Shiv Sena takes up Subhash Velingkar’s cause

Subhash Velingkar, who was sacked as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Goa unit chief, has received support from BJP’s saffron ally Shiv Sena, which said the government had come to power in the state on the back of its election promise to promote regional language, from which it had digressed.

“If he has demanded that instead of giving grants to English medium schools those should be disbursed to schools promoting Konkani and Marathi, what’s wrong in that When (defence minister) Manohar Parrikar was the leader of Opposition, he had demanded the same from the Congress government,” the Sena said in its editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana.

“Mr Parrikar, in fact, with the help of Mr Velingkar had also initiated a movement to press for their demands. However, it (BJP) went back on its words and is now supporting English medium schools. They have broken their promise by giving grants to 141 such schools,” it said.

The Sena said the recent events in Goa was a classic example of attempts to bury the movement to promote local languages and said the state government there was plagued with corruption, adultery and anarchy.

“Is it right to clip the wings of those toiling hard to promote local languages in their own homeland This is an attempt to murder Goa’s culture,” the edit stated.

The Sena further said that the current government would need to answer people during the election, if it has no connivance with the drug mafia that is selling drugs freely on the streets of the state. “The BJP had said that if it came to power, it would put an end to casinos and gambling dens. But their numbers has only increased. The government allows all this to happen but Velingkar was termed a criminal. Not only the Goa CM, but even his remote controller in Delhi needs to answer what crime did he do or what was his fault ” the edit demanded.