By IANS,
Panaji:Inviting Rahul Gandhi to deliver a midnight address in the state assembly on the 50th anniversary of Goa’s liberation from the Portuguese rule was just a “casual remark” by a Congress leader, the party’s state unit president said Thursday.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Jagmeet Singh Brar had said in October that the party had short-listed the names of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to deliver the address on the intervening night of Dec 18 and 19.
“It was just a casual remark. It is up to the chief minister (Digambar Kamat) and our legislators to decide who will deliver the address,” Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Subhash Shirodkar told reporters here Thursday.
Brar’s comments had stirred a controversy in Goa, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claiming that the Congress was trying to foist the 41-year-old Gandhi scion on Goa.
“Rahul Gandhi was not even born when Goa was liberated from 450 years of Portuguese rule. He is just like any of the 700 odd MPs in parliament,” BJP spokesperson Govind Parvatkar had said.
The BJP has already announced a boycott of the midnight session because its legislators were not consulted on the session.
Goa was liberated from the Portuguese rule Dec 19, 1961, after the Indian Army marched into the state.