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Godbole firm on decision to quit

Priya Ganapati in Bombay

Madhav Godbole is not in a conciliatory mood for now. Despite the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's appeal to him to withdraw his resignation from the chairmanship of the committee set up for renegotiating the power purchase agreement with the Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company, Godbole is not willing to give in.

"I have not given any thought to it, so I have nothing to say yet," Godbole told rediff.com. He also revealed that Chief Minister Deshmukh has not yet personally been in touch with him and till that happens he is not willing to think about his resignation.

Godbole, a former Union home secretary, submitted his resignation to the chief minister on Wednesday morning after an adverse comment made against him by the NCP president Sharad Pawar at a public function on Tuesday night.

When probed on whether he is open to the idea of withdrawing his resignation, Godbole reiterated, "I have not given any thought to the possibility yet and so I can't say anything about it."

Meanwhile, talking to a news agency Godbole said: "If you have to renegotiate, you have to strengthen and not weaken the hands. This way there is no productive work that can be done."

Godbole's resignation is the latest in a series of misfortunes to hit the renegotiation panel. Set up as a nine-member committee initially, the panel received it first setback when three members of the committee opted out of the panel citing unavailability of time.

Tata Energy Research Institute director Rajendra K Pachauri, former union energy secretary E A S Sharma, Professor at Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research Kirit Parikh quit the panel saying that they did not have enough time to spare for the deliberations of the committee.

The panel also has had to deal with tough posturing by Enron on the renegotiation issue. However, last night the DPC issued a statement saying that it would be a part of the renegotiations meeting that was to be held on Wednesday morning.

But Godbole's resignation seems to have thrown the process into disarray. Godbole himself declined to comment on the impact of his resignation of the Enron crisis.

Sources close to the committee say that there is more to Godbole's resignation than meets the eye. The timing of the resignation for one has raised a lot of speculations.

"I am sure Godbole has been contemplating this for a while and he must have used the criticism as a reason to tender his resignation," a high-level source said. "Godbole has been a bureaucrat for several years. He has dealt with many politicians throughout his career and I am sure criticisms are something he has been subjected to before in his career. So, naturally his decision to withdraw over Sharad Pawar's criticism seems questionable," he added.

Terming the possibility of Godbole withdrawing his resignation as remote, the source said, "He is not known to retrace his steps. I would be very surprised if he does withdraw his resignation."

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