NT Reporter
Panaji
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao used a chemical metaphor in the Assembly to question the political shifts of several members.
Alemao referred to the pH test used in chemistry to determine whether a solution is acidic or basic.
“If I was to conduct a pH test of this Assembly today,” Alemao said, “Except here pH means political hierarchy, a large number of members would test positive for something called as the Congress solution.”
Alemao said several former colleagues had moved away from their earlier political positions. He said such shifts represented “political amnesia” rather than migration driven by ideology.
Alemao asked whether these political moves were “driven by gratitude
or by greed”.
He referred to the support and political platform provided earlier by the Congress party.
“A party that laid your foundation, a party that gave you relevance, a party that saw leadership in you,” he said.
Alemao also referred to ideological commitments made earlier.
“You embraced ideology in temples, in churches, in mosques,” he said, adding such decisions were taken “not for ideology, not for principle but for
convenience.”
Alemao said he would continue to remain with the people and his party.
“One day the tide will change,” he said. “When that happens, history will remember who stood firm and who drifted away.”
Alemao also referred to protests and public
issues in the state.
He asked the House, “Is this a democracy that 100-year-old freedom fighter Libia Sardessai was out on the street
against casinos?”
Alemao referred to protests by tribal communities and said they had been striking for weeks to protect their livelihoods.
He also referred to MLA Viresh Borkar and said he had been fasting unto death.
Alemao said the imprisonment of local representatives reflected a situation where there was “more transaction than tradition and more alienation than identity.”
