HEALTH Minister Vishwajit Rane has inherited his arrogance from his parents, Pratapsingh Raoji Rane and Vijay Devi Rane. Pratapsingh Raoji Rane also treated top officials and even the then director of the Kala Academy, Damu Kenkre, like his personal servants. Within a month of my arriving in Goa in 1983, to get the English edition of the OHeraldo going, I ran into Damu Kenkre, the then director of the Kala Academy at the Club Vasco Da Gama in Panaji.
Kenkre, who was a deputed dramatist and prominent theatre personality, bitterly complained that his dream of building the Kala Academy into a top cultural center was shattered by Pratapsingh Raoji Rane. The Indian music faculty of the Kala Academy was asked to put up a performance at the inauguration of the first All India Meeting of the Federation of Hotels & Restaurants being held at the Cidade da Goa.
Kenkre trained the Indian music choir to perform at the event and designed an appropriate costume for the girls participating in the event. Vijaya Devi Rane, the wife of Chief Minister Pratapsingh Raoji Rane happened to attend one of the rehearsals. She wanted a change in the costumes of the girls. Vijaya Devi insisted the girls should wear green sarees and orange blouses, which would make them look like the national flag. The choreographer Damu Kenkre strongly objected.
Senior Rane promptly sacked Damu Kenkre who was the first director of the Kala Academy. The logic of the chief minister was that the chief minister’s wife should have the authority to decide the costume of the Indian choir performing for the event.
Pratapsingh Rane has always claimed that he belongs to a royal family. Pratapsingh Rane claims to be a descendant of a royal family from Rajasthan. Rane also claims to be a Kshatriya, who had been the warrior class in the country. The historical truth is that the Ranes, according to the historian Pratima Kamat, were bandits who kept harassing the Portuguese colonial regime. Pratapsingh’s grandparents struck a deal with the Portuguese and in return for the title, agreed to accept the Portuguese regime.
Pratapsingh Rane’s claim to be part of royalty was consolidated when he married Vijaya Devi Rane of the Sandor family from Karnataka. Vijaya Devi’s father was the chieftain or the petty raja of the state of Sandor in Karnataka. Apparently, the so-called royal family did not tell Pratapsingh that the girl suffered from a bipolar disorder. This is a condition that causes extreme mood swings from joy to despair, alternately.
BOTH Pratapsingh and Vijaya Devi lived and acted royalty rather than as elected representatives of the people if Goa. Pratapsingh Rane bossed over not only the bureaucrats but even his Cabinet colleagues. Everyone had to obey the orders of Pratapsingh without question. Just like Vishwajit, Pratapsingh also used to order the transfer or suspension of top officials in a fit of anger.
In fact, Pratapsingh was even harsher towards those who did not treat his wife as a maharani. During Pratapsingh’s tenure as chief minister, Vijaya Devi controlled the Bal Bhavan and the Sanjay School for the Handicapped. She interfered in the performance of the Department & Culture and the Kala Academy. Growing up as a pampered son of Pratapsingh and Vijaya Devi, Vishwajit also took to arrogance as a way of life.
When Manohar Parrikar came to power, he very cleverly offered the Speakers’ post to Pratapsingh Rane. Vijaya Devi was allowed to continue as chairperson of the Bal Bhavan and the Sanjay School for the Handicapped. Vijaya Devi also managed all the Provedoria social welfare work initiated by the Portuguese. It is Provedoria which is in charge of the senior citizens’ homes in Goa. Manohar Parrikar also appointed Vishwajit Rane as the chairperson of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation.
Vishwajit Rane is the Sanjay Gandhi of Goan politics. He set up a company called Karapur Agro which dealt in real estate. Vishwajit, through his father influence, forced the Panaji Municipal Corporation to buy a chemical called Deltamethrin, which he claimed would destroy the breeding grounds of mosquitoes. The Health Department was forced to pay an exorbitant price for the chemical, which was bought from a pharma company. It is alleged that Vishwajit got huge kickbacks.
And it was discovered that the chemical was not safe and was never used. It was finally dumped by the Panaji Municipal Corporation. Vishwajit displayed the same arrogance and irresponsibility as the chairperson of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation. The Public Accounts Committee and the report of the auditor-general revealed that Vishwajit had undertaken foreign tours and spent huge amounts of money in violation of the rules. Manohar Parrikar had to sack Vishwajit Rane who was very rude with tourism department officials.
VIJAYA Devi herself has a very foul temper, probably aggravated by her illness. She routinely insulted senior government officials. She continuously embarrassed her husband, Pratapsingh Rane. When the government was toppled by Churchill Alemao, Vijaya Devi Rane was very upset about having to vacate the chief minister’s official residence. Before leaving in a fit of rage she destroyed the flower pots in the compound.
And of course Vishwajit was always her ladla beta and perhaps who spoiled him rotten. Vishwajit grew up as an arrogant young man perhaps thinking himself as the crown prince. Vishwajit used to go to government offices and shout at the officers even when he had no power. The authority he exercised was as the son of Pratapsingh Rane.
Not surprisingly, when he became a minister in the BJP government, power went to his head. Pratapsingh Rane, though he was arrogant, never misused his power. Pratapsingh did not abuse his office like Vishwajit does. Vishwajit as TCP minister destroyed Goa’s green status. Vishwajit has done far more damage by permitting illegal conversions than Babush Monserrate.
