When the Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant steered a cabinet resolution on January 6 to confer ‘lifetime cabinet minister’ status, people were caught by surprise. Nobody had heard of a ‘lifetime’ minister and that too conferred on a politician from the opposition. But the Goa CM indicated his seriousness by notifying the decision in the Gazette, a first in Independent India. He justified the bizarre step by claiming that it was to honour Rane for completing 50 years as MLA and for his service to the state as a fivetime CM. But shouldn’t that have called for a Padma Vibhushan award to be conferred on the veteran politician? After all the ‘Double Engine’ Government at the Centre has just conferred the Padma Vibhushan on Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad. But a ‘lifetime’ cabinet position which comes with the perks of vehicle, staff, security and possibly allowances for someone who neither needed nor sought them? The announcement came just before the election was notified and the Model Code of Conduct came into force. There never was any doubt that the move was guided by political and electoral considerations. Such a decision just before another assembly election smacked of misuse of office. Should the Election Commission have intervened?
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