PANJIM: Stating his comments of the Portuguese Prime Minister were misinterpreted by the media, PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar on Monday said the issue cost him seven seats in the Assembly elections.
Dhavalikar is facing criticism for his recent tour to Portugal as he had a year ago made a statement during Protuguese PM Antonio Costa’s visit to Goa saying he should first apologise to all Goans as they destroyed Goa.
Clarifying his stand on the issue, Dhavalikar said that it was election time and the issue was blown out of proportion. “It was election time and I lost seven seats because of that issue including Ponda,” Dhavalikar said adding “otherwise we were sure to win 11 seats”.
Dhavalikar stated he never said Antonio should apologise. “In fact, I said I am proud he was the son of soil who became Portuguese prime minister and I would go myself to meet him,” he stated.
Dhavalikar said that the Portugal comments were misinterpreted like the “Bikini issue”.
“I said don’t go in bikinis in temples and churches, which I feel every Goan will agree with but something else came out in media,” he said.
Further, he however said, nobody can deny history that Portuguese destroyed Goa when they left.
“When the Portuguese left, they destroyed infrastructure like bridges and pipelines. But now I have no grudge against them as they have replaced dictatorship with democracy,” he says.
On his visit to Portugal recently, he said, they have better technology which could be replicated in Goa. “The Portuguese commissioned the Opa plant in 1952, which is still working fine with some maintenance. This means that they had good technology at that time and even now they have better technology which will make no harm if adopted here,” he said.
He said he wanted to see what is the difference in technology there.
“The agreement is not done by Sudin Dhavalikar or Manohar Parrikar but on the advise of Government of India and for better water supply and sewerage network for Goa,” he added.
