Goa minister faking presence at Modi event: NCP

The NCP Tuesday accused Goa's Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar of allegedly faking his presence at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing in ceremony via a Facebook photo.

NCP vice president Trajano D'Mello released a copy of a photo uploaded on Parulekar's Facebook page which shows Parulekar with Modi who is wearing a white round collared short kurta.

The photo caption reads: "At swearing-in ceremony; with Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan."

The photo also has the joint secretary in the chief minister's office, Siddharth Kunkolienkar, in the background.

"This photo cannot have been taken at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Parulekar is indulging in white lies," D'Mellow told a press conference.

"First of all, Modi was wearing a cream kurta with a waist coat at the ceremony. And Kunkolienkar was in Panaji on Monday evening at Azad Maidan (a city square where live telecast of Modi's swearing-in was telecast on big screen)," D'Mello said in Panaji.

He also showed photos of Kunkolienkar in Panaji at the live screening on Monday evening to make his point.

D'Mello said Modi had been shamed by a BJP minister from Goa on day one of his prime ministership.

"This amounts to lowering the dignity of the prime minister by dragging him into Facebook lies. We demand that the cabinet minister should tender a public apology and the chief minister should clean out such rotten apples from his cabinet," D'Mello said.

The comments which accompany the photo on Facebook also appear to indicates that the photo is dated. "I guess this pic was clicked in June last year during the BJP executive meet," says one Sneha Sabnis.

Parulekar was unreachable for comment and his mobile phone was out of coverage area, but sources close to the minister said a wrong photo may have been uploaded.

"Perhaps there was a mistake and a wrong photo went up," one of his staffers said.