Opposition unites for January 16 meet, but Revolutionary Goans stays out

PANAJI: The state presidents of opposition parties –– Congress, AAP, NCP, Goa Forward, TMC and Shiv Sena –– came together on Saturday to declare their whole-hearted support to the public meeting to be held on January 16 under the ‘Save Goa, Save Mhadei’ banner in Sanquelim. Revolutionary Goans (RG) will not join the protest.
The politicos said that despite government efforts to prevent the protest by cancelling the permission granted for the earlier venue in Sanquelim, the protest will go ahead.
“Permission for the meeting venue was denied at the last minute. This shows the BJP government does not want the meeting to take place in Sanquelim (chief minister Pramod Sawant’s constituency). But this meeting will take place not only for Sanquelim but for people from across Goa,” said GFP president Vijai Sardesai.
RG was the only one to not join the opposition in declaring support for the public meeting. Sardesai said that it proves that RGP is BJP’s B-team.
“The chief minister himself has admitted that Karnataka has already begun diverting water from the Mhadei. The time has come to stand together against Karnataka. But a B-team has been formed to divert attention by saying they are having a campaign to create awareness about the issue. When water has already been diverted, what is the point of an awareness campaign at this late juncture,” said Sardesai.
He said the BJP government at the Centre is trying to muffle opposition voices against Mhadei diversion in the interest of the upcoming elections in Karnataka.
“The central government thinks Goans are susegad and that we will not raise our voices even if we are left to thirst for water. But we have raised our voices to stop the merger of Goa with Maharashtra in the past, and we will start this movement again on Opinion Poll day itself,” said Sardesai.
Congress state president Amit Patkar and NCP president Jose Philip D’Souza said that if the Goa BJP government stands for the rights of Goan people, they should join the movement to save Mhadei on Monday.
AAP’s Amit Palekar alleged that when the Goa CM-led delegation went to meet home minister Amit Shah, the Union minister was dismissive and said there is nothing to worry as Goans are not ones to hold massive protests.