AAP wants to experiment, ‘use Goa’: Rajnath

UNION HOME Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday chose the southernmost tip of Goa’s Cancolim constituency, a seat from where Aam Aadmi Party’s chief minister candidate Elvis Gomes is contesting, to take a dig at the party’s interest in Goa.

Calling their efforts to form the government “an experiment to use Goa”. Singh said, “You all are intellectuals here. I request you to visit Delhi and find out how AAP is running the government. Delhi is not even a fullfledged state and still they have shown their failure in governing it. Have they now come to Goa as they consider this their laboratory. If they can’t run one government how can they run two governments?”

He also said, “AAP is no longer an Aam Aadmi Party. It’s a Khaas Aadmi Party.”

Singh called demonetisation an effort to “improve the country’s economic dignity among other nations, to gain respect among, reduce corruption and income disparity”. Stating that economists from other nations have “started accepting our efforts and admitting it to be a great move”, he said, “It is only now that the articles have started coming, and I would ask all of you to start picking these new articles.” He did not mention the source of his claim.

On the BJP’S performance, he claimed that the government is responsible for “the fastest growing economy”, a fact that Singh claimed has now “found support among economists across the world”.

He reminded the audience — mostly voters who had voted for the sitting BJP MLA Rajan Naik, that in 2014, when asked to help form a government, Goa gave the party two Lok Sabha seats. “India today is a big name thanks to this government. This fact cannot be taken away from us. For that to happen, there needs synergy between the Centre and the state. I ask you to vote us again in power in this state,” he added.

Singh also said he was “shocked” when he found out that petrol is the cheapest in Goa. “Parrikar has got rid of all duties,” he said.