Team Herald
NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has once again denied any remarks made in the Goa Assembly elections that amounted to “abetting and promoting electoral offence of bribery,” urging the Election Commission to watch the video of his January 29 speech in his presence to see how his words have been wrongly twisted.
In a reply to a second notice served on him by the EC, he said all that he asked the voters was not to support candidates who offer money when the government was giving them much better benefits through various schemes.
His contention is rather endorsed in the excerpted relevant portion of his speech in the second EC’s notice issued on February 7 on a speech he gave at a slum in the state capital as he only asks why fall for small bribery when the government gives them nearly a lakh or Rs 1.25 lakh in five years.
Parrikar had said he has no problem if someone takes Rs 500 to join a rally, but wanted the voters to compare whatever they get with Rs 1500 per month they get from the government.
The excerpted portion in the notice reads: “…somebody will give you Rs 2,000, 1,000, 3,000. Calculate it. We give 1500 per month. In five years, 1500 becomes 90,000 and this will further increase. Therefore, you will get nearly a lakh or 1.25 lakh rupees for the next five years. …..”
Parrikar insisted to cross-examine a 3-member committee through his advocate to expose its literary translation of his speech to give an ‘incorrect’ angle to it.
Insisting that “anyone who understands the fundamentals of Konkani (language)” will understand him correctly, he has written to the EC that the real message of his speech was to “vote for a good government rather than going for exercising franchise by receiving paltry consideration of an extraneous nature.”
He insisted that the wrong translation of his speech led to a false interpretation that he asked the voters to accept Rs 2,000 from other parties but vote for the lotus (BJP’s symbol).
