The Hindu : Other States / Goa News : Speaker's order was the trigger

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Friday, Feb 04, 2005

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Speaker's order was the trigger

By Anil Sastry

PANAJI, FEB. 3. The crisis in the Goa Legislature on Wednesday when the Manohar Parrikar Government faced the vote of confidence was triggered by the Speaker's order to an Independent MLA — whose vote was crucial for the Congress-led coalition to defeat the Government — to withdraw from the House for "disorderly behaviour."

With swift political developments since Saturday, the strength of ruling BJP had come down from 24 to 17 not including the Speaker (after four BJP MLAs resigned and two Independents withdrew support) and that of the Congress had increased to 18 (Congress 15, NCP 1, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party 1 and Independent 1). Unless the Parrikar Government won over either the MGP MLA or the Independent MLA, it could not have ensured a tie during voting. A tie would have enabled the Speaker (who is from the BJP) to exercise his casting vote.

When the Parrikar Government could not get the support of the MGP MLA, Ramakrishna Dhavlikar, whose party had issued him a whip, it attempted to win over the Independent MLA, Filipe Neri Rodrigues. Mr. Neri was with the Congress MLAs in the run-up to the voting. A BJP MLA then filed a disqualification petition against Mr. Neri on the grounds that he had become an associate member of the BJP in October 2002.

The Speaker issued notice to Mr. Neri and summoned him to his office thrice on Wednesday. Mr. Neri reportedly said he would meet him after the session. Congress legislators had already met the Governor on Wednesday afternoon apprehending disqualification of Mr. Neri by the Speaker. However, the Speaker, Vishwas Satarkar, had reportedly assured the Governor that he would allow all the 36 members to enter the House.

The session started smoothly with Mr. Parrikar tabling the one-line motion and the Opposition leader, Pratapsinh Rane, initiating the discussion. After the House reassembled at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Mr. Satarkar ordered Mr. Neri to withdraw from the House under Rule 289 (disorderly behaviour) drawing strong protests from the Congress members. When Mr. Neri was ordered to be physically removed, the Congress members rushed to his rescue. The Speaker's plea to continue the debate went unheeded; he then put the motion to vote.

During the head count, Mr. Dhavlikar, who apparently stood up to protect Mr. Neri, was also counted "in favour" of the motion. This took the total number in favour to 18 and those against were counted as six, as some Congress members were not in their seats.

On counting Mr. Dhavlikar "in favour" of the motion, Mr. Satarkar said Mr. Dhavlikar stood up when he asked those in favour to say "aye," and that he did not know about his withdrawal of support to the Parikkar Government.

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