Parrikar takes swipe at media over lack of knowledge

Stating that many journalists are inadequately trained and not even knowledgeable, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday took a swipe at journalists and the media and blamed newspapers for stoking differences between BJP and RSS.

Speaking during the inauguration of a centre for business incubation at Assagao village, 25 km from here, Parrikar said: "Even the media people are not trained properly. Many times when they question us, they do not have enough knowledge about the subject."

Parrikar, a former Goa chief minister, suggested that such a lack of training and knowledge resulted in wrong information being spread in the state about the Defence Expo 2016, which concluded in Goa last month.

Later, Parrikar during the foundation laying ceremony of a new bridge being constructed across the Rua de Ourem creek in the state capital, blamed a section of the media for trying to stoke divisive fires.

He blamed mediapersons for trying to create fissures between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Goa over the choice of the medium of instruction to be used in primary schools, which has been simmering for the last few years.

The RSS has been backing regional languages Konkani and Marathi as the medium of instruction in the state's primary schools, and accused the BJP-led coalition government of supporting English as the medium of instruction (MoI).

"I am witnessing a funny practice. There is one English newspaper, which says MoI (in primary schools) should be in English. And its Marathi paper (the Marathi edition of the same newspaper) says it should be in Marathi and Konkani.

"So basically they are trying to start a fight between the Sangh and the BJP. Both papers are owned by the same owner," Parrikar said.

"The Marathi (paper) takes one position, while the English newspaper has the exact opposite position. In reality, the (medium of instruction) issue was started by the newspaper's English edition. Now, the Marathi paper is going in the opposite direction. They are trying to stoke the temperatures to light a fire," Parrikar said.