Panaji: Minister for public works department, Ramkrishna Dhavalikar, who returned last week after an official visit to Portugal, on Monday said he had been misquoted in January 2017 as having asked Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa to apologise for destruction carried out by colonial Portugal in Goa. This misquoted statement cost his party the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) seven seats at the 2017 assembly elections he said. Dhavalikar his comments were also wrongly intepreted in 2014, when he was quoted as saying wearing bikinis on beaches should be banned.“With the Portuguese prime minister comment, the same thing was done as to my comment in bikinis. What I had said about bikinis is that people should not go in bikinis in public places, temples, churches. This is what I had said. It was made into another issue. In fact, I had said I will go and felicitate him (Costa) if needed. I said I am proud that he is our son of the soil,” Dhavalikar said. The comments attributed to Dhavalikar about Costa were reported just days before the Portuguese PM of Goan origin visited Goa.Dhavalikar implied that the controversy over Costa was created to time it with the elections.“It was around election time and it was made into a drama. I suffered losses in the election too because of this. We lost Ponda seat only because of this issue. This unwanted drama was done, like bikini drama. I had clearly said they should not go to temples or churches dressed like that. It is not our culture. Every house in Goa will agree with it. Let them do what they want in private space. But it was taken in some other way. It was exactly done to time it with elections. at I lost seven seats because of these Portuguese prime minister apology issue,” Dhavalikar said.He also though Portugal is a small country, it is advanced technological in many spheres and said that the PWD team headed by him had visited Portugal to study this technological advancement.“First of all, we wanted to see what is the technical advancement in Portugal. Also, the agreement has taken place through the government of India and it was not by me. The first water filter plant in Opa built in 1952 is still operational after some maintenance works. That is why we felt we could benefit from their technical knowledge,” said Dhavalikar.He said what he had said in 2017 about Portuguese colonial rule is that it should not have destroyed bridges and water pipelines before leaving Goa.“Whatever had occurred historically is a fact. In 1510, Adil Shah as a compromise gave Goa to Portugal. Adil Shah when leaving Goa handed over everything, including the existing structure which is still known as Adil Shah palace to Portuguese as is. He did not destroy it. But when Portuguese left Goa they destroyed pipelines and bridges. It all occurred under the dictatorship by Salazar. The people of Portugal themselves later overthrew the dictatorship. They destroyed the first pipeline which was from Opa to Panaji, which is the capital of Goa. If there is love, noone will destroy,” said Dhavalikar.

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