Illness of Manohar Parrikar and Sonia Gandhi are not comparable: Congress

Congress National Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala Saturday in Goa’s capital, Panaji said that illness of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi are not comparable.

Elaborating his statement he said that Parrikar is a chief minister of a Goa, Sonia Gandhi was neither a Prime Minister nor was she holding a cabinet post when she suffered from illness.

“Sonia Gandhi was neither the Prime Minister of India nor was a minister in the cabinet holding a cabinet post (when the illness occurred),” Surjewala quoted by news agency IANS as saying.

Alleging illness chief minister, he said that Parrikar knows a “whole lot of things” about the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal.

“He (Parrikar) had refused to endorse the completely conspiratorial decision to enrich Dassault Aviation at the cost of state exchequer,” he said, adding “Now that the facts are out in the open, questions should be asked to Parrikar and Narendra Modi.”

“I can have five ailments. I have for example high blood pressure and I take medicine for it, but I had not disclosed it till today, till you asked me. That does not mean that I have to describe every problem that I have in the public domain. It is only when you are holding a position of power and a position of power as the head of the state (that one ought to reveal the nature of illness),” Surjewala told IANS.

Goa Chief Minister is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer and has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and Delhi for nearly nine months. He came back from New Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS on October 14 and has not moved out of his private residence for any official event since.

The Congress has been demanding the resignation of Parrikar as the Chief Minister on account of his ill health.

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