BJP objects to presence of wife of Oscar Fernandes at official meeting

BJP objects to presence of wife of Oscar Fernandes at official meeting

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, July 11,2017: K. Udayakumar Shetty, member of the BJP State Executive Committee, said on Monday that two incidents which had taken place here recently showed that Congress had double standards in the way it treated people.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Shetty said that in the first incident, some Congress councillors in the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) had abused and manhandled a person of a minority community, Ronnie D’Mello, during the Council meeting on June 29. This incident was a blot on the district. He demanded legal action against them.

In the other incident, at an official meeting on integrated development of Udupi district held at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office here on July 4, Blossom Fernandes, wife of the Rajya Sabha member, Oscar Fernandes, was sitting in it. While Mr. Fernandes could participate in the meeting as MP, his wife, as a private citizen, could not.

This was a violation of protocol. The district administration and the Congress should explain how this violation of protocol was allowed. Mr. Shetty released a photograph showing Ms. Fernandes participating in the meeting. “Both these incidents show how the Congress treats an ordinary citizen and how it treats a MP’s wife,” he said.

Besides, Mr. Fernandes was the MP from Udupi Lok Sabha constituency five times and then Rajya Sabha member for four times.

He was also a Union Minister. But his contribution to the development of Udupi parliamentary constituency and the district was a big “zero”. “In contrast to Mr. Fernandes, the former Union Minister and senior Congress leader B. Janardhan Poojary had at least held ‘Loan Melas’ for the people,” he said.

Mr. Shetty said that Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, had inaugurated 29 houses built for poor families at Kodankur with funds made available by the Department of Social Welfare, here on July 9. This was a good measure.

But this layout of 29 houses had been named as ‘Pramod Madhwaraj Badavane”. Is it right to name a layout constructed with funds from the Union and State governments after a serving Minister? It could have been named after any person who had contributed to social or the other fields, he said.

Rajendra Kumar, Rikesh Palan, Vijay Bhat, BJP leader, were present.