Svatantriyapurti Diwas?? By: Adv. Antonio Lobo

The ‘special’ mention by the Rajya Sabha MP, Shantaram Naik, that  December  19, 1961  should be celebrated as the day when India attained full independence, is indicative of how much the Goan psyche has been affected by the relentless propaganda since it’s annexation on 19.12.61 by the Indian army .

When will Goans realize that the word ‘Liberation’ could have been attached to that date only if India had followed up on the declaration solemnly made by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru on June 4, 1961 at the Congress Convention at Nagpur and I quote “Everyone wants Goa to become free, but the question is asked whether India will extend its authority over Goa against the wishes of the Goan people. My answer to that is No. If the people of Goa minus the Portuguese Government deliberately wish to retain their separate identity, I am not going to compel them into the Indian Union. It will be entirely for the people of Goa to decide their future. India ’s national interest demands only the removal of Portuguese rule from Goa ” Unquote.


This assurance that ‘the people of Goa would decide their future’  was not followed up by the Indian Union, by holding a plebiscite, after the Portuguese were driven out of Goa in 1961.

The Opinion Poll held in Goa in 1967 was not the choice that Jawaharlal Nehru promised Goa . Goans were never given a choice to decide whether they wanted a union with India or to be an independent country. Even the military operation which annexed Goa, Damao & Diu to the Indian Union which was named “Operation Vijay” was used  by India  in the ‘Kargil’ military action against Pakistan . That this name meant so little to India that it could use it again in it’s minor war against Pakistan should have been an eye opener to our nationalists.

Furthermore, independent India never considered Goa as being an integral part of the Indian Union is a fact that seems to have escaped that same class of ‘blind’ people that insist upon calling December 19 as the day of Goa ’s liberation. That a demand has to be made by our so-called ‘freedom fighters’  and now by an MP that the said date should be celebrated throughout India’ as its final and total liberation and that without any demand or prompting from Goans,  the Union of India did not, of its own motion, consider it important enough to celebrate it as a national Indian holiday, should have opened up those eyes that have been shut for so long and make them look closely at what is taking place in Goa post 1961 and what the future holds for Goa and the Goan posterity.

What are you talking about Shantaram Naik and how does your demand for special status for Goa gel with this suggestion that you have made in the Indian Parliament? To me it is absolutely contradictory!