The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strongly condemned Goa Forward Party’s statement calling the Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar as the “puppet” of the government.
The GFP had raised questions over the Speaker's impartial role in the House after he attended the BJP legislature wing meeting on Tuesday, called to discuss strategy for the upcoming monsoon session.
Addressing a press conference, Minister Subhash Faldesai condemned GFP’s statement calling it as an insult to the constitutional post. He said that the opposition should respect the position, if not the person holding it.
Faldesai clarified that the Speaker was not part of the meeting called to discuss Assembly strategy and that he joined only after the meeting concluded.
The Minister said that the Speaker has been unbiased while ensuring equal opportunity is granted to everyone in the House. “In fact, the opposition benches were always given more preference and time than the ruling,” he said.
Faldesai also slammed GFP MLA Vijai Sardesai for trying to misguide ST community over recent UTTA order. He said that the order, banning Prakash Velip to function under UTTA, is as per law issued by a concerned authority and it has nothing to do with the government.
