Face of Congress ad blitz Hasiba Amin backed scam-hit netas

PANAJI: Hasiba Amin, the face of Congress party's pre-election TV commercial 'yuva josh', found herself under the spotlight of the less flattering kind with reports appearing in many newspapers of her backing former Goa home minister Ravi Naik, who was allegedly linked to narcotics trade, as also supporting another Congress minister Churchill Alemao, allegedly involved in a Rs 300-crore PWD scam.

Amin's defence of the two ministers in 2012 has come back to haunt her. She had, in 2012, demanded expulsion of the former NSUI Goa president Sunil Kawthankar for anti-party activities for his having blown the whistle on Naik's alleged links to the drug mafia, and filed a police complaint naming him and several police officers as involved with the mafia.

Appalled by the negative publicity she has attracted since her commercial with Rahul Gandhi began, Amin said she may have supported the two leaders in the past, but it couldn't be reasoned that she endorses corruption.

"I think there wasn't even an FIR filed against the two ministers. Allegations were not proved," she said. Although she accepted that she had demanded Kawthankar's expulsion, she said it was for different reasons.

"He had breached party code and I had written to party higher-ups complaining about this," she said, even as she declined more elaborate comment. When contacted, Kawthankar was evasive.

Amin is being criticized heavily on social media, which has compelled her to close down her Facebook account. She says she is utterly disgusted by the way people have attacked her, although she initially took everything lightly.

"I laughed when I first heard that people were saying I supported a corrupt minister, that I had been to jail. But I can't take it any more," soft-spoken Amin said.

She said all allegations against her are baseless. She has never been to jail, she said. The NSUI is contemplating legal action against those maligning her. "I have been backed by my organization," she said. A popular face in the nationwide Congress party's election campaign, Amin had a following running into thousands on Facebook and Twitter.