Monday, May 20, 2013

IS GOA INDIAN ? By Lucio Mascarenhas, Sangolda



IS GOA INDIAN ? By Lucio Mascarenhas, Sangolda
Portuguese India or Goa came into existence in 1510, when the Portuguese, at the request of the Goans and of the Vijayanagar Empire, liberated it from the Brahmin Sultan of Bijapur.
 
The Indian Union or Bharat, is a country invented by the English who conquered and fused a great many states and nations into the British India Empire. Later, this Empire was partitioned twice on religious bases: in 1937 , to separate the Budhist dominated Ceylon and Burma (Myanmar), with the consent of the Indian National Congress, and again in 1947, to separate the Muslim dominated Pakistan and Bangladesh.
 
Today, what was British India is the following sovereign states: Bharat, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Maldives. Not to mention Malaysia and Singapore which were separated a long time ago.
 
However, on the other hand, there is another anthropological reality - East India or the East Indies. This is a much larger sweep of territory, including the Sunda Archipelago, the Phillipines, the Indo-Chinese Peninsula (which houses the modern states of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma), and goes on the western side, beyond Pakistan into Western or Iranian Baluchistan and into Cis-Montane Afghanistan.
 
This East Indies is divided into two halves — called Hither India and Further India. The latter is the part dominated by the former British India Empire, while the former is the Eastern half.
 
In August 1947, the British East India Empire was divided into two new states — Bharat and Pakistan. With that British India came to an end - ceased to be.
 
From commencement, Bharat has strenuously protested, in the face of doubts by the Pakistanis, Lankans, Nepalese, Burmese, etc., that it did NOT wish to reverse the partitions of 1937 & 1947, and that it recognized the territorial boundaries of these states, and did not covet a single square inch of their territories.
 
Yet on the other hand, Bharat has insistently claimed the right to absorb the enclaves of French and Portuguese India embeded within its territories.
 
Bharat demanded that France and Portugal negotiate with it the transfer of these territories to it. In the face of popular agitations, France acceded and conducted a plebiscite, in which the people of the French Enclaves — Chandernagore, Yanam, Pondichery, Karaikal & Mahe de Labourdonnais voted to be integrated into Bharat.
 
Accordingly, France negotiated a treaty and transfered these territories to Bharat.  Portugal, however, refused to even consider any negotiations. Bharat attempted to stir up public agitations in the Portugese India but failed to gain public support.  In 1954, Bharati irredentists, organized a movement, ostensibly a pacific one, but reinforced with armed troops of irredentists and regular soldiers and invaded Portuguese India by surprise.
 
As a result, the enclaves of Dadra & Nagar-Avelim were lost to the terrorists sponsored by Bharat.
 
But in other parts, notably the isolated enclave of Terecol, the terrorists were ruthlessly put down and the enclave reunited with Goa. The Portuguese also began to build up forces to protect Goa. However, soon after, the Portuguese were forced to relocate most troops to Portuguese Africa, to put down the Communist rebellions there.
 
Both before the 1954 invasion and after, Bharat officially promised that Goa's fate would be decided by the citizens of Goa.
 
However, when in 1954, Bharat invaded and occupied two Goan enclaves, it annexed them without any plebiscite, merely as a result of a conquest by force of arms!
 
This is duplicity. This is hypocrisy.
 
But more was to come.
 
Since Goa was not a territory alientated from Bharat, which did NOT exist at the time of its foundation, and since Bharat had already assured those states that had more recently been alienated from it that it had no designs on them, Bharat therefore had NO rights or moral basis to levy any claims upon Goa and its citizens.
 
And therefore, Bharat had no business interfering in the internal affairs of Goa and to dictate whether the Portuguese should remain or not. Only the Goans could have the right to decide that.
 
When the government of Bharat however, saw that the Goans did not support its program of mischief and robbery, and that the criminal acts of 1954 could not be repeated, it took a new tack.
 
It enforced a blockade upon Free Goa, in an attempt to starve and terrorize its citizens to fall in with its program.
 
From 1954 to 1961, when Bharat invaded and occupied Free Goa, this blockade was in effect.
 
During this blockade, the terrorists inflicted a great deal of suffering upon the Goan people. Goans seeking to travel across the frontiers were humiliated and dehumanized.
 
