PANAJI
Rajya Sabha MP and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party state president, Vinay Tendulkar on Wednesday condemned the Tuesday's protest march by "some 60-70" activists and Congress legislators and office-bearers to the private residence of ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to demand his resignation.
"The Chief Minister is unwell. This is not the first time that a chief minister of a state has been unwell. Be it Jayalalita, Biju Patnaik or Mufti Mohammed Sayeed...they were all unwell in office," Tendulkar argued saying the protest was not in good taste and only a drama orchestrated by the Opposition Congress.
He challenged the Congress party to approach the courts, which it had claimed it would do, to address their grievance over the illness of the Chief Minister.
The Congress is in disarray and only some of their MLAs were present for the march. The party should take care of its MLAs, Tendulkar said.
Tendulkar, who addressed a press conference at the party headquarters in Panaji flanked by Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho and BJP general secretary Sadanand Tanvade, singled out for criticism former chief minister Digambar Kamat who was one of the several Congress MLAs among the crowd at the protest march on Tuesday.
"Digambar Kamat has worked under Parrikar for more than ten years both as CM and in the Opposition. It is unbecoming for a person like him to associate himself and fall prey to the Congress' natak," Tendulkar said, adding that perhaps the presence of the national media in Goa because of IFFI may have prompted the protest with an aim to get publicity.
To a question on the demand of the MGP that charge be handed over to the "senior-most minister" which is PWD Minister Sudin Dhavlikar, Tendulkar said an appropriate decision will be taken by the BJP central leadership at the right time.
Tendulkar said that development work under the Parrikar-led government is progressing unhindered across Goa. He also quoted senior Dhavlikar saying that all work of the departments was being carried out smoothly.
Referring to the indefinite fast resorted to by RTI activist Rajan Ghate which entered the sixth day on Wednesday, Tendulkar said he is a party worker of the Congress and he has photographic evidence of a meeting held in Congress where he was present.
"He has no right to serve a 48-hour ultimatum for the CM to resign. He is not an RTI activist but a Congress worker," Tendulkar said.
Godinho, meanwhile, said that there is unrest in the ranks of the Congress which is why they were holding such publicity gimmicks. The minister claimed there was no problem in the functioning of the administration and rubbished claims to the contrary.
