I had gone for the interactive talk with prominent citizens held at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao (Opinion Poll Reality Check) delivered by one of the surviving icons and respected personality advocate, author, Konkani writer, Uday Bhembre.
However, I was shocked and surprised that a person of such a calibre was capable of distorting historical truths and facts to appease a section of the population who are ignorant of Goa’s politics and history of Opinion Poll, which I am aware of through my close association with another icon of the Opinion Poll, an orator par excellence, a doctor by profession, an ex-MLA of United Goans Party representing Cortalim constituency, the late Dr. Luis Proto Barbosa.
Midway during his talk, when Bhembre talked of the formation of the United Goans Party, he recalled that Dr. Jack De Sequeira was brought into United Goans Party as a businessman to finance the Party and not as a politician which is shocking as history shows that Dr. Sequeira was an Opposition leader who was respected not only in Goa but by all the central leaders, including our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and even our first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar.
Records speak for themselves, to support my claim and also from the general opinion of those who worked and interacted with Dr. Sequeira.
In his whole speech, Bhembre also never touched upon the role played by the 28 members of the first Goa Legislative Assembly elected in 1963 and dissolved prior to the Opinion Poll in 1966.
The first assembly party configuration was 14 MLAs of MGP, 2 MLAs of PSP (Led by Peter Alvares) and 12 MLAs of UGP. The MGP during this tenure had passed a resolution to merge Goa into Maharashtra with the support of 16 MLAs which was opposed on the floor of the house tooth and nail by Opposition Leader Dr. Jack de Sequeira along with his stalwart Margao MLA, Anant Narcinva Naik, commonly known as Babu Naik from the majority community. This resolution opposing the merger is a milestone of all the subsequent opinion poll related events that took place, the leadership that came up and the groups that supported the ant-merger movement and for this reason alone Dr. Jack de Sequeira is the leader of the Opinion Poll. If Dr Sequeira, as an opposition leader had not opposed this motion and rather colluded with the pro-merger group keeping his businessman interest in mind (as portrayed by Bhembre) the merger would have been completed and Dr. Sequeira would have flourished as a businessman in the state of Maharashtra, which is presently seen in the Goa Assembly and acknowledged by him in his speech.
For the most part, Bhembre spoke about Purushottam Kakodkar of the Congress Party for his role and sacrifices made for the Opinion Poll. I do respect Kakodkar and his role in this movement but it is important to note that the Congress Party in 1967 was divided into 2 factions and on this issue Bhembre knowingly remained silent i.e. one supporting the merger of Goa into Maharashtra and the other was anti-merger led by Kakodkar. There was no congress MLA elected to the first Goa Legislative Assembly and the percentage of votes polled by the Congress Party during the first election was negligible. As an individual, Kakodkar had a huge influence with the Congress Party at the center and Nehru“Gandhi family and his role during the Liberation helped us in the Opinion Poll.
Bhembre also never touched upon the voting pattern of the 28 constituencies on the merger issue. He merely made a passing remark on the total voting pattern and the margin of victory. First and foremost, one should know what was the total population of Goa and configuration in number of the population and not in percentage wise to make the opinion poll result clear “ that is composition of Hindus, Catholics and Muslims separately. No person is ready to discuss or disclose these facts, for reasons best known to them as the truth will hurt the majority community in a big way. The UGP comprised of minority and majority community leaders in the 28 constituencies throughout Goa, which has not been recognized by certain leaders and given colour by today’s political leaders with the support of people like Bhembre and others as a party of minority community to distort history of the opinion poll. It is pertinent to know here that in the 11 constituencies, 88,682 voted against the merger of which 6 constituencies of South Goa namely Curtorim, Benaulim, Cortalim, Navelim, Cuncolim and Margao together accounted for 60,369 which accounts for 35% of the total anti-merger vote share of 172,249. Goans from this constituency should be always saluted and highlighted in the history books for saving Goa from merger and it was the bastion of UGP led by Dr. Sequeira. Further, it is also to be mentioned that there were minority communities in all 28 constituencies of Goa.
It appears that persons of stature are being affected by the winds of political change taking place in the country. With regret and disbelief, I left the hall which made me write this article to create awareness among the general public and today’s MLAs fighting on the statue issue of Dr Sequeira to be installed at the Goa Assembly Complex. I hope distorted facts may not be included in the history books as promised by the present CM on the asmitai day function held at Margao.
