PANAJI
BJP national president Amit Shah was ‘felicitated’ by the state leadership for having pulled off a coup to bring the BJP back to power, amid taunting of the Congress party and pledges to keep a stable government and uninterrupted development of Goa for the next five years.
Despite a well-organised meeting, large sections of the crowd remained unimpressed and lacked enthusiasm, was evident from the weak response to sloganeering as well as crucially the fact that people began to leave even as Shah was mid-way through his speech as the meeting continued on beyond 7 pm.
When Amit Shah entered, despite Manohar Parrikar gesturing the crowd to rise up, most of the people remained seated, similarly a large chunk of the crowd remained seated when Shah was felicitated.
The gathering of more than 10,000 people, a large chunk of whom were from Valpoi, were treated to speeches by local leaders as well as that of national leaders like Nitin Gadkari who gave his word that he would complete the Goa-Mumbai four lane concrete road before the end of 2018 besides taking development in Goa forward through expansion of the Mormugao Port Trust, as well as a big push towards tourism through cable cars, etc.
A recurring theme through the event was how the BJP government was able to pull the rug from under the Congress feet with jibes directed towards the Congress Legislative Party, its desk incharge Digvijay Singh and the party in general.
“I have to ask the Congress leadership when we approached the Governor with letters of support from 21 MLAs did you’ll have your leader in place?” Shah taunted.
Shah praised Manohar Parrikar for having solved the long pending issue of “One Rank One Pension” as well as for his ‘world famous’ surgical strike that he said would keep Pakistan silent for a hundred years.
It was Manohar Parrikar who struck a cautionary note. “We have to introspect why from a full majority of 21 we have come down to 13. The financial difficulties arising out of the mining ban and a hostile central government kept me busy during the first two years and no sooner the Narendra Modi government came, I had to move to Delhi,” Parrikar said while thanking his alliance partners for showing faith in his leadership.
