DNA

Panaji, Jan 10: Queer as it could be, Goa chief minister Pratapsingh Rane today had his face smudged with cowdung by former MLA and tourism minister Dilkhush Desai at the annual Legislators’ Day function at the Assembly complex in Porvorim.

Rane, whose suit was soiled, headed home in Altinho for a shower before attending other engagements.

Rane was coming out after lunch when Desai, described as "mentally deranged" by the police, took out a packet of cow dung and let Rane have it. This baffled security guards, who took hold of Desai and roughed him up. Desai reportedly was also armed with a fork and it is not clear whether he intended to stab Rane.

Rane, however, did not lodge any police complaint. Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes, who met Rane soon after the incident, told DNA that the CM was "calm" despite the incident. He reportedly told the police to "let Desai go because of his mental instability."

Desai's uncouth behaviour with Rane became a talking point in the Porvorim Assembly and the secretariat complex. His misconduct and such an embarrassing act is unbelievable especially against the man "who had saved him from dying."

Desai was shot in the head by a Mumbai gang nearly 20 years back over alleged non-payment in a business transaction. Rane, the then chief minister, had arranged for a navy helicopter to airlift Desai to Mumbai for medical treatment. Desai survived but the head injury has affected his faculties, said an MLA, who witnessed the incident on Tuesday.

Desai, whose defection from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party(MGP) in 1979, led to the fall of the Shashikala Kakodkar government that eventually paved the way for the Congress government with Rane as the CM, had fallen out with the CM since then. Two months back he went on a two-day hunger strike demanding his mediclaim be honoured by the government.

"He was always angry and demanded that Rane should help him," said  Fernandes. In fact, recently whenever the two were in the same room, Desai would abuse Rane. However, unlike many other states, where the CM is surrounded by a security blanket, the CM is more accessible in Goa.