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Goa CM blames Gujarat violence on bad governance

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party, has said that bad governance is the cause of the communal violence in Gujarat. "Good governance by my government in Goa could be adopted as a model by all states in the country that are hit by group violence," the IIT engineer-turned-politician said.

Parrikar, a strong supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was trying to counter the opposition Congress, which is making the Gujarat violence a primary issue in the election campaign in this tiny West Coast state, which is scheduled to vote for a new assembly on May 30.

Parrikar said violence in any part of the world erupts because of frustration among the people, which is an offshoot of bad governance. Asked if the violence in Gujarat was a reflection of similar bad governance by the government there, Parrikar said it could not be denied that youth in the state were frustrated on account of rampant unemployment.

He also cited Chhattisgarh, Assam and neighbouring Maharashtra as examples of bad governance and even predicted that Maharashtra could be in for trouble on account of the state government's decision to halve the number of its employees.

Other examples he pointed out were the Naxalite violence in Andhra Pradesh and the dalit-upper caste violence in Bihar, which have claimed thousands of lives over the years.

According to Parrikar, violence can be kept in check only with good governance and by tackling nepotism and corruption. "I have succeeded in this and thus Goa is peaceful," he claimed.

He said the Congress has no moral right to make a hue and cry over Gujarat because thousands of people had been killed in Punjab and Delhi and Congress politicians had been found to have been involved in provoking the violence.

He also recalled the violence in Goa in 1984 against non-Goans and the riots in 1987 on account of the official language controversy that paralysed the state for more than a fortnight during the peak tourist season.

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