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Manohar Parrikar quits, new Goa chief minister to be named by evening

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MANOHAR PARRIKAR

Panaji: A day ahead of being sworn in as union minister, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Saturday resigned from office.

He faxed his resignation to Governor Mridula Sinha.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also expected to announce a new chief minister for Goa after a meeting of party legislators in the evening.

BJP general secretary J.P. Nadda said the announcement will be made at 4 p.m.

“The parliamentary board meeting discussed Goa legislative assembly leadership and the Rajya Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh. The decision will be announced at 4 p.m. today (Saturday),” Nadda told reporters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi and did not attend the meeting.

The party’s national observers Rajeev Pratap Rudy and B.S. Yeddyurappa will be present at the meeting in Goa to tide over the process of transition from Parrikar to the new chief minister.

While current Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Speaker Rajendra Arlekar are the top seeds for the post, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza put a spanner in the works late Friday by insisting that he would not work under either of the two leaders because they were junior to him.

D’Souza, who claimed that 12 BJP as well as independent legislators were on the same page with him on the issue, however, was more receptive to the idea of union Minister for Tourism and Culture Shripad Naik being brought to state politics and appointed as chief minister.

Efforts by Parrikar to cajole D’Souza and get him to agree to either Parsekar and Arlekar did not bear fruit, even as the senior BJP leader tried to put a brave face through the embarrassment caused by D’Souza tantrum.

“I have tried my best, now it is up to the party to decide,” Parrikar told reporters late Friday after a one-to-one meeting with D’Souza.

When asked who in his opinion could be his best successor as chief minister, Parrikar said: “Tomorrow (Saturday) at 1 o’clock on the 8th of November, you can ask.”

On Monday, Parrikar is expected to fly to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh where he will file his nomination papers to book passage to parliament through the Rajya Sabha.

With inputs from IANS

Media wrong, no specific terror alert for Goa: CM Manohar Parrikar

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Manohar Parrikar (Photo credit: HT)

Manohar Parrikar (Photo credit: HT)

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Friday said that there was no specific terror alert for the state and media reports quoting a top NSG official indicating the same were “incorrect”.

Parrikar told a press conference at the state secretariat here that National Security Guard (NSG) Director General J.N. Choudhury’s comments about terror threats were off hand and the media had wrongly reported them.

“We have not received an alert. That comment of the NSG director general was an off hand comment,” Parrikar said.

“He said that these kind of activities are being carried out,” Parrikar said, adding that the news reports which said that Goa was specifically in the cross hairs of Islamic terror groups like Al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) were incorrect.

On Thursday media reports quoting Choudhury said that the IS and Al Qaeda were planning multi-city attacks in India, suggesting that Bangalore and Goa were on the terror hit list.

(IANS)

Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar bans Sri Ram Sene in the state

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Manohar Parrikar (Photo credit: HT)

Manohar Parrikar (Photo credit: HT)

Porvorim: The Goa government has banned the entry of hardline Hindutva outfit Sri Ram Sene from the state, chief minister Manohar Parrikar announced on the floor of the House yesterday.

“I had asked police to prepare a report and it was sent to the collector to ban the entry of Sri Ram Sene in the state. We have banned Sri Ram Sene,” Parrikar said.

Sri Ram Sene’s controversial leader, Pramod Muthalik had announced his plans to setup  a unit of his organisation in Goa last year, though he hadn’t revealed a timeline for its operation.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the All-India Hindu Convention, Muthalik had said that “we had to postpone the launch of the organisation in Goa due to various reasons including the just concluded assembly elections in Karnataka.” He had said that his Belgaum unit head was in touch with around 200 local youth in the state for the cause.

Responding to a question posed by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai on whether the government had banned the group following opposition demands, Parrikar said Sri Ram Sene has been banned because of its plans to enter the state.

Describing the order banning Sri Ram Sene in Goa as ‘toothless’, Rajya Sabha MP and AICC Secretary Shantaram Naik told reporters that, “the ban order imposed by the Goa Government on Sri Ram Sene is without teeth, unless the order is followed by a regular order by the Central Government under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.”

Founded in the 1960s, the ring wing Hindu nationalist group came to notoriety in 2009, when its members barged into a pub and attacked young women, accusing them of “indecent behaviour” and “an insult to Hindu culture and tradition”.

The attack which garnered wide spread condemnation, brought Sri Ram Sene to the forthwith of national and international attention, with even RSS favouring a ban on the organisation.

Since then, the group has been involved in a spate of violent speeches and actions especially targeted against women, and the minority Muslim and Christian communities.

In 2012, with a clear intention to flare up communal tensions between different communities, its members had raised Pakistan’s national flag on a government building in  Sindgi, near Bijapur, Karnataka and then accused the Muslim community for the mischief. The incident lead to angry protests by Hindu organisations and the stoning of a mosque. Six members of the group were later arrested for “creating communal disharmony.”

Meanwhile, Sri Ram Sene (SRS) workers burnt effigies of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today and staged protests in parts of Karnataka. They said that the group will defy the ban, and added that Muthalik himself would be present for the launch of the unit in Goa.

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