NEW DELHI: Wishing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar a speedy recovery, the Congress on Saturday accused the BJP leadership of plunging the State into a constitutional breakdown and governance crisis by not opting for any alternative.
Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar and AICC spokesman Pawan Khera told a press conference in New Delhi that the people of Goa are craving for governance, administration and progress that have become a casualty because of Parrikar’s illness as they are suffering a spate of corruption for want of any proper government.
Instead of holding a Cabinet meeting at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Friday, they said Parrikar should show moral righteousness and voluntarily step down from the post. Congress also wondered if he would even call for the mandatory Assembly session in the hospital if he cannot go back to Goa.
Asserting that Goa deserves a fulltime CM, they said the BJP has not even appointed a caretaker chief minister, nor acting CM, nor an in-charge, nor a deputy chief minister to run the government until such time Parrikar recovers, as done by giving the finance portfolio at the Centre to Piyush Goyal when Arun Jaitley underwent a major surgery. They accused the BJP of being callous in not relieving Parrikar from his responsibilities to let him recover fast.
Chodankar suspected that Parrikar may be blackmailing the BJP to reveal the secrets of the Rafale fighter jet deal if he is removed. He said he has no doubts that Parrikar may be privy to many files and documents relating to the scam that he may expose if he is shunted out.
How else does the BJP explain dropping of two ministers – Francis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar – on ground of their failing health, but not the chief minister, he asked.
He said the Congress had gone to Governor Mridula Sinha five times and pressed that a floor test is imperative to throw out the BJP that usurped power through backdoor despite the Congress having the majority. He said BJP has no constitutional right to continue in power in Goa even for a day.
“A special one-day session of the Goa Assembly should be immediately convened for a floor test to clear all doubts on who has the rightful claim to head a democratic government,” Chodankar said.
He said the Congress cooperated and even got an ongoing Assembly session closed early this year to facilitate Parrikar rush to Mumbai for hospitalisation but the State cannot be brought to a standstill because of his pancreatic ailment not cured for so long. In reply to a question on what next, he said the Congress will continue to fight using the democratic tools as all it wants is that the people should not suffer for want of governance.
Chodankar and Khera wondered what happened to PM Narendra Modi’s model of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’. Khera said Rahul Gandhi inquired about Parrikar’s health and wished him early recovery, but the party can’t keep quiet if his health condition paralyses the Goa government, making the people suffer.
Asked about the mining scam of previous Congress chief minister Digambar Kamat, Chodankar said the BJP is in power in the State for seven years and over four years at the Centre and still it did nothing in the matter, nor is it concerned over the crisis created by the shutdown of all iron ore mines in the State under a Supreme Court order.
