PANAJI
In a letter written to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind, Dakhshinayan Goa, has appealed to highlight the role played by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to liberate Portuguese colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu in 1961. The President is visiting Goa to launch the year-long celebration of 60 years of Goa’s liberation on December 19. While welcoming the celebration organised by the government of Goa, Dakshinayan’s letter states that it is a misinformation that the 14-year long delay to liberate Goa, Daman and Diu was caused due to Pandit Nehru’s faulty handling of the issue.
The letter said that earlier union minister Prakash Jawadekar and chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan had made such allegations and recently chief minister of Goa Dr Pramod Sawant has repeated it. According to the letter some politicians had spread rumours that ‘Operation Vijay’ in 1961 was carried out by then defence minister V K Krishna Menon by keeping the prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the dark as Nehru was not in favour of military action.
The letter provides year-wise chronology of events since 1946 and the manner in which Nehru fought the diplomatic battle for 14 years in the United Nations Organisation in order to win over the support of majority countries to get Goa, Daman and Diu decolonised.
At a press conference held in this regard, Dakshinayan Goa president and writer Damodar Mauzo said that Goan freedom fighters and other nationalists knew how ruthless and forbidding the Salazar regime was and thus could understand and appreciate the peaceful, non-violent and diplomatic means adopted by Nehru to tackle the all-powerful western block led by the USA. The Portuguese had left no stone unturned to retain its supremacy over Goa which they termed as the Overseas Province of Portugal and even involved NATO to save its 450-year-old colony.
Being the highest Constitutional authority of our nation, we request His Excellency to verify the facts and highlight Nehru’s role in the liberation of Goa, said Mauzo. Another Goan writer Datta Damodar Naik said, Goans will be deeply hurt if the yearlong celebrations are marked by twisted political statements that can damage the image of Jawaharlal Nehru. He appealed to the political parties and nationalist organisations to counter this propaganda of demonising Nehru who was instrumental in maintaining Goa’s unique identity.
Dakshinayan has also sent a book ‘Liberation v/s Armed Struggle’, written by Dr Nishtha Desai and published by the government of Goa, during the golden jubilee year of Goa’s liberation which highlights the facts with documentary evidence.
