Row over railway official's 'Portuguese-Goan' remark

A controversy has erupted over a senior railway official's "Portuguese-Goans" remarks while addressing a delegation led by a Goa BJP MLA.

As the MLA Alina Saldanha took objection to the remarks, South Western Railway (SWR) General Manager Ajay Kumar Singh withdrew them.

"India has houses that are 5,000 years old. Goans were the invading force who came about 500 years back. When you all came, you also must have destroyed houses here...By you I meant Portuguese," Singh told a delegation led by Saldanha in South Goa on Sunday.

The delegation had gone to meet the SWR GM against double-tracking of a railway line.

After Singh's remarks were aired by some local news channels on Sunday and the MLA raised a strong objection, he withdrew them.

Saldanha said, "We are not Portuguese, we are Indians. There's no doubt that we were under the Portuguese rule for several years and we got liberated".

The Cortalim MLA further said she would raise the issue (utterances of Singh) in the Goa Legislative Assembly, and will also bring it to the notice of Railways Minister.

Condemning the GM's statement, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar on Monday said the utterances reflect the "hatred that is being spread by the BJP towards other communities".

"It reflects the mindset of the Central government and the hatred that is even percolated to the government officers. The ideology of RSS has been hammered into their minds," he said.

Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Goa spokesman Pradeep Padgaonkar said if the BJP-led state government cannot rein in Central officials and allow them to insult Goans, "then time has come for it to commit suicide".

AAP convenor Elvis Gomes has demanded dismissal of Singh, and questioning whether the NRC (National Register of Citizens) had already started in Goa.