Parrikar disinterested in his Defence Minister job: Pilot

Congress leader Sachin Pilot today accused Manohar Parrikar of being "disinterested" in his job as the Defence Minister and said it ill-behoves a person entrusted with such a crucial post.
"As a Defence Minister his performance has been questionable. I don't think in the past there has been any Defence Minister who has been so disinterested in his job. It is one of the top jobs in the government," Pilot told reporters here.
"I don't think he (Parrikar) has really lived up to the stature of the Defence Minister," he said.
The former Union Minister is in Goa to participate in the Congress' election rallies.

Stating that BJP was fooling people on the issue of One Rank One Pension (OROP), Pilot questioned why are former jawans are still sitting and protesting at jantar mantar (in Delhi) if all their demands are fulfilled ?
"There has been actually a betrayal of trust of jawans. Lot of ex-servicemen supported BJP. Two and half years later, they are still negotiating by relasing few hundred crores. That does not satisfy the demand of OROP. The fallacy that they have sold, Parrikar is a party to that. That is a big lie of the BJP that needs to be exposed," he said.

Referring to the recent remarks by Nitin Gadkari that the next CM can be sent from the Centre, Pilot said "we talk about Super CM and super-super CM, we don't know how many layers there are. Gadkari has come and given a new twist to the story...They might as well be frank, and say so and so would be the CM face."

Pilot also alleged that the BJP was largely using money power to win Goa Legislative assembly elections.
"Since BJP is ruling in the state and Centre there has been large misuse of money during the electioneering process. The kind of money power BJP is using has not happened in Goa elections in the past. I want the Election Commission to take note of it. The misuse of government machinery is also happening specially in Goa," he said.

Pilot assured that Congress' manifesto for Goa would be implemented in toto.
"Once we form the government, the manifesto would be givne to the Chief Secretary and government's agenda would be the manifesto," he said.
"The upcoming State Legislative Assembly election is very
important considering that the BJP which was ruling in the state for last five years and in Centre since 2014 have done major U-turns on issues. The promises on mining and casinos are amongst several issues where the government has done U-turns completely disappointing the people of Goa," he said.
"The promises made in the Congress manifesto are realistic in nature. I believe BJP government in Goa is one where chief minister is not himself the power of the Goa government," Pilot added.

Polls to the 40-member Goa House would be held on February 4.