Pramod Sawant drops Govind Gaude from Goa cabinet after row over his remarks

PANAJI: Goa chief government government minister Pramod Sawant on midweek dropped minister Govind Gaude from the say locker, ending weeks of speculation around his continuation as the state’s minister for Art, Culture, Sports Affairs and Rural Development Agency.The chief minister said that the decision was taken after consulting with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) central leadership. “Gaude has been dropped from the state cabinet, and his portfolios will be held by the chief minister. The decision has been communicated to the governor. The decision was taken in consultation with the party’s central leadership,” Sawant told HT.A notification issued on Wednesday evening said the governor was “pleased to accept the recommendation of the Chief Minister” to the effect that “Gaude will cease to be a member of the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister with immediate effect.” Goa BJP president Damodar Naik said the decision was unanimous. “It was taken after consultation by the government, the party and the party’s central leadership. Party discipline is a must,” Naik said after the formal order was issued.Sawant or Naik did not elaborate on the reasons for the decision.People familiar with the matter, however, said Gaude was already on thin ice when he crossed the red line on May 25 when he alluded to corruption in the tribal affairs ministry overseen by the chief minister.In a speech at a public function, Gaude had spoken of irregularities in the functioning of the tribal affairs department. “In my opinion, the administration has weakened today. Contractors take the files of the Tribal Affairs Department to Shrama Shakti Bhavan (a government block), something is taken from them, and then they are asked to submit their files,” Gaude said at an event on May 25.At the time, chief minister Sawant had responded to the comment, saying ministers were expected to behave responsibly in public and that action would be taken. Gaude was summoned by Naik soon after, who said that a report had been sent to the central leadership.Gaude, the tribal face in the Sawant cabinet, was first elected to the Goa assembly in 2017 as an independent candidate with the BJP’s support and was inducted in the Manohar Parrikar-led cabinet.Sawant retained Gaude when he was elevated as chief minister following Parrikar’s death in 2019. Gaude formally joined the BJP ahead of the 2022 elections and contested from the Priol assembly seat, defeating the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party president Deepak Dhavalikar, the younger brother of power minister Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar. To be sure, Gaude found himself at the centre of a row in February last year when Goa assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar called for an inquiry, accusing Gaude of sanctioning ₹26 lakh for events that were never held in Tawadkar’s constituency. Later, an audio clip emerged in which Gaude was heard threatening and verbally abusing a senior official of the tribal affairs department.Gaude also faced severe criticism over the Art and Culture department’s renovation of the iconic Kala Academy, a prominent cultural centre in the state capital. The move was also attacked over complaints that the ₹55 crore renovation had been awarded without following the due process of seeking bids.“Shah Jahan too had not called for tenders when building the Taj Mahal,” Gaude famously quipped in the Goa assembly back in 2022, his response to the charge.