Panaji: A day after Goa’s Urban Development Minister Milind Naik resigned from his post after being accused of sexually exploiting a Bihar-based woman, All India Congress Committee’s Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the ruling party reeks of immorality, adding that the BJP’s portrayal of ‘sanskriti’ was only for show and electoral gains.
“The sanskriti (culture) of the BJP is only for show and garnering votes. I cannot say that every person is clean. Everyone may have something… But as a political party, they protect those who do wrong. They empower them and make them stronger, that is the problem with the BJP,” Rao told reporters.
Naik resigned late on Wednesday after the Congress accused him of exploiting a widow from Bihar for sexual favours. After Naik’s resignation, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that his cabinet colleague had resigned voluntarily “to ensure a free and fair probe”.
Rao however doubts the capacity of the BJP-led coalition government in Goa to facilitate a free and fair probe.
“BJP should have acted much earlier. As soon as the issue was raised the Minister himself should have voluntarily resigned or the CM should have himself called for his resignation. Why wait for all this to happen? Again they were trying to protect him,” Rao said.
“Second thing now, he is talking about a free and fair probe. Do we really have the confidence that the government will do a free and fair probe? There have been so many incidents which have happened in this state, women have been molested and attacked by political leaders. What probe has taken place. Have the accused been tried and sentenced?” Rao also said.