the goan I network
PANAJI
Even as the Congress and BJP in Goa continued to spar on Saturday a day after the ugly violence on Friday when the BJP’s Rafale deal related protest in front of Congress House turned violent, Rahul Gandhi praised his party workers and slammed the saffron party’s karyakatas for “orchestrating” the attack.
Gandhi said he was proud of the “spirit of Gandhigiri” displayed by Mahila chief Pratima Coutinho, who he alleged was attacked by BJP supporters during Friday’s violent clash.
Around 300 BJP workers led by State unit president, Vinay Tendulkar, had marched to the Congress House to protest against Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of irregularities in the Rafale deal leading to the clashes on Friday.
“Democracy frustrates the BJP. This designed, deliberate and organised attack on Congress workers in Goa is an exemplification of that feeling. The attempt is to instill fear,” Gandhi said in a post uploaded on his official Facebook page.
“The cowards who came to attack us in Goa, and their bosses sitting here in Delhi, should know, fear is alien to the workers of the Congress party,” Gandhi said in the post.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should “read about the fate of those rulers who chose to attack non-violent Congress workers in this country,” his
post added.
Meanwhile, the state Congress legislative party and the Pradesh Congress Committee met to condemn Friday’s attack on their workers.
Later, a Congress delegation led by Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar, and state president Girish Chodankar, met Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jaspal Singh and demanded a proper investigation into Friday’s clash.
A memorandum was handed over to the IGP which also asks that the FIR filed against Mahila Congress president Adv Pratima Coutinho be withdrawn as it is “false and fabricated.”
The Congress further asked that strictest action by law be initiated against the accused in the FIR registered by Coutinho after Friday’s attacks.
Two other MLAs -- Jennifer Monserrate and Nilkant Halarnkar -- also accompanied Kavlekar and Chodankar, who after meeting the IGP told the media that they have been assured a fair and impartial probe in the matter. Three ex-CMs -- Digamber Kamat, Pratapsing Rane and Ravi Naik -- who attended the meeting also condemned the BJP’s behaviour.
Earlier on Saturday morning, the CLP as well as GPCC members held an hour-long emergency meeting to discuss the violence at the protests on Friday with missiles being flung at each other bv the two rival party groups on the street square outside the Congress office.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Kavlekar slammed the BJP in Goa for their violence during the protest.
Kavlekar said, the BJP did not want to agree to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal despite having a majority in Parliament, but were ready to resort to “dadagiri” instead.
“They (BJP karyakartas) have even raised their hands on women during the protest. Their leaders can come out and protest about Rafale, yet cannot solve the mining crisis in the state,” said Kavlekar, insisting that some action had to be taken against the means by which the BJP resorted to violence.
Velim MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Mahila Congress president, Pratima Coutinho, youth president Varad Mardolkar, and other Congress members were also present.
Cong instigated
protesters: BJP
PANAJI: In the aftermath of the Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar submitting a memo to the IGP asking for a fair and thorough probe into the Rafale protests, the state BJP unit on Saturday insisted that their Rafale protest infront of the Congress House was a “peaceful protest”, and that it was the Congress that had instigated the protesters to resort to violence.
“The Congress is lying about us attacking them first,” said Kiran Kandolkar who had registered an FIR against the Congress at the Police Station on Friday. “The Congress is saying they were peaceful, and that they were practising gandhigiri, but this must be Rahul Gandhigiri, because it is not Mahatma Gandhigiri,” said Kandolkar. >> See pg 3
