A massive cross-section of Goans gathered outside the Azad Maidan grounds on Sunday to give full backing for the protest call given by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) with the support from the 'Enough is Enough' movement and demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) & the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The State government on its part had turned the Azad Maidan into a fortress of barricades to keep protestors away by deploying a huge police force around the said venue. Why? Were the people who were supposed to take part in the CJP-led demonstration near the Azad Maidan on Sunday all anti-social elements who had come all the way from some neighbouring states to create mayhem and anarchy in Panaji? Doesn't the same government allow a bunch of known hate-mongers to frequently give their press conferences and to even hold their demonstrations/protests along with their non-Goan supporters on issues of religion, language etc standing inside the Azad Maidan without anyone's permission to divide Goans on religious lines? I feel that the BJP government should henceforth rename the Azad Maidan as BJPs private maidan.
JERRY FERNANDES, Saligao
