Modi skips comment on Parrikar's possible Goa return

While praising BJP leader Manohar Parrikar for being a strong Defence Minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday avoided commenting on his possible return to state politics.

Parrikar, the former Goa chief minister, was elevated to the central government as Defence Minister in 2014, but in the recent past Union minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari as well as BJP president Amit Shah during the poll speeches in Goa, have hinted at the possible return of Parrikar to the state politics after the February 4, state assembly polls.

Modi, during his poll rally in Panaji skipped the issue altogether and praised Parrikar as a strong Defence Minister, in the context of the surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in September in the wake of a Pakistani attack on the Uri military station.

"I thank Goa for giving a strong Defence Minister. The whole world is discussing surgical strikes. People are still studying how it happened. How did your jawans reach there," Modi said it was being asked.

--IANS

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