Manohar Parrikar turns nostalgic in Goa

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar turned nostalgic at the inauguration of IFFI saying he does not feel like leaving Goa, where he was the chief minister until recently.

"This place (Goa) is beautiful. I am still not feeling like going back to Delhi," he said in his speech during the inauguration of 45th edition of IFFI in Goa on Thursday. Parrikar was recently inducted into the Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet.

The Rajya Sabha member from Lucknow, who started his speech in Hindi, fumbled several times before switching over to his mother tongue Konkani amid loud applaud from the crowd. "I am still learning to talk in Hindi," he said. Parrikar, who headed the government when IFFI travelled to the state in 2004, said Goa is good in creating infrastructure in record time. He pointed out that Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, which was constructed to host Portuguese Commonwealth Games, was built in a record time of 10 months.