Manohar Parrikar, former Chief Minister of Goa died from pancreatic and liver cancer on 17 March 2019. He was was born in Mapusa, Goa, on 13th December 1955. He graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from the IIT Bombay. He is the first IIT alumnus to serve as MLA of an Indian state. He is sometimes described as having been a pracharak of the RSS & often regarded as the CM of commons. A rare one to find.
Manohar joined RSS at young age and became a chief instructor in the final years of his schooling. After graduating from IIT, he became the Local Director in RSS at the age of 26. His passion towards leadership was commendable right from the beginning. He was well disciplined, an obvious factor as a member of RSS. He had even expressed about it in a speech that he has considerable pride in his RSS background, he learnt "discipline, progressiveness, nationalism and social responsibility"
He was seconded by RSS to BJP with the objective of fighting the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. Here begins his political journey. As a member of the BJP, Parrikar was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Goa in 1994, when he was 39. In the next term in 1999, he became the opposition leader. But successfully became the Chief Minister in 2000 at the age of 45, youngest CM back then.
In the 2014 General Elections, BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa. Manohar was reluctant to leave Goa and move to Delhi in November 2014, by his own admission but was persuaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join the central government. Manohar took over the Defence Ministry position from Arun Jaitley who was handling it as additional responsibility.
Manohar has since been credited with transparent, efficient and fast decision making in what was till then thought of as a sluggish ministry. He has also opened up several investigations into alleged scams like Augusta Westland Chopper scam.
During 2017 Goa election, one of the parties who allied with BJP, had said that it would extend support to the BJP only if Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was brought back to the state as Chief Minister. Hence he was back to Goa as the Chief Minister since 2017 till date.
Manohar's death is a great loss to the country. Such disciplined, responsible, dedicated & energetic leader is not too easy to be seen & bought to light in this country. He has stood as an example for all the youngsters willing to showcase lead the country through politics. He is also an example about how the RSS nurtures young leaders & how the BJP elevates good & efficient leaders.
May your soul attain moksha Sir. Jai Hind.
Rest In Peace��
ReplyDeleteGreat tribute to the parted leader!
ReplyDelete