Says Cong will win North by margin of 30,000 votes and 40,000 in South
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Parrikar regime is worse than the (Portuguese dictator) Salazar’s regime, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President John Fernandes said in the wake of Margao Police asking him to stop screening of a CNN-IBN interview where Chief Minister is shown proudly boasting about having stopped mining in Goa and not the Supreme Court.
Saying that intimidation of the electorate is something that is real, Fernandes explained how he has encountered fear in people’s voices during his campaign rounds.
“Not even in Salazar regime have we seen this kind of authoritarianism. There is suppression of the people’s voice. People are scared to publicly dissent against the ruling party,” Fernandes alleged. He, however, added that there were three waves that were in favour of the Congress party – the silent wave, the anti- incumbency wave and the sympathy wave – on account of the misdeeds of the current government.
Referring to Wednesday’s incident where the Margao Police stopped screening of Parrikar’s own interview, John questioned how the police could do it, despite there being no order from the Election Commission to this effect.
“They just came and stopped it. How can this be done? This same CD was shown at all the other meetings and this was the last meeting where we were to show the CD,” Fernandes said adding that it was
the same police who had come and stopped the Carnival celebrations when Independent MLA Vijai Sardessai and Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenço were taking part in the celebrations. “According to the Election Commission directives, police officers have to be transferred. Why has
this not been done?” Fernandes asked.
