Panaji: Daring the Congress-led government
to prove involvement of their leaders in the drug trade,
Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday conceded that drug menace did
exist even when they ruled over Goa for five years but it was
never supported by the police.
"We never said that the drugs menace was not there during
our tenure. We never denied that there were no drugs in Goa,"
BJP Goa unit spokesman Rajendra Arlekar told reporters today.
He said that even though the problem of drugs was there,
stern action against the culprits was taken unlike the current
Home Ministry which has shut its eyes towards the menace.
The party spokesman was reacting to the statement by Home
Minister Ravi Naik yesterday alleging that the then Chief
Minister Manohar Parrikar supported drug peddlers and drug
menace prevailed even in the BJP rule.
BJP ruled Goa from October 24, 2000 to February 02, 2005
before being toppled by few legislators on the floor of the
house.
"If they have any evidence against Parrikar than why
don’t they arrest him?, he questioned.
Arlekar said that the Home Minister was making
irresponsible media statements after being caught in the muck
in the drugs nexus case.
"He is not competent to be the Home Minister. We
reiterate our demand that he should step down," the BJP leader
said adding the Goa government should come clean on the drugs
issue.
"They should also clarify about Home Minister and his
son, Roy Naik’s involvement in the nexus," Arlekar said.
Naik has run into controversy after Swedish model
Lucky Farmhouse, former girlfriend of Israeli drug lord Yaniv
Benaim alias Atala, stated that his son, Roy Naik, was
frequenting to their place.
The Home Minister on Saturday had flatly refused his
son’s involvement in the drug trade and said that there was
one Roy Fernandes, involved in drug trade, who was being
mistaken for his son.
PTI
