At Dakshinayan press conference… (L to R) Sandesh Prabhudessai, Damodar Mauzo and Datta Naik… appeal to hon’ble President Ramnath Kovind to stop the distortion of historical facts!
By Our Special Correspondent
PRESIDENT Ram Nath Kovind is going to be here on December 19, 2020 to launch the year-long celebrations of 60 years of Goa’s Liberation. In this respect social-cultural organization Dakshinayan Goa has written a letter to the President Kovind to bring to his notice some mischievous misinformation which is being wrongly spread about how the then prime minister of India, Jawarharlal Nehru, put a spoke on the liberation of Goa, Daman & Diu – and delaying it by 14 long years!
Earlier too, according to Dakshinayan spokespersons, Union Minister Prakash Jawadekar and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, had spread the totally misleading and false allegation; recently, even Chief Minister of Goa Dr Pramod Sawant has been repeating the lie imprudently.
In this respect it is important, say various spokespersons of Dakshinayan, to put the record straight about events leading up to Goa’s Liberation. Especially since some politicians today are going to the extent of spreading the rumor that Operation Vijay in 1961 was carried out by the then Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon, by keeping Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru in the dark (because Nehru was not in favor of military action to free Goa from Portugal colonial rule).
The letter addressed to President Kovid provides a year-by-year wise chronology of events as they took place since 1946 to provide proof of the manner in which Prime Minister Nehru had in actual fact fought a relentless diplomatic battle for 14 long years in the United Nations to win majority support of countries to claim Goa, Daman & Diu for de-colonization and to become part of the Indian nation.
At a press conference held on December 16, 2020 at the GCCI conference hall several Dakshinayan key persons addressed the media to about the true facts about Goa’s Liberation. Dakshinayan’s president who is a noted literary writer and author from Goa, Damodar Mauzo, said that Goan freedom fighters and other nationalists knew how ruthless and forbidding the Salazar regime was, and it was well understood and appreciated why Prime Minister Nehru sought a peaceful, non-violent transfer of colonial power through diplomatic means. Nehru had to tackle the all-powerful western block led by the USA at that time, for the Portuguese had left no stone unturned to retain its supremacy and claim over Goa which they termed as an “overseas province of Portugal” and they even involved NATO to save its save its 450 years old colonial control of Goa, Daman & Diu.
Dr Mauzo points out that the President Kovid is the highest Constitutional authority of our nation and a fatherly figure for all Indians, and thus, it is only right that an appeal should go to him to verify for himself the facts of Goa’s Liberation and correct empty and distorted rumors making the rounds. Businessman author Datta Damodar Naik also expressed his deep concern over how the projected year-long celebration of Goa’s Liberation is being unfairly twisted out of historical accuracy and how this seeks to damage the image of the first prime minister of the sovereign independent nation of India, Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru.
Datta Damodar Naik also appealed to all right thinking political parties and nationalist organisations to resist and counter all kinds of false propaganda demonizing the country’s first prime minister who was actually instrumental in maintaining Goa’s unique identity (which is currently being sought to be eroded and erased). The organization has gifted a book titled `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; the book highlights the facts of Goa’s Liberation with documentary evidence.
