"The government should stop assuming that the protesters are opposing the Defence Expo," AAP's Goa unit Walmiki Naik said in a statement here.
"If the government actually takes the trouble to talk to the people, it will realise that the protests are against the state government's arrogance in continuously claiming that DefExpo would be good for the local people, while not having the courtesy to take the same people into confidence," he added.
"Even today, after so much controversy, no one on the ground knows exactly what DefExpo would entail and how it would impact the village. How can the villagers oppose or support an event they have no information about?," Naik asked.
"There are also complete contradictions between verbal assurances by the government versus written statements on letters obtained under RTI, on whether DefExpo is a one-time event, or whether the same venue would be permanently reserved for this event," he added.
"Why won't the BJP government address these issues instead of trying to sweep its failures under the carpet and isolate a high-profile event like the DefExpo from the socio-economic reality of the area?," he questioned.