Opposition slams Shah over communalism, special status for Goa

A day after BJP national president Amit Shah visited Goa, the opposition parties here on Friday criticised him for not commenting on the rising "communalism" in the country.

The opposition -- Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) -- also slammed the BJP for virtually closing the door on the possibility of Goa being conferred special status.

Both the parties said the BJP had failed as a ruling party in the state and at the Centre and it had no right to tom-tom its achievements for one year "when there were none".

"The BJP's communal politics has already been on stark display through the inflammatory words and controversial campaigns of its leaders, but sadly we have only seen lip service by the PM Mr. Modi against such rabble-rousers some of whom are his own MPs," AAP Goa spokesperson Oscar Rebello told newsmen.

Shah, he said, also failed to explain why the BJP had failed to deliver on its promises made in the manifestos for the state assembly election in 2012 and the general election in 2014.

"What is worse though is that the radical Sangh Parivar ideologies are slowly but surely percolating into official government policies that are hypocritical at best and insidious and dangerous at worst," Rebello said.

Speaking to reporters at the Congress state headquarters here, Congress spokesperson and former union minister of state for law Ramakant Khalap said Shah's virtual dismissal of Goa's demand for special status was a brutal U-turn by the party, which had made a pre-poll commitment.

"This is the end of the road as far as special status is concerned vis-a-vis the BJP," Khalap said.

For the last few years, the demand for Special Status to Goa has been doing the rounds in the political and social circles in the state, which has been facing challenges stemming from rapid in-migration, shrinking land resources and a resultant dilution of identity.

The Goa legislative assembly had also passed a unanimous resolution demanding special status from the union government in 2013.

The issue had found mention in the manifestos of the Congress as well as the BJP before the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

While BJP leaders now dither over the issue, Shah during his media interaction on Thursday had said: "I have not said it is possible for Goa to get special status... We have sympathy to all the states which are demanding special status and the government will form a policy for these states."