the goan I network
PANAJI
Sacked from the Cabinet, former deputy chief minister Vijai Sardesai on Saturday lashed out at Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and accused him of attempting to erase the legacy of late Manohar Parrikar.
Sardesai blamed Sawant and the BJP’s central leadership of breaking the trust built by Parrikar with the alliance partners at the time of formation of the government post the 2017 elections.
Sardesai was addressing Goa Forward Party workers and sympathisers at an impromptu public meeting held at the site where Parrikar was cremated and is earmarked by the State government to build his ‘samadhi’ (memorial) at Miramar.
Sardesai said, neither Sawant nor BJP organising secretary Satish Dhond was party to the parleys that led to the formation of the government in 2017.
“Parrikar has died twice. First when he passed away on March 17 and today his political legacy has died,” Sardesai said at the event packed with optics aimed at touching a chord with sympathisers and supporters of the late chief minister and Union defence minister.
Sardesai also likened the current, post-Parrikar phase in Goa’s politics to the time in Russia after the death of Stalin.
“After Stalin died the period under Khrushchev was called ‘de-Stalination’, when his legacy was erased. This is happening in Goa. They are trying to wipe out Parrikar’s legacy,” Sardesai said.
He said, despite adversity
in his political constituency, he and his party colleagues had stood steadfast to the commitments made to Parrikar but the BJP had ditched them.
“There are questions being raised on why we continued to support and be part of the BJP-led government even after Parrikar’s death. Let me tell you I met Parrikar a couple of days before his eventual death and asked him his thoughts on what after him. He told me, we have joined hands for five years so please continue supporting BJP-led coalition, even after his demise,” Sardesai further claimed.
He said, when Sawant asked him and the other ministers to resign on Friday, he told the chief minister that since the agreement to support BJP-led government was made with central leadership and they were part of the NDA, the request to resign should come from a Central leader.
“Perhaps they (central leaders) had no moral courage to tell us to resign as they did not know how to justify it,” Sardesai added.
Independent MLA and ex-revenue minister Rohan Khaunte who also joined in the public meeting of sorts accused Sawant of unnecessarily disturbing a functioning government which had taken several steps to take the State forward over the last two years.
Vinoda Paliencar and Jayesh Salgaonkar also hit out at the BJP for their “betrayal” and were all praise for the trust bestowed on them by Parrikar through his tenure.