None of this, however, broke the spirit of the Free Goans and Bharat could not make any headway.
 
Therefore, becoming desperate in the face of its humiliating failure despite all means adopted, Bharat decided to invade and occupy Free Goa by force of arms.
 
This was accomplished in December 1961, when some 50,000 Bharat Army terrorists supported by another 25,000 invaded and overwhelmed the poorly armed and lightly manned Free Goan armed forces comprising of some 5,000 Goan and Portuguese troops and policemen! (I call these soldiers terrorists, since they did wrong under the Nuremberg principles, and their actions can only be described as "Crimes Against Humanity" and as Terrorism!)
 
What bravery and courage was displayed by the Bharatis in taking on such a mighty opponent!
 
But what is important is that following the invasion, Bharat announced that Goa had become a part of it by might of arm, thus throwing into the dustbin its pious promises that the citizens of Goa alone would decide the fate of Goa!
 
Bharat amended its constitution by the 12th Constitution Amendment Act to claim that Goa had, as a result of its criminal invasion and occupation, become an integral part of Bharat!
 
There was NO PLEBISCITE!
 
There was NOT ANY KIND OF POPULAR VOTE, REFERUNDUM OR PLEBISCITE by which the Goans decided that they wanted to be integrated into Bharat!
 
Subsequently, in 1974, when the Portuguese Communist terrorists and bandits overthrew the Portuguese government, they signed a "treaty" with Bharat wherein they recognized that Goa was integrated into Bharat from the day of its occupation!
 
This "treaty" is illegal and without any value. That is because Goa was and is not Portugal's to bargain over without the express and stated consent of the Goan people, in accordance with all norms of international laws.
 
Goa is NOT Portugal's chattel, and Goans are not Portuguese slaves that Portugal, granted the dubious point that the Communist terrorists, pirates, hijackers and bandits ARE the legal Portuguese government since 1974, so that Portugal can gift or cede Goa and Goans without any legal reference to the wishes of the Goans!
 
Therefore, this "treaty" is nothing but a fraud and a mockery of all norms of law and decency and an attempt by Bharat and its allies in the Portuguese underworld, the Portuguese Communist terrorists, ship pirates, hijackers and bandits, to add insult to the injury of the Goan people suffered at the hands of terrorist Bharat!
 
Lastly, I want to pointed draw the reader's attention to these facts:
In 1947, four princely states — the Nizamate of Hyderabad, the Nawabates of Junagadh, Mangrol and Manavadar — were invaded by Bharat, their rulers unseated and plebiscites held, by which the peoples of those states voted to be integrated into Bharat.
 
In 1954, a plebiscite was held in French India.
 
In 1961, NO PLEBISCITE was held in Portuguese India.
 
In 1975, a plebiscite was held in the invaded and occupied Kingdom of Sikkim, wherein the foreigners, Nepalese citizens settled there, voted to merge the Kingdom into Bharat!
Now, this is my challenge:
PROVE that there was any LEGAL POPULAR MECHANISM — Plebiscite or Referendum, (in keeping with, for example, the UN Resolutions to which Bharat is party), whereby the citizens of Portuguese India had freely chosen to have Goa integrated into Bharat OR admit that, in fact, Bharat merely pretended to annex Goa on the basis of its unmitigable banditry!
 
Prove that the Chavan-Soares Treaty of 1974, which was signed by Mario Soares, a Communist bandit who represented NO legal or elected Portuguese government, and moreover, that did not CONSULT the Goan citizenry, constituted a legal transfer of Portuguese India to Bharat
 
Prove the moral and legal basis of Bharat's claim to Goa both before and after its occupation, OR admit that there is in fact none.
 
Draw the necessary conclusions from the above and state the present legal and constitutional position of Portuguese India - whether it is a legal part of Bharat, or of Portugal, or of neither, and state the reasons why.
I once again draw the reader's attention to these facts: Bharat INSISTS that it does NOT covet a square inch of the territories of states severed from it, not in 1510 but in 1937 & 1947, even while it pretends that it has some divine right to impose itself upon us Goans who have been separate since 1510!
 
Again, Bharat has time and again, strenuously assured these states, severed since 1937 & 1947, that it did NOT seek, wish or desire to reverse these Partitions. And yet, it pretends that it has some divine right over us Goans!
 
Who is game to take up my challenge?

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