Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar on Sunday took a dig at Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, saying that coalition pressures and love for CM's chair had reduced him to a miaowing cat from a tiger he was earlier called.
He said the senior BJP leader was behaving like a puppet and giving in to the "unreasonable" demands of BJP's alliance partners to save his chair.
"Parrikar once had a reputation of a roaring tiger in Goa's politics, but now had been reduced to a cat. The Chief Minister has been reduced to a puppet by alliance partners like Goa Forward, whose leader Vijai Sardesai has tried to save those behind the fish mafia, after the formalin controversy."
He told the media that lakhs of Goans loved fish but the state government had put this favourite food in peril.
"Once upon a time, he was called a tiger, but he is not even miaowing now. Imagine Parrikar's situation: He is stuck in his chair and has become blind. He is ready to compromise everyone, including 14 lakh Goans on the issue of formalin used in fish preservation, just to save his post," Chodankar said.
The BJP-led state coalition government is under attack for going soft on fish traders, whose consignments brought from other states were found to contain formalin, a powerful disinfectant and carcinogen used to preserve cadavers.
The ongoing monsoon session of the Goa Assembly has been adjourned for two consecutive days, after the Congress demanded a discussion on the formalin controversy.
Chodankar said that Parrikar, undergoing treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer, needed rest.
"Actually, I advised him a long time back that he is not able to handle the pressure. The Chief Minister is a very important position. He is the political executive of the state. When I advised him, they (BJP leaders) started threatening me," Chodankar said.
--IANS
maya/tsb
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