PANAJI
Top brass and dozens of workers of the Congress party in Goa paid homage to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and passed an unanimous condolatory resolution moved by GPCC president Amit Patkar and seconded by Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao at a ‘shok sabha’ held at the Institute Menezes Braganza hall on Sunday evening.
Speakers at the condolence meet recalled Goa-related decisions and initiatives taken during the reign of Dr Singh both as finance minister and prime minister of the country including the decision to set up the Mhadei water disputes tribunal and funding the broadband network in Goa.
Apart from Patkar and Alemao, other Congress leaders who attended and paid tributes to Dr Singh included Aldona MLA Carlos Ferreira, former chief minister and MP Francisco Sardinha, former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap, state Congress president Amit Patkar, Amarnath Panajikar, former MLA Victor Gonslaves, former Mahila Congress president Beena Naik among others.
Ferreira in his tribute said Dr Singh had the distinction of graduating and earning his doctorate in two of UK’s most famous academic institutions known to brood an intense rivalry -- Oxford and Cambridge.
“That he graduated in one and pursued and earned his doctorate from the other speaks for his caliber as it is rare that one accepts the alumni of the other,” Ferreira added.
Meanwhile the bitterness of the unsavoury row between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the alleged disrespect or lack of dignity in the Centre’s conduct also found an echo in the tributes paid to the departed leader by the Goa Congress leaders.
