of the BJP, asked Parrikar to drop Gaude for abusing then-minister Ramkrishna Dhavalikar in 2019. However, the BJP did not take the advice as Gaude had just defeated MGP’s Deepak Dhavalikar in Priol.
A former minister told ThePrint, “When the Opposition raised the scam in the art department, and even a BJP member raised it, the government saved him [Gaude]. He belongs to the tribal community, the original inhabitants of Goa, and that is why he is an important MLA. He captured the seat of the MGP, so for six years, the BJP stayed with him.”
“Another problem in Goa is that, unlike other states, it is a small state where resources are limited and precious. In a small state, there are multiple stakeholders. Many times, policy decisions are taken under vested business interests. Every minister knows this fact, and in that situation, it becomes challenging to run the government.”
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Infighting around corruption
Gaude, however, is not alone—the Sawant government has been facing opposition from colleagues and party men since before the start of his second tenure as CM.
A month before the 2022 assembly elections, Satya Pal Malik, former Goa Governor from November 2019 to August 2020, before he was sent to Meghalaya, made serious allegations against the government. Malik said, “There is corruption in the Goa government in the handling of everything. I was removed because of allegations of corruption against the Goa government.”
Malik said, “When the COVID-19 lockdown was announced in Goa, the government said it would not allow any essential commodities’ shops to remain open and that it would provide rations at the doorstep. It was done at the insistence of a private company, which paid the government money. Congress and other parties asked me to verify, and I verified it. I informed the Prime Minister. He questioned the same people who were involved [in corruption]. They will not say they are involved in it, but I know.”
Two months ago, former minister and senior leader Pandurang Madkaikar stunned the BJP when he made allegations of corruption this year in March after he met with the party’s general secretary (organisation), B.L. Santhosh.
“All ministers are minting money in Goa. I had to pay between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 20 lakh to a minister for a small task. This is not corruption but loot. I do not want to name anyone, but at the right time, I will disclose the name of the minister. I was also a minister, so I know how things work in the government. Despite taking money, he kept my file pending, and whenever I tried to contact him, he refused to meet me,” Pandurang told the media.
At the time, he was slammed by his own party man, Goa Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho, who said Pandurang was making up corruption charges against his party members. “He should declare the name of the minister … If he is not naming the minister, he should not make such statements,” Godinho told the media.
In January this year, former MLA Farrel Furtado, speaking in front of CM Sawant, said that one of her students paid Rs 25 lakh to get a job with the Goa Police. The Enforcement Directorate has been investigating the alleged cash-for-job scam in the state.
In the same month, former PWD minister and MLA Nilesh Cabral criticised the CM for stalled projects in his Curchorem constituency. “As a minister, I started several projects in my constituency, but now these projects remain stalled. A year ago, the CM promised to complete all pending work, but nothing has happened since then. Now, with elections approaching, he has to answer the people,” he said.
In March this year, when B.L. Santhosh visited Goa, a few MLAs—Govind Gaude being one of them—complained about corruption by BJP ministers in the government.
Vijai Sardesai, the former deputy CM and Goa Forward Party president, told The Print, “In Goa, the Opposition voice is not so strong, so the BJP represents the ruling party, and those within the BJP who are dissatisfied. There is internal opposition in the BJP, but the real question is the issue he [Gaude] raised about systemic corruption in Goa. When a BJP minister says projects are not completed on time because of officials, who is responsible—the minister who heads the ministry? The BJP government wants to sell Goa to outsiders.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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