Chennai: Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Sunday said there was no need for him to apologise to the people of Goa and mocked its Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho, who alleged that Rajan had humiliated Goa at the recent GST Council Meeting held virtually.
Insisting that he had only backed Goa’s rights at the 43rd GST Council meet, Rajan in a ‘Statement to the People of Goa’ released on Twitter, said: “I also charge the Chief Minister of Goa with perpetrating a misdemeanor on Goa’s citizens, and the GST Council, by nominating him [Godinho] to represent your beautiful state. Finally, I sincerely request the BJP, even across the political divide, to impose some minimal quality control on its ‘MLA Acquisition’ procedures. If it had done so, Goa, and the nation would be saved a lot of pain.”
Godinho had alleged that Mr Rajan had at the GST Council meeting asked him to “shut up” after he cast his “vote”. According to him, Rajan’s contention was that “since he comes from a big state, he should have a bigger vote”.
Rajan caustically said, Godinho’s statements at the meeting “were highly repetitive, largely vacuous, hectoring, mostly redundant to others’ inputs, supercilious” and with inputs from the Minister from Uttar Pradesh.
The Tamil Nadu Minister alleged that Godinho was vociferously and repeatedly against lowering the GST on COVID-related drugs and vaccines from 5% to 0% on humanitarian grounds.
“In any event, I have no need to apologise to the people of Goa, for I have done you no harm. I have strongly advocated for your State Government’s rights. I do not require or expect any thanks for that, as my position was dictated by my principles of strengthening States’ rights and federalism with enhanced devolution,” he said.
