BJP president Amit Shah arrives at Dabolim airport in Goa on Saturday. (Source: PTI Photo) BJP president Amit Shah arrives at Dabolim airport in Goa on Saturday. (Source: PTI Photo)

Hours after BJP President Amit Shah addressed a public meeting at the Goa airport complex on Saturday, the state Congress termed the move as “gross abuse of power”. Goa Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar was also present at the public meeting along with other BJP leaders.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Girish Chodankar said in a statement, “We strongly condemn the act of the BJP holding a meeting at the Goa airport complex which was addressed by their president Amit Shah in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.”

Chodankar said that the BJP did not set the right example of good governance by holding the meeting at the airport complex. He asked that the officials at the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to investigate those who issued clearances for the meeting.

The BJP President, who is on a two-day visit to Goa, received a warm welcome outside the airport where he addressed the party workers. Replying to a question on lynching, Shah told The Indian Express: “I do not want to compare and undermine the current incidents of lynching…. I am also serious. (But) there have been more lynchings in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Humaare teen saal main jitne lynching hue hain usse zyada hue hain ek ek saal main. Magar kabhi yeh sawaal nahi uttha thha (There have been more incidents of lynching in each of these years than in NDA’s three years.)”

To a question on the “growing apprehension” across the country over the government’s apparent lack of effective action against the perpetrators of lynching, Shah asked, “Do you know of any such incident where arrests have not been made? I do not have any answer to ‘apprehension’…. There is no apprehension anywhere in the country.”

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