MARGAO
The Congress took the platform of the launch of the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan in the State on Sunday with a call to the party rank and file to brace for a sustained battle on Mhadei if Chief Minister Pramod Sawant fails to condemn by Friday Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the Mhadei issue has been resolved in consultation with Goa government.
Newly-appointed Congress Goa desk in-charge, Manickam Tagore said the Political Affairs Committee of the Congress has served an ultimatum to Sawant to come clean on Mhadei by Friday evening.
“We all hope that the Chief Minister will prove that he is not spineless and he would stand up against Shah by condemning the statement”, Tagore said while addressing the Congress rank and file at the launch of Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan at Chinchinim on Sunday.
Tagore demanded that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant should resign and go home if he is afraid of the Union Minister, saying Sawant should have the guts to stand up and fight for Goa since he has been elected by the people of the State.
“Mhadei issue is a people’s issue. People of Goa understand that the BJP has betrayed them on Mhadei. We are taking the issue very seriously. The Congress will take the issue to the logical conclusion”, he said, while saying the issue will be fought on the streets of Goa and at the highest level in Parliament.
He said “with the Karnataka Assembly polls scheduled in April, BJP and Shah are out to divert the burning issues facing the neighbouring State including price rise, communal tension, rampant unemployment et al. The BJP has the history of using election to raise issues and forget them after the polls”.
Saying the people of Goa and Karnataka are peace loving citizens, Tagore said the BJP and Shah in particular are hell bent in creating the division amongst the people of the two States.
“The betrayal by the Goa government on Mhadei is before our eyes. The Chief Minister is silent and this only indicates that he has surrendered to Shah”, he said, adding Congress workers will stand by the people on the issue.
GPCC Chief Amit Patkar and Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao also touched upon the contentious Mhadei issue while addressing workers.
Asserting that the Goa government and Sawant are puppets in the hands of the Union Home Minister, Patkar said the Union Home Minister has given a clean chit to the Congress at Belagavi that the party and its leader Sonia Gandhi had always worked to protect Goa’s interest on Mhadei.
Opposition leader Yuri said the BJP government has surrendered the interests of the country to the crony capitalists and urged the party workers to brace up for the battle to save Mhadei.
South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha reminded that Mhadei river is the lifeline of Goa and Karnataka has no right to put up dams all along the river to divert the waters to the neighbouring state.
