Shiv Sena slams free availability of beef in Goa, vows to shut Casinos in coastal state if voted to power

PANAJI: Shiv Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut vowed to shut down casinos in Goa if the party came to power.

He also slamed the BJP government in Goa for the free availability of beef in the state, in spite of laws prohibiting cow slaughter, which were applicable everywhere in the country.

Raut who was on a two-day visit to the state, slammed the Pramod Sawant-led State government and accused the BJP of jettisoning ‘Hindutva’ as an ideology, when and where it suited them.

He said that there is a nationwide law prohibiting cow slaughter in the country, but in Goa any amount of beef is freely available.

In a vitriolic editorial in its mouthpiece, Saamana, the Sena dubbed the BJP as the “real beef party” in the State. It stated that the saffron party was in effect carrying forward the baneful legacy of Goa’s 450-year -long Portuguese rule with its ‘divide and rule’ politics.

“The late Manohar Parrikar had established the BJP in Goa by leading the fight against casino gambling. The same BJP government has now become the slave of casino owners, while the numbers of youth addicted to narcotic substances in villages are soaring. While the Prime Minister is upset about the gambling racket, the casinos fill up the pockets of Ministers and help fund political parties to fight elections,” said the editorial.

Mocking Mr. Sawant’s Sarkar Tumchya Dwari (government at your doorstep) outreach programme, the Sena claimed that ‘Hindutva’ today remained a mere façade of the BJP in Goa. While the law prohibiting cow slaughter was applicable everywhere in the country, any quantity of beef is available in Goa, it alleged.

“It is the BJP [in Goa] which has truly become a ‘beef party. If the people of Goa today think that the party is the saviour of the Hindu community, then they are mistaken… their ‘Hindutva’ is just a mask and is evident from the kind of MLAs currently in the BJP,” said the editorial.

Criticizing the ‘opportunistic’ nature of government formation that Goa had been witnessing for the past several years, the Sena said that only the Congress and the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) had true roots among the voters of the State, while the BJP seized power by breaking other parties.

The editorial said the MGP, which had a strong claim to be a true ‘Hindutva’ party, lost ground in the State after the death of its stalwart leader Bhausaheb Bandodkar (Goa’s first Chief Minister) and its ideology merged with other “Portuguese” parties.

In the same vein, the edit censured former Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, who recently resigned from the Congress to join the Trinamool Congress, saying that Faleiro was only concerned about personal gain.

“Each time before an election, one sees the rise of new parties from which one or two MLAs get elected who then ally with bigger parties…Goa has suffered as a result of such opportunistic politics. The BJP was in the minority after the 2017 election results. But the Congress, which had won the highest number of MLAs [17 in the 40-seat Assembly], delayed its claim to power. In this period, the BJP shrewdly secured a majority by splitting the Goa Congress and engineering defections,” said the Sena. It hoped that this picture would change in the coming elections.

with inputs from Agencies