MAPUSA
Extolling the virtues of the former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, State BJP Mahila Morcha President Sulakshana Sawant said he was a leader par excellence and loved by a cross-section of people not because he belonged to the BJP but simply because he was Manohar Parrikar.
Sawant also said that the former CM wanted everyone to be like him “ a good leader “ and urged the young generation to emulate such great leaders.
“He was made of a different chemical composition. It was not like BJP but because he was Manohar Parrikar. Sometimes, a face to the party makes a difference. And that was Parrikar,” Sawant said.
The BJP Mahila Morcha chief was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a mural of late Parrikar at the four-road junction near the late CM’s ancestral house at Salis-vaddo, Parra. The four-road junction was also named as “Manohar Parrikar junction” after the former CM and ex-defence minister.
Special guest, Chairman of All India Anti-Terrorist Front Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, Siolim MLA Delilah Lobo, Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar and his family members and several sarpanchas and panchayat members of the surrounding villages were also present.
Sawant said the former CM’s whole thought process in taking everyone along was his achievement. “When he became the CM and started coming up with different policies…It was not that he came up with a policy and then we loved him. In fact, it was the other way round. He was loved by the people and hence he came out with all the policies/schemes,” she said.
She said the mural and the junction named after Manohar Parrikar will always remind people about our great leaders in the past.
Calangute MLA Lobo said that Parrikar was a visionary leader who empowered the women and took all sections of the society together.
Keynote speaker, Editor of Lokmat, Sadguru Patil said that Parrikar was not just another leader but an institute in himself. He said as an opposition leader, the ex-CM used the RTI Act to the maximum effect to extract information and put the then Congress government under pressure.
