New Delhi: Opposition parties on Wednesday demanded that Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant be sacked after former governor Satya Pal Malik accused the state government of corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Congress demanded a time-bound investigation under the supervision of a sitting Supreme Court judge into the charges and filing of a case against Sawant by various Central agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).
Senior Congress leaders said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should answer why no action was initiated against the chief minister when Malik, who was the governor of Goa between October 2019 and August 2020, had informed him about the “corruption” by the state government. This is the latest in a series of allegations that Malik has made that will sting the Union government and the BJP.
Goa will have assembly elections early next year.
“There was corruption in everything the Goa government did (during the COVID-19 pandemic). I was removed for my allegation of corruption against the Goa government,” Malik, who is now the governor of Meghalaya, alleged in a TV interview.
A delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders led by Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy and including former Union minister Babul Supriyo and the party’s vice president Luizinho Faleiro met governor P.S. Sridharan Pillai and requested him to immediately seek the resignation of Sawant and announce investigation by an independent agency.
The TMC also demanded a white paper on the government purchases and expenditures during the pandemic.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded the resignation of Sawant while the Goa Forward Party demanded that he be sacked.
While Sawant has not yet commented on the claims made by Malik, which has provided ammunition to opposition parties ahead of the assembly election, the BJP has dismissed the allegations. After Malik’s interview aired, Goa BJP chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade had said that the allegations were false and baseless, and they would be complaining to the Union government against him.
Malik had also termed the Goa government’s initiative to deliver ration to people’s doorsteps as “impractical”, alleging that it was launched on the “insistence of a company that paid money to the government.”
In Delhi, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and AICC Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundurao demanded that the BJP dismiss Pramod Sawant from the post.
They said Malik’s claims corroborate what the Congress has been saying, that the Goa government was corrupt in its handling of COVID-19.
Malik had told Prime Minister Modi about the corruption, but no action was initiated, Surjewala claimed, adding that instead, Malik was transferred from Goa to Meghalaya.
Surjewala said that in a TV interview, Malik had made a “shocking revelation” that, on the day when the lockdown was announced, the Goa government had not allowed stores selling basic essentials to open but allowed one company to sell them door to door as it had “given money” to the Goa government.
Malik has further alleged that the Goa government had allowed mining trucks to illegally operate during the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in the spread of COVID-19, Surjewala said.
AICC Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundurao alleged that the prime minister was “directly protecting” corrupt people by not acting even after the then governor told him about the corruption that was happening.
Surjewala and Gundurao demanded that the Modi government act and immediately dismiss the chief minister and the entire council of ministers of the Goa government who were directly, indirectly “involved in such massive corruption”, and that too in the middle of the pandemic.
Various Central agencies such as the ED, CBI and SFIO should be directed to file a case against the Goa chief minister and all others involved in corruption, they said.
AAP leader Raghav Chaddha, speaking at a press conference in Delhi, demanded that Sawant resign immediately and sought an independent judicial probe. The AAP also held a protest march in Panaji, led by its state convener Rahul Mahambrey.
A delegation of the Goa Forward Party, led by Vijai Sardesai, also met the governor demanding the sacking of the chief minister.
Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte said the CM should be sacked and President’s rule be imposed in the state.
Over the past few months, Malik has repeatedly made statements that are unlikely to sit well with the Union government and the BJP. He has on several occasions supported the farmers’ protest, saying recently that if their demands are not resolved, the BJP will not return to power in Uttar Pradesh, which is also scheduled to go to the polls early next year. He claimed that he had quarrelled with Prime Minister Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and several other leaders, telling them that the way they are dealing with the farmers’ protest is wrong.
Malik, who is a former Jammu and Kashmir governor, claimed that he had been offered a bribe of Rs 300 crore to clear two files, one related to ‘Ambani’ and another to an RSS-linked individual, believed to be Ram Madhav. He claimed that he did not clear the files, but his charge nevertheless gave opposition parties an opportunity to attack the Union government.
(With PTI)