In Goa three days before the state goes to polls, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to distract Goans from problems of employment and the environment by raising the issue of delay in the liberation of Goa after India became independent. Modi had said in Parliament earlier this week and at a political rally in Mapusa on Thursday, "The country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru declared from the Red Fort – you can hear his speech on YouTube today. He said from the Red Fort that to help those struggling for the liberation of Goa, he will not send the army. Matlab tum jaano, tumhara kaam jaane, marna hai toh maro, jeena hai toh jee lo. Yeh hai tarika (That means you know, your work knows, die if you have to, live if you have to. Is this the way)? This is how Congress thought before and thinks even today." LIVE: Shri @RahulGandhi addresses the media at Margao, Goa.#RahulGandhiWithGoa — Goa Congress (@INCGoa) February 11, 2022 Addressing the media in Margao, Gandhi hit back. "The PM cannot come to you (Goans) today and say I gave you jobs, I gave you employment, I fixed your problems, I stole your last government. He can't say that so he has to distract you. His role is to distract. His role is to take you away from your issues. The fact of the matter is that freedom fighters have commented on this issue, academics have commented on this issue. The sad fact is that the Prime Minister does not understand the history of those times. He does not understand in detail what was going on post World War II." On February 4, in Gandhi's presence, candidates of the Congress and its ally Goa Forward Party (GFP) had taken a pledge of loyalty, signing affidavits that said that they would not defect to another party after being elected on a Congress ticket. While political parties including the BJP had ridiculed the pledge and asked how the Congress party expected voters to trust its candidates if the party itself did not trust them. "That (pledge) function was a demonstration of intent. It does not mean we do not trust our candidates. It is a demonstration that, we feel, we have a group of candidates who have integrity and who are going to work to form a government," Gandhi said. Asked if the Congress would ally with the AAP or the TMC if the need arises after poll results, Gandhi said the Congress will not fall short of winning a majority. "We will be well above the majority mark with ease," Gandhi said. Gandhi defended the Congress's decision not to take back any of the MLAs who defected to other parties despite their winnablitity. "The people of Goa said they don't want defectors and we accepted that with all our heart.the decision about defectors is not wrong. It's 100 percent right." He said that the BJP's manifesto did not even have the word 'environment' in it. The Congress party has stated in its election manifesto that it will scrap the three linear projects cutting through the Mollem National Park in South Goa and would require hacking of several trees. "We are not going to allow Goa to become a coal hub. This is not in the interest of the people of Goa. This does not serve the purpose of the people of Goa so we are against these three projects..We will resist the idea of the projects. Just like the farm laws were resisted, we will resist the idea of the projects." Asked to comment on the hijab issue simmering in neighbouring Karnataka, Gandhi, however, refused to answer and said he was in Goa to talk about the issues that concerned the people of the state. He said, "My focus today is on Goa election. I am not going to fall into your trap of getting distracted by issue A or issue B. I am very clear. I have come here to have a conversation with the people of Goa." On the issue of restarting mining in Goa, Gandhi said, "We plan to restore sustainable mining. We have studied it. We will restart it in a sustainable, manageable and legal way and we will do it as soon as we come into power."
