ALL'S NOT WELL FOR
HEALTH MINISTER?
PANAJI: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar may not have instituted a formal criminal investigation into the controversial audio clip but preliminary inquiries by his confidantes have reportedly confirmed that a phone conversation did take place between the journalist and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, spelling trouble for the latter. Apart from the Rafale deal row in which he raises suspicion over the conduct of Parrikar himself, Rane in the purported conversation also conveys discord among ministers over recruitment of engineers in the Power Department, hints at ministers being at loggerheads over development works and virtually washes the Cabinet's dirty linen.
Parrikar is yet to take a decision on ordering a formal police probe as demanded by Rane, who has taken the stand that the audio clip is doctored and is the handiwork of the Congress to target him.
For the record, Parrikar himself has publicly toed Rane's line and also tweeted that the audio clip released by the Congress is a "desperate attempt" to fabricate facts after the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale deal.
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Will consult with Central leaders and take next step, says Girish
PANAJI: The Congress on Friday said it will take the next step in the Vishwajit Rane's audio clip episode only after consulting with its Central leadership since the matter was taken up by party president Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha and the winter session of Parliament is still on.
"Our President Rahul Gandhi took it (audio clip) to Parliament but the Speaker did not allow him to place it on record. We will consult with the Central leaders and take the next step on the issue," GPCC chief Girish Chodankar said at a joint press conference he addressed along with Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar in the latter's chamber at the Goa legislature complex in Porvorim. The clip of a taped phone conversation between Rane Jr and an unidentified journalist was leveraged by Gandhi and the Congress to escalate its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government over the controversial Rafale deal in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In the audio clip, Rane is heard telling the journalist that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told them at the last cabinet meeting that he had all the records of the Rafale deal here with him in his bedroom.
The damning conversation in the audio clip snowballed into a major national controversy, deeply embarrassing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but Rane quickly debunked the audio as "doctored" and accused the Congress of using him as a "pawn" in their political game-plan.
He also denied that no discussion on Rafale ever took place in any cabinet meeting or otherwise and wrote to Parrikar requesting a probe to check the authenticity of the audio clip and to identify those behind "doctoring" it.