By some estimates Vishwajit has illegally converted more than one crore sq mtr of agricultural and orchard land in the State. He even got the TCP Act amended to give him discretion to convert agricultural and orchard land to settlement. His company Karapur Agro is involved in developing a super luxury residential complex in Bicholim taluka with a Delhi builder. It is Vishwajit who converted large parcels of land for the super luxury villas in Reis Magos and the huge building complex at Sancoale in Vasco. In the most recent incident of destroying the TCP, Vishwajit defied the chief minister to appoint his own person as the chief town planner.
Vishwajit has a history of humiliating doctors with so-called surprise visits. Some months ago, he misbehaved with a doctor who was not wearing his white coat in the GMC’S Neurology Department. It is also reported that he sacked a lady radiologist at the Cortalim Health Centre.
On Saturday, June 7, 2025 morning a senior journalist from the Marathi daily Gomantak, Vilas Mahadik, visited Casualty ward at the Goa Medical College & Hospital demanding that the chief medical officer should give his mother-in-law a vitamin B12 injection. This injections were prescribed to her after she underwent a knee transplant in the Orthopedic Department.
Normally, such prescriptions as injections are given in the OPDs. However, Saturday, June 7 happened to be a public holiday on account of Eid-ul-Adah and because of that the OPDs were closed. The Casualty Ward is meant only for the daily trauma emergencies which come in and not for routine treatment for patients such as giving B12 injections to senior citizens. The CMO on duty at Casualty Dr Rudresh Kuttikar told the journalist to take his mother to a Primary Health Centre as Casualty was not the place for such injections.
The irony is that on the intervention of superintendent Dr Rajesh Patil, the staff at Casualty did give the injection to the reporter’s elderly mother-in-law. However, the arrogant reporter decided to take revenge on the doctor who initially refused to administer the B12 injection to his mother-in-law. Vilas called up Vishwajit Rane. Subsequently he sent him a Whatsapp message complaining against Dr Rudresh even though his mother-in-law had already received the injection.
Vishwajit decided to do some herogiri. After alerting the Prudent Media he walked into the Casuality Ward and summoned Dr Rudresh Kuttikar. Vishwajit Rane asked him if he had refused the request for Vitamin B injection from a senior journalist. Vishwajit did not wait for any explanation from the CMO. Vishwajit screamed at him and asked him to get out. Vishwajit directed GMC superintendent Dr Rajesh Patil to suspend him. All the herogiri was recorded and telecast on Prudent Media.
Never has a government public hospital doctor been treated like this by a politician in any other hospital in the country. Vishwajit has set a record for arrogance and ill-treatment of very hardworking government doctors. It must be admitted that Casualty staff including security staff hired by Vishwajit can be very arrogant.
I have personally experience the rude behavior of the doctors in Casualty Ward. There are times when I have spent almost the entire day here without being shifted to a ward bed. Fortunately, for me I have always maintained a good relationship with the hospital’s dean and superintendent. So much so that whenever I’ve had a health problem, I have been able to talk to the senior officials.
At the same time, I understand the pressure under which doctors in Casualty work. Very often, it is here that the victims of accidents and strokes are brought in critical condition. The Casualty doctors become upset when a patient with influence demands preferential treatment.
It is not only media people but every patient in Goa thinks he or she is a VIP. Every panch and sarpanch demands VIP treatment. Not just a minister but his PA and his dog may throw their weight around. Not just at the hospital but even if caught violating traffic rules. Every time a Goan has an accident or is caught for drunken driving, there is a call from a minister to let him go.
It may be recalled that police were ordered not to take any action when the house of a mundkar was demolished by the wife of a senior Mumbai police officer. The name of the wife was omitted from the charge sheet. The police only took action against the wife of a builder who drove her Mercedes rashly and killed three people near the Banastarim bridge.
Goa being a small state everyone knows everybody. Everyone has some connection to an elected representative in the government, MLAs or ministers.
Government doctors do not really care for politicians. While the majority of them are very polite and patient friendly, there are also very arrogant doctors. Either the doctors have political connections or are aware that nothing can upset their positions. The minister can scream suspension but in reality, cannot suspend a doctor for even one day.
Forget doctors, even a peon or class IV permanent staff may not be sacked even by the chief minister. Whether it is the chief secretary, peons, doctors or Class IV staff, they cannot be sacked without following due procedure. In any case no minister can sack or suspend anyone. Suspension or sacking can be only done by the department head after issuing show cause notice. What has shocked the public in Goa is the public humiliation of a doctor in the glare of TV cameras. So much so everyone in Goa must have seen how Vishwajit shouted and screamed at the doctor.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has overruled Vishajit Rane’s order of suspension for the doctor in this instance. On Sunday, June 8 he made it clear that there is no question of suspending GMC chief medical officer Dr Rudresh Kuttikar. The CM also placed on record the services of government doctors. Finally, after threats of an indefinite strike by the Goa Association of Resident Doctors, Vishwajit Rane was forced to make a public apology to Dr Rudresh Kuttikar and his family on Prudent Media. The drama which started with Prudent Media seems to have ended in Prudent media. We are sure Health Minister Vishwajit Rane will be a bit more cautious when it comes to threatening government officials henceforth.