BJP backs Kamat on ‘Modi best friend’ comment

PANAJI - While the Goa state Congress Friday said it was up to the Congress high command to act against Chief Minister Digambar Kamat for publicly calling Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi his “best friend”, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to Kamat’s rescue.

State BJP media in-charge Govind Parvatkar ridiculed the Congress for putting “an embargo on friendship” and backed Kamat for his public admission of friendship with the Gujarat chief minister, considered as an arch rival of the Congress.

“If a criminal is a friend, one can have an objection; but if a good man is a friend there cannot be any restriction on it,” Parvatkar said.

“In the Congress, everything, including friendship, is politics. For them even going to Amitabh’s (Bachchan) function is a matter of politics,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Subhash Shirodkar laughed when asked to formally react to Kamat’s public admission of friendship with Modi Thursday.

“You only ask him (Kamat) about it. What can I say?” Shirodkar said, laughing.

When pressed if the state’s ruling Congress was considering any action against Kamat for his statement, Shirodkar said: “It is up to the Congress high command to act. They will have to ask him.”

Kamat called Narendra Modi his “best friend” while reacting to a question from the media during a press conference at his official residence.

“If they (Gujarat government) have invited, I will go. Modi is my best friend,” Kamat said when asked if he would visit Gujarat for the BJP-ruled state’s golden jubilee celebrations May 1.

Kamat also said that Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Modi were amongst his best pals.

“When I am in Delhi for any conference, I have Sheila Dikshit on my one side and Narendra Modi on the other,” said Kamat, who was formerly a minister in a BJP-led coalition government in Goa and later walked over to the Congress.