‘Always took Church into confidence’

Mourning the demise of Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Ferrao, on Sunday, said that Parrikar had respect and consideration for the Church authorities in Goa and “he would sometimes seek their opinion before coming out with farreaching decisions for the benefit of the state”.

“His sense of secularism and communal harmony and respect for the various religions, cultures and traditions of the people have been generally appreciated by the population of the state, as was his judiciousness in settling issues and finding lasting solutions for the welfare of the masses. His far sight led him to plan for the near and distant future,” the archbishop said in his condolence message.

Supporters and well-wishers gathered outside Manohar Parrikar’s residence in solidarity.

He said that Parrikar’s contribution to Catholic educational institutions in Goa was well-known.

‘He wouldn’t hand over the bat even if he was bowled out’

That this was part of a strategy was never disclosed. His family members reacted with fury. Wife Medha threatened him in Marathi that she would immediately leave for her maternal home in Mumbai, if he went ahead with the nomination.

His mother wondered why, as a senior member, I was not entering politics and instead was pushing Manohar.

Manohar, though, stood his ground and filed the nomination, which, according to plan, was withdrawn at the last minute. He never revealed to his family that it was all part of a strategy. That is when we decided to depute him to BJP, even if that took some effort from me to convince his family. Manohar also played his role, telling his family that joining politics is a good thing.

Before nominating him as a BJP candidate for Panaji in 1994, we had approached many prominent citizens from the city. Dr Shyam Bhandari, Dr Ganesh Bhatkuly, Pradeep Talaulikar, all refused, paving the way for Manohar’s nomination.

Not all were happy when we decided to field Manohar from Panaji in the 1994 assembly elections. A non-Panjimite being imposed didn’t find favour and seven candidates, including some very prominent citizens, filed their nominations.

Other than a few of Manohar’s relatives, barely anyone knew him in Panaji or Goa for that matter. After completing his graduation from IIT-Bombay, he joined his brother-inlaw Pradeep Kotnis’ business. He worked for around a year and left, wanting to start his own unit, which he did after collaborating with Mushalla, a Muslim businessman. Since Mushalla was abroad, Manohar was running the entire operations of the hydraulic unit making factory in Mapusa.

Later, Manohar started his own independent factory. All this kept him very busy, and since he had no time for socialising, few knew him in Goa.

We started projecting him as a young, well-educated and dynamic leader. We arranged meetings for him with elite members from Panaji and workers began doing the groundwork for him. With so many candidates in the fray, we had to convince likeminded people to withdraw. Many agreed, with Avdhut Angle opting out, just five minutes before deadline.

Success was eventually ours. Manohar won the Panaji seat, spending just Rs 26,000. He had worked very hard, although the role of our workers could not be ignored.

In the Sangh, he had more funds to spare than anyone else. He was the entrepreneur in the organisation here, so during the annual guru puja ceremonies of the Sangh, where guru dakshina is presented to the Sangh by members, Manohar offered Rs 1 lakh. The highest sum offered until then was Rs 25,000, which was used to run the Sangh, and you can imagine what Rs 1 lakh meant in the late eighties.

Whenever Sangh members had financial difficulty, I used to approach him. He would help with Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000, a generous amount at that time, never expecting the money back.

During the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, he led around 700 kar sevaks from Goa. Few know that Manohar’s mother was one of the kar sevaks and, after the Babri Masjid was brought down and Congress government decided to send military to lathicharge the sleeping kar sevaks, Manohar’s mother was among those who were beaten up.

It was a tough task to get all kar sevaks from Goa together and bring them back to the state, a task led by Manohar.

As a child, Manohar was unusually naughty. His elder brother, Avdhut, was the mukhya shikshak of the Sangh shakha at Mapusa. Whenever Manohar would indulge in some mischief, he would climb one of the two coconut trees in the compound where the shakha was held. Avdhut couldn’t climb a coconut tree and Manohar would climb down when the prarathana would begin. He knew that nobody was allowed to move during the prarathana.

Even when he was playing cricket, he would want to bat all the time. Once the bat was in his hands, nobody would get it, even if he was bowled out. He would come up with different logic to explain why he wasn’t out, and if nobody agreed, he would simply walk away. The bat and wickets belonged to him, so if he didn’t bat, nobody else could continue playing.

This was possibly an insight into his nature and how he acted this out later in his political career.

Nobody can deny that Manohar has worked his way up with determination. BJP was priority for him and he never allowed his personal work to overshadow that. I’ve known many who would give excuses like grocery shopping for home or picking up the child from somewhere.

Even after he became the chief minister, we would often meet at Bappa’s gadda near Alankar theatre in Mapusa. Bappa sold fried chicken, eggs, fruit platter and he would be eating there late in the night. Even past midnight, we knew where to find him and we’ve even had meetings, occupying one of the table that was laid out.

I had told him not to hurt the sentiments with which people elected him. His last two terms as chief minister saw him do what he was advised against. He moved away from his core principles, and that created a distance between him and the people, who saw him as an ethical leader, a politician with a difference.