Opposition leaders in Goa on Thursday criticised the state police for detaining villagers who were protesting against a mega residential project in north Goa’s Carapur Sarvan, saying the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was using the same dictatorial practices as the Portuguese to suppress people’s voices.
The police action took place in Panaji, near a function marking the state’s Goa Revolution Day, which commemorates a public meeting held in Margao in 1946, during which freedom fighter Ram Manohar Lohia issued a clarion call for liberation from the Portuguese.
Opposition leaders such as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal also joined the protesters to demand that the government issue a stop-work order to the project developers. But the protesters were stopped by the police, bundled into buses and driven away to Old Goa, and held until evening.
Kejriwal condemned the police action. “The BJP government intends to hand over land in Carapur to builders, with the aim of completely destroying Carapur. The people of Carapur wanted to come to Azad Maidan to pay tribute to their martyrs, but they were taken into custody. Today Goa Revolution Day is being celebrated. No one ever imagined that one day Goa would have a government more dictatorial than the British and the Portuguese. Just as the arrogance of the British and Portuguese was broken, one day the arrogance of the BJP will also be broken,” he added.
In a post on Facebook, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the assembly Yuri Alemao said chief minister Pramod Sawant spoke of sustainable development but did the exact opposite.
{{/usCountry}}In a post on Facebook, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the assembly Yuri Alemao said chief minister Pramod Sawant spoke of sustainable development but did the exact opposite.
{{/usCountry}}“The BJP Goa Sarkar has become like Salazar. The police, reduced to puppets at the behest of ministers, are arresting citizens who protest for their rightful demands. Freedom of speech has been crushed under this government. The detained people of Sarvan Karapur must be released without delay,” he said.
A police officer said the villagers were detained due to concerns about a law-and-order problem and were held for some hours at the Old Goa Police Station. No cases were registered against them.