The slum demolition issue may end up into a full blown Goa vs Karnataka war of words as the Goa BJP leaders, on Friday, demanded Karnataka Cabinet Minister RV Deshpande’s arrest for his statement on Goan citizens and issuing a ‘polite’ warning to him.
“He should be arrested immediately and externed for making such statements,” BJP spokesperson Damodar Naik told reporters at a Press conference at the BJP State headquarters on Friday.
“We have asked the Goa Government to take strongest possible action... If the inflammatory statements continue we will retaliate,” Naik added. Karnataka’s Higher Education Minister RV Deshpande had called on Goa Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar over demolition of illegal shanties in Baina, some of them housing Kannadigas, near the port town of Vasco da Gama. Addressing mediapersons, the Minister issued a subtle threat referring to Goans working in Bengaluru’s IT industry.
“Your 15,000 to 20,000 young Goans are working as IT professionals in Bengaluru... Don’t ask any irresponsible questions,” he said on Thursday. When asked by the media about emerging differences between Karnataka and Goa, first over the alleged diversion of the Mhadei River water and now over the demolition of shanties, Naik claimed that Deshpande should know that there are many Kanndigas who had made Goa their home and were living peacefully. “Do not misunderstand my statement, but there are many of them (Kannadigas) living in Goa in their own homes and working in the private and Government sectors,” Naik said.
The Goa Chief Minister has already expressed shock at Deshpande’s statement. “Our people, whether they are in Bengaluru, Pune or Mumbai, have not encroached there, like (the encroachments) in Goa. They are well settled,” Parsekar had said, adding that politicians should desist from making inflammatory speeches.
“Even those people living in the slums are not from Karnataka alone. They are from Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra, Chhattisgarh, but the law of the land applies to everyone,” Parsekar had said.