Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after the State BJP held a big birthday bash for Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar; the Congress claimed that the celebration cum show of strength was a desperate attempt by the BJP to regain the lost glory of its government and their leader.
Addressing the media, Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said it is sad to see that despite the Cong request to cancel the party in view of the Chennai floods, BJP and Parrikar went ahead with the celebration involving huge expenditure and attended by over 50,000 people.
“It clearly shows it’s a desperate attempt of the State BJP to reinstate the lost glory of their government and moreover to rebuild the loss of confidence amongst Goans in their leader Parrikar keeping in view the 2017 Assembly elections,” he said.
He said that owing to various U-turns and unfulfilled promises like shifting of casinos, scrapping of RP, MoI, etc. people have lost faith in the BJP government and moreover on Parrikar, who had made these false promises during the campaign for the 2012 Assembly polls. “The entire move was to rebuild the confidence that people have lost,” he added. Pointing to the Union Minister’s admission that fuel adulteration still takes place in State and that he knows the people behind this illegal business, Congress has given Parrikar a day to disclose the names of the traders, failing which the party will approach CBI for an investigation.
Kawthankar said, “On Sunday during his speech, Parrikar said that during his interrogation in the IFFI scam (2004), he had informed CBI about fuel adulteration in the State. And even today it exists and he knows names of those behind it. Failure of BJP to act will prove that the party and its leaders are shielding those involved.”
