Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee social media department has sent a copy of the Constitution of India to Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant following a lathi-charge on Congress workers on Wednesday.
“Ever since the BJP government has come to power in Goa, we are constantly seeing a determined move of the administration towards dictatorial practices. Goa has always been a peaceful state where we have been proud of our progressive, secular and democratic values.
People of Goa have always been able to speak up and raise their voices when they’re unhappy about government policies, and the governments of the past have been receptive to such reactions,” said Himanshu Tivrekar, GPCC Social Media in charge.
He said that for the first time ever, under the current BJP regime, people are seeing such rampant misuse of government machinery to curb and crush the voices of the people of Goa.
“Within the last two months itself, there have been two lathi charges against Congress workers while they were peacefully protesting and raising the voice of Goa on issues affecting the people. This brings us to understand that our current CM, Pramod Sawant, has absolutely no knowledge of the Constitution of India and the rights that have been entrusted to us as citizens,” he said.
Tivrekar said CM fails to understand that under Article 19(1) of the Constitution, we have the right to speech and expression and, hence, dissent.
“He also fails to understand that police may use force only in exceptional circumstances and that too upon instructions of the District Magistrate. There was no such written order issued by the DM (District Magistrate) given for the lathi charge yesterday,” he said.
“Such unconstitutional behaviour by the Chief Minister of Goa is highly unprecedented and extremely dangerous.
We have, therefore, sent a pre-Diwali gift to our Chief Minister, Mr Pramod Sawant. A copy of the Constitution of India has been parcelled to him. We urge CM Sawant to read the Constitution from page to page and understand that he is not the king of a dictatorship; instead he is a public servant of democracy,” he said adding he may also learn about the rights of the citizens before he behaves this way again.
“This democracy is very dear to us Goans. Chief Minister Sawant, do not forget that a government is of the people, people, and people. Without us Goan people, there is no Government!,” he said.
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