Team Goemkarponn
FATORDA: Goa Forward Party President and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai has launched a scathing attack on the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, accusing him of acting in a blatantly partisan manner and compromising the neutrality of the Speaker’s office, after his reported participation in a BJP Legislative Party meeting held in a hotel to strategize for the upcoming Assembly session.
“Yesterday, when the Speaker emerged from the BJP core committee meeting and was asked about him becoming a minister, he replied that ‘there will be news’. Today, he attended the BJP Legislative Party meeting. What are people supposed to conclude from this?” questioned Sardesai, speaking to reporters during his weekly Janta Darbar at Goemkar Ghor in Fatorda.
According to Sardesai, teams have been formed under various ministers to manage the forthcoming session, and the Speaker’s attendance at such a politically charged meeting raises serious concerns about his impartiality.
The opposition leader also raised alarm over what he called the unfair and undemocratic manipulation of Assembly procedures, including the new system of distributing starred questions, which he said has been altered to favor ruling party MLAs while sidelining the opposition.
“If the Speaker, who is constitutionally bound to remain neutral, is now seen functioning like a puppet of the BJP, how will democracy survive? If this is not an undeclared Emergency, what is it?” Sardesai thundered.
Taking a sharp jibe at the ruling party, he said, “The BJP has included the Emergency as a black chapter in school textbooks. But what is this chapter unfolding in Goa? The people of Goa are witnessing another dark period – this time, authored by the BJP, with the Speaker himself playing a complicit role.”
Sardesai warned that such actions not only erode public trust but also strike at the very heart of democratic functioning. “This is a black chapter in Goa’s political history, and the BJP must be held accountable. When the Speaker becomes a political tool, that’s when democracy dies,” he concluded.
