Goencho Avaaz has taken a pot shot at legislators’ move to shift their loyalty to another political party with the recent being merger of 10 ex-Congress MLAs into BJP. “It is total murder and rape of democracy. The voters, our Goans have been betrayed. We have become a joke to others outside Goa who are ridiculing about the political change that recently took place,” the organisation’s co-convener Captain Viriato Fernandes said in a joint press conference with Swapnesh Sherlekar on Saturday.
Ten ex-Congress MLAs including its then leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar switched their sides to BJP, days before the commencement of the Monsoon Session of the Assembly. Fernandes said they are also “amused” by the claim of one of the defectors Wilfred D’Sa that he along with nine MLAs merged with BJP for the benefit of their respective constituencies and more importantly to stop destruction of the land in their constituencies and of entire State by the then Town & Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai.
“We cannot agree more on the role of Sardesai in the destruction of Goa presently happening for the past two years. We have been time and again raising our voice and disapproval of his ill conceived policies which were beneficial for only him and his real estate agents. However, citing this as the reason for betraying the people’s mandate and jumping like frogs from Congress to BJP came as a surprise to us,” he said.
He said if the claims were to be believed, then Goencho Avaaz demands that the 10 defectors force the government to revoke all the decisions made by Sardesai that is, Regional Plan 2021, 16 B, TDR, etc and set up a judicial inquiry. They also demanded vigilance inquiry into the then minister’s role into the formalin fish.