PANAJI
Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal made his stand clear on the vexed medium of instruction issue when he categorically said that government grants would not be withdrawn to schools that are presently receiving it.
Speaking informally to editors of media organisations in the State on Thursday, he said, a more comprehensive policy on the issue would emerge only after completion of Goa Dialogues, an elaborate process at the constituency-level to elicit issues faced by the people.
Kejriwal was on a two-day visit to Goa where he met up with members of the fishing community in Vasco, youth in Ponda and small hotel owners in Calangute. AAP leaders informed that at none of these meeting was the MoI issue raised. “No one talked about it,” said Ashutosh, spokesperson of the party. “MoI was not as large a problem as quality of education, which is not being discussed.”
In 2017, four States, including Goa will go to the polls to elect a new Assembly and AAP is likely to be a big player in Punjab and Goa. The question that emerged at the meeting, held at the International Centre Goa was, why did AAP choose Goa?
Kejriwal said, “We did not select Goa, but Goa is ready for a new form of governance.”
Referring to the Delhi experiment where AAP won 67 of the 70 seats, Kejriwal explained that people in the capital were angry with the Congress and BJP. “This situation exists in many states in the country including Goa. People here are angry with the BJP,” he said.
“People thought Manohar Parrikar would provide good governance, but they have realised the BJP is as corrupt as the Congress. BJP has cheated the people,” he said.
He explained that AAP did not win 67 seats in Delhi only because the people were angry and disheartened with other parties. The surge in seats in the second election after a long spell of President’s Rule was the result of the corruption-free 49-day rule.
