Panaji, October 6: Goa Forward Party president and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai has launched a sharp attack on the Goa government over the “Silver Jubilee” celebrations of the Goa Legislative Assembly Complex, questioning why the 25th anniversary is being celebrated in October 2026 when the building completed 25 years in March 2025.

In a strongly worded three-page letter to Speaker Ganesh Gaonkar, Sardesai registered his “strongest protest” against the celebrations scheduled from October 6 to 9 and announced that he would boycott the function and refuse the felicitation proposed for him.

“The Assembly Complex completed 25 years in March 2025. Yet the Government has chosen October 2026, when the building is already in its 27th year, to hold a so-called Silver Jubilee,” Sardesai stated.

He pointed out that the foundation stone of the new Assembly Complex at Porvorim was laid on January 22, 1994 by then President Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, while the completed complex was formally inaugurated on March 5, 2000 by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The first session in the new building also began in March 2000.

Sardesai alleged that the government was effectively “rewriting the history” of the Assembly Complex to manufacture a Silver Jubilee in 2026, despite the actual milestone having passed in 2025.

Questions alleged Rs 5 crore expenditure

The Fatorda MLA also raised questions over what he described as an alleged expenditure of around Rs 5 crore on the celebrations.

He demanded disclosure of the complete expenditure, including administrative sanction, estimates, tender process, successful bid, payments and all associated costs. He further called for independent scrutiny of any possibility of inflated expenditure or siphoning of public funds.

Sardesai argued that such spending was particularly questionable when Goa was facing unemployment, agrarian distress, economic uncertainty, rising debt and serious shortcomings in basic infrastructure.

‘Celebrating the building, weakening the institution’

Going beyond the anniversary controversy, Sardesai accused the government of celebrating the Assembly building while weakening the democratic institution functioning inside it.

He alleged that Assembly sessions had been curtailed, Opposition voices suppressed, Bills pushed through without adequate time for scrutiny and debate, and the role of the Opposition and legislative committees repeatedly reduced.

“The Assembly is not a monument to be decorated and celebrated. It is the institutional embodiment of the people’s sovereignty,” Sardesai said, asking what purpose was served by celebrating the building if the democratic functioning of the House itself was being weakened.

Calling the proposed celebration “a display of arrogance”, Sardesai said he would neither attend the function nor accept the felicitation.

His refusal, he stressed, was not an act of disrespect towards the Assembly. Rather, he said, it was precisely because he respected the institution that he could not associate himself with an event which, according to him, rewrites its history and diverts public money when Goa has more urgent priorities.

Sardesai said that if the government genuinely wanted to honour the Goa Legislative Assembly, it should strengthen legislative scrutiny, restore meaningful debate, preserve the Assembly’s historical records and ensure elected representatives get adequate opportunity to speak for the people of Goa.