Goa Congress complains to PM about Parrikar birthday bash

Panaji: The controversy surrounding Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's mega birthday bash reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi's door, with the Congress appealing to him to intervene and stop the celebrations, in light of lives lost due to the Chennai floods.

A delegation of party's Goa leaders, led by general secretary Sunil Kawthankar, on Tuesday travelled to New Delhi and handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister's Office.

"At a time when there is a high alert along the LoC and the country stands in solemn solidarity with the families of Chennai flood victims and those whose lives are wrecked because of the deluge, it is unfortunate that Parrikar and the BJP's Goa unit decides to organise this mega birthday bash," Kawthankar said in the memorandum.

"We have also said that it was unfortunate that we had to knock on the PM's door. But we had to take the step because the Goa BJP unit has stubbornly decided to go ahead with the birthday celebrations, inspite of our protests," Kawthankar told IANS over the phone.

"Modiji has been preaching about the importance of simplicity in life. This mega birthday celebration, especially at a time when the nation is grieving for Chennai and our soldiers like Colonel Santosh Mahadik are dying is just so wrong and not in sync with the Prime Minister's publicly stated principles," he said.

Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have claimed that nearly 50,000 guests are expected to attend the 60th birthday celebrations of Parrikar, a former Goa chief minister, here on December 13.

The Congress has alleged that nearly Rs.15-20 crore are expected to be spent by the BJP for the celebrations, while the BJP has insisted that the cost for the celebration is negligible.