Objecting to a calling attention motion moved by his own party colleague Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco where he expressed apprehensions over an increasing trend among girls covering faces with scarfs while riding bikes, Congress MLA Mauvin Godinho said, it was an insult to women.
This led to a war of words with another Congress legislator during the Assembly session here, bringing differences among party MLAs to the fore.
When girls wear scarfs, it becomes difficult to know their identity and anti-social elements like terrorists can go unnoticed, Lourenco said.
Responding to the motion, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said, wearing scarf is not banned as per law and girls do wear it to protect themselves from ultraviolet (UV) rays.
“There is no such intelligence report to claim that terrorists are hiding behind scarfs. Also we cannot term it as an attempt to conceal identity,” Parrikar responded.
Even as the Chief Minister was about to finish his statement, Godinho intervened and objected to moving of such a motion.
“This is an insult to the fairer sex. Such kind of calling attention motions should not be allowed to be moved,” he said, evoking strong reactions from Lourenco.
“He (Godinho) can’t cast aspersions on me,” he objected. As the verbal duel between both legislators intensified, it was left with the Chief Minister to intervene.
“This is not Congress House,” Parrikar said.
——PTI