Panaji: BJP state president Damodar Naik on Tuesday tried to downplay BJP national president’s statement raising the issue of the Rs 35,000 crore mining scam at the karyakarta meeting on Saturday by terming it a “slip of the tongue”.BJP national president Nitin Nabin on Saturday sounded the poll bugle in Goa to win the 2027 elections, urging party karyakartas to raise the Rs 35,000 crore mining scam by Congress govt.However, then-Congress chief minister Digambar Kamat is now the PWD minister in BJP govt and shared the same dais at the karyakarta meeting. Even most of the ministers in the current BJP-led coalition govt are those who were ministers in Kamat’s govt between 2007 and 2012.During the last 13 years of BJP govt, the special investigation team (SIT) tasked with probing the mining cases failed to bring its investigation to a logical conclusion.Naik said the national president has his own team who gives inputs to prepare his speech. “Sometimes we make mistakes while speaking. A slip of the tongue happens. In this case, it happened,” Naik said.The BJP state president said everyone knows the allegation and, what the last figures of the mining scam were. “These are looked at by different agencies. I am not a part of the govt,” Naik said.He said when he speaks on behalf of the party, it would be within the limits of the party. On how misinformation reached the national president, the state president said, “He is not aware of it.”
