Team Goemkarponn
SHIRGAO: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sharply criticised South Goa MP Viriato Fernandes for participating in a felicitation ceremony at the Shri Lairai temple in Shirgao, even as the state continues to mourn the deaths of devotees in last week’s stampede during the annual zatra.
BJP spokesperson Giriraj Pai Vernekar took to social media to question the Congress MP’s actions, calling the felicitation “shameless” and inappropriate in light of the tragedy.
“While Goa mourns the tragic loss of lives in the stampede at Devi Lairai Zatra in Shirgaon, @ViriatoFern shamelessly gets himself felicitated. For what, exactly?” Vernekar said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “This man has reduced the dignity of being a public representative to a joke.”
Vernekar also accused the Congress of double standards, pointing out that just a day earlier, Congress state in-charge Manikrao Thakre had blamed the temple committee for the mishap. “And today, their South Goa MP is happily getting honoured by the same. Such brazen hypocrisy is the hallmark of Congress,” he added.
Congress leaders, including GPCC President Amit Patkar and Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, have yet to respond to the BJP’s remarks.
