Sahni proud to be ‘RSS product’

Sahni has already registered his protest with the President. ‘‘The new Governor is supposed to take oath tomorrow. But the Central government has no cordiality to convey the decision to me,’’ he said in a press Conference on Friday at the Cabo Raj Nivas.

According to the new arrangements, Maharashtra Governor Mohammad Fazal will be in charge of Goa affairs temporarily and will take oath tomorrow at the Raj Bhavan till the new incumbent, S.C. Jamir takes over.

‘‘I have not received any formal communication from the Central government over my removal, but received a letter from the state government regarding the oath of the new Governor scheduled tomorrow,’’ Sahni said.

Sahni also said he was ‘‘shocked’’ by the statement of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shree Prakash Jaiswal on a TV channel that governors connected to the RSS would be removed. He said, he has protested to the President about the ‘‘unconstitutional’’ manner in which he was removed.

‘‘The RSS is not a banned organisation and its membership is open to all citizens,’’ Sahni said. Therefore, ‘‘being a member should not be a consideration for appointment or removal of an incumbent’’, Sahni says in his letter to the President. A member of the Jana Sangh from 1953, and a Sangh ideologue for over 50 years, Sahni in his last official press conference said that he was ‘‘a proud product of the RSS’’.

Sahni’s 20-month tenure in Goa has been marked by a number of controversies, most of them related to his saffron ideology. But he will be best remembered, perhaps, for dragging the Raj Bhavan into unsavoury publicity over his links with Delhi-based events manager P.K. Rai, exposed by The Indian Express.

Sahni, who chose not to dwell on the controversial incident, said the matter was a ‘‘closed chapter’’ and that he was ‘‘happy to have trapped a man who was trying to impersonate the son of a former chief justice’’. Rai, in turn, has accused the Governor of framing him over a video recording.

The outgoing governor, who has at several functions, said he wanted to see temples demolished by the Portuguese in Goa reconstructed as a matter of ‘‘national pride’’, attempted to downplay the issue in his farewell address.

‘‘It was only the Mahalsa temple and some others in a bad condition,’’ he said. Sahni’s statement had stirred a controversy in Goa because it is a known fact that a number of temples here had been razed to make way for churches during the Portuguese regime.

Last year, Sahni had provoked criticism from Goan freedom fighters when he pronounced over a hundred RSS supporters from outside Goa as freedom fighters of this state.