Transport Minister of Goa Mauvin Godinho, on Monday (1 June) said that Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan needs to gain more knowledge on how the GST Council works.
He called Thiagarajan an ’empty vessel’ and responded to the statement issued by Thiagarajan saying, “Again I am reiterating that I did not say anything offensive to this gentleman. All I was pleading for is for my small State of Goa, and if by his own statement, he is trying to strike at the very architecture of the GST council, where if you are a larger State, with the larger population, his vote should have more value, that there should be proportional representation. What is he talking about?”.
“On the one side, he also talks about his budget, his Rs 3 lakh crore budget, his population of more than 8 crore citizens. Why is he boasting about the size of the State? Does any council or anybody function on that number of people living in the particular country or State or based on its population size and or for that matter even the budget, which is even worse that he is suggesting,” Godinho added.
Godinho further said, “Such a learned person… I am not able to understand. He is using such intemperate language and is trying to redefine the whole constitutionally constituted GST council! He has just come, perhaps he had a long break of more than ten years, being in the opposition and then come back he is not able to digest power so quickly,”.
Godinho added thanked the support he received from Thiagarajan’s fellow Tamilians who have been tweeting in the former’s favour.
“He should realise that the entire Tamil Nadu is not with him, he may be in the ruling party, he should realise that in a political set up, in a democracy, even one vote is a majority, even if you get one vote more than anybody elected, that is a majority, and that is how democracy functions,” Godinho stated
Godinho also said he will treat this chapter as closed but added that if Thiagarajan wished to push any further it would be at his own peril as he would be the one landing in trouble. He called on the MIT educated Minister to work together for the country and to ensure the GST Council functions in a healthy manner.
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