PANAJI
January 16, which is the anniversary of the historic and only plebiscite to held in Goa to decide whether Goa will remain an independent territory or merge with Maharashtra, will be observed as 'Asmitai Diwas' from next year (2025), Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced in the Goa legislative assembly on Friday.
Sawant said that it was former chief minister Manohar Parrikar who first began celebrating Opinion Poll Day at the government level.
There however, was a break in observing the Opinion Poll Day for some time but from 2025 it will be celebrated regularly with a State-level function, Sawant said, in response to the discussion, sometimes heated, on a private member's resolution moved by Leader of the Opposition, Yuri Alemao.
Sawant also said, that it took 14 years after India's independence for Goa to be liberated from Portuguese rule, a fact in history he often cites to taunt the Opposition Congress while blaming India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the 14-year delay.
"We celebrate Revolution Day on 18th June and Liberation Day on 19th December. After I became Chief Minister, I started celebrating Statehood Day on 30th May. Former chief minister Manohar Parrikar first celebrated 'Asmitai Diwas' on 16 January 2018 at the government level," Sawant said.
The chief minister said that for some inadvertent reason there was a break in this observance of 'Asmitai Diwas' even as he took a potshot at the Opposition by saying that it took them 60 years to remember this day.
Sawant acknowledged that had Goa got merged with Maharashtra, the MLAs present here (in the House) would not have got the prominence.
Earlier, Alemao while moving his resolution seeking the official declaration of January 16 as 'Asmitai Diwas' said no one should mix politics with the issue of celebrating the Opinion Poll Day.
The historic development has preserved the distinct identity of Goa, Alemao said.
