PANAJI: Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant and his office did not respond to former governor Satya Pal Malik’s comments on corruption in his regime but the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mounted a sharp counterattack at Malik, accusing him of crossing a line of “ethics and propriety”.

Sawant, who was speaking to reporters outside the BJP office about the party’s preparations for Goa elections next year, was also asked by reporters about Malik’s allegations but he abruptly walked away without responding. His office didn’t respond to requests for a reaction either. That task was assigned to the party’s spokesperson Damodar “Damu” Naik who reminded that his “own government” was in power in the state, wondered why he didn’t send a report to the Union home ministry when he was still the state’s governor and questioned Malik’s motives.

Naik said Malik should step down from his constitutional post if he wants to criticise “his own government”.

“It is completely wrong for the governor to speak this way. There is ethics and propriety. He should behave within the limits of ethics and propriety. Did he act on it (corruption charge) when he was the governor? To speak about it now and to speak to the media while still being a governor is completely wrong and unconstitutional. He should have sent a report to the Union home ministry back then and then the senior leaders would have taken it forward,” Naik said.

“Why is he talking about it now… after so many months (of being moved on from the post of Goa governor) and that too when only one month is left for elections? Who is behind this?” Naik asked.

“Don’t sit in a constitutional post and speak against your own government. Resign from your post and then speak,” he said.

Naik said that Sawant was an ‘honest man’.

“An honest man is managing the affairs of the state and has taken the responsibility given to him. He even got praise from the Prime Minister (at a recently held interaction),” Naik said.

“Was his (Malik’s) mouth taped back then (when Satya Pal Malik was Goa governor)? He should not step across the line,” Naik said.

Naik also hit out at opposition parties who have latched onto Malik’s statements saying they had no moral right to lecture the BJP about corruption.

“These parties have no authority to talk about corruption when they themselves are steeped in corruption. The Goa Forward Party was removed from the alliance on grounds of corruption. These are publicity stunts. They are attempting to create a negative1 atmosphere ahead of the polls,” he added.

In an interview with India Today TV that was broadcast on Monday, Satya Pal Malik who spent a little under a year as Goa governor between October 2019 and August 2020 before being shunted to Meghalaya, said: “I am a Lohia-ite. I get very angry when it comes to corruption. I do not take it kindly. On the day when the lockdown was announced, the government said that even the stores selling basic essentials would not be allowed to open but said they would sell door to door. Which was impossible, but they allowed one company to sell basic essentials door to door which had given money to the Goa government, when people from Congress told me about it, I informed PM Modiji ,” Malik said.

“There was corruption in the Goa government in handling everything… because of that I was sent away from there,” he added.