‘Many saw him as politician with a difference’

Coordination between RSS and BJP was first entrusted to me in the nineties. Among the first three to be deputed to the party were Laxmikant Parsekar, Shripad Naik and Rajendra Arlekar, but soon there was need for more. It is here that Manohar (Parrikar) came into the picture.

At that time, BJP was trying to negotiate an alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). All that we wanted was two seats for the BJP: Cumbharjua for Shripad Naik and Vasco for senior worker Ashatai Salkar. We assured MGP of our backing, if these seats were left for us.


Ramakant Khalap was the one who was pulling the strings for MGP and for a long time, we did not hear from them. So, as a pressure tactic, we decided to file a BJP nomination for the Mapusa constituency. Manohar was our choice for the seat. It was only a strategy to pressurise MGP and we had no intention of contesting from that seat.

Manohar was still in the Sangh and a major public meeting related to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was taking place in Mapusa. We wanted to keep the strategy a secret. So, I rode my bike to Mapusa and even as the meeting was in progress, called Manohar aside.

Manohar reacted with shock when I told him of the strategy. “No, no, I don’t want to enter politics. I have no such intention,” he said. Only after I explained that this was a strategy to pressurise MGP, he agreed.

He went home and broke the news that he is filing his nomination, and that the suggestion came from me.

Manohar Parrikar was top political strategist, coalition builder

Despite his image as unbending on rules, he was successful coalition builder, having formed a majority government when he reached out to the Catholic community and fielded Christian candidates in 2012 and broke the state’s political fault lines.

Parrikar’s reputation was embellished by his stint as defence minister at the Centre where he led the ministry with a hands-on approach and worked to ensure transparent procedures in high value purchases. He had a role in speeding up the Rafale acquisition. This led to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alleging he was under pressure to hide wrongdoings. Rahul met him briefly in January and claimed that Parrikar said he had no hand in the “new” Rafale deal. Parrikar flatly denied discussing the issue in a conversation that lasted a few minutes. The surgical strikes on terror launch pads in PoK took place during his tenure in 2016.

As new spread that Parrikar was sinking, many hoped against hope this was another rumour that would be belied. But a confirmation from President Ram Nath Kovind ended the speculation. The IITian, who became a politician, breathed his last on Sunday at 6.15pm. He was 63.

Parrikar was diagnosed with cancer in February 2018, and since then Goa’s politics turned more turbulent. He was the face of BJP, the tallest leader Goa produced, and someone who gave up the defence minister’s post to return to Goa as the chief minister for a fourth stint. He had famously said that while being defence minister was fine, he missed his fish curry and rice.

Parrikar never gave up on running the administration. There was the cabinet advisory committee of three ministers—one each from the three coalition partners—for a while, but Parrikar remained the CM till the end, largely because the party couldn’t find an alternative.

News that Parrikar had breathed his last left many speechless. His popularity cut across religious lines, despite his staunch RSS background. A swayamsewak to the core, Parrikar was ideologically wedded to the Sangh but was sufficiently accommodating—and uncompromising—to maintain the middle ground in Goa politics. He refused to allow some saffron leaders known for inflamatory speeches entry into Goa and enforced the law with sensitivity. He was particularly concerned about the impact of the Supreme Court ban on mining on livelihoods.

Introduced into BJP by former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar in the late ’80s, Parrikar was hesitant at the start. “I don’t want to enter politics. I have no such intention,” he told Velingkar when he went to his Mapusa residence to convince him. It didn’t take long for Velingkar to get him on board, and Parrikar did the same with his reluctant family telling them that “joining politics is a good thing”.

He was the good in Goan politics and turned out to be a top political strategist, representing the Panaji constituency uninterrupted from 1994 till his death. Briefly, when he resigned to become the defence minister, he got his own man elected as the MLA and won comfortably when he returned to the state in 2017.

Parrikar was the man who cobbled the first BJP government in the state in 2000. At a time when the party had just 10 MLAs, he stitched together a coalition, and two years later, formed the government again with just 13 MLAs in a house of 40.

In 2012, following five years of Congress rule, he stormed to power again, this time winning a majority on his own for the first time with 21 MLAs.

How a karsevak rose to such heights in Goa with a significant minority population would have surprised many. Parrikar, after all, was the one who led around 700 karsevaks from Goa during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

A non-conventional politician, his style of governance projected the aam admi simplicity and middle-class values. He became the chief minister at age 43 in 2000, and came up with schemes—computers for students, direct money transfer to beneficiaries, old age pension and health insurance—which were later introduced by the Modi government at the Centre.

Described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently as the architect of modern Goa, Parrikar was BJP’s tallest leader in Goa. His identity in politics was firmly established as a man who wore shortsleeved shirts and sandals for any occasion, and a man who had no problem hopping on the back of a two-wheeler. He detested a security cordon around him, even when he was the chief minister.

With Parrikar gone, Goa’s politics will never be the same again.

Subhash Velingkar
(The writer is the former Goa RSS chief)