The writer is professor at Columbia University in the USA.
Goa today is awash with political symbolism. Birth anniversaries, death anniversaries, visiting dignitaries, IFFI film, seafood, forest biodiversity festivals. all celebrated with great enthusiasm.
Banners go up, speeches are made, garlands are placed, there is loud music, and photographs circulate widely on social media. Goa recently celebrated the ‘Opinion Poll Day’ (Osmitai/Asmitai Dis), a referendum held in Goa on January 16, 1967. Yet, conspicuously absent from this calendar of remembrance is Dr Jack Sequeira, who is widely regarded as Goa’s ‘Father of the Opinion Poll’.
Many Goans ask why?
This omission is neither accidental nor an innocent oversight. It speaks volumes about the discomfort our contemporary politicians have with integrity, moral courage, and inconvenient truths.
One real truth is that Dr Sequeira’s politics was rooted in humility. He did not accumulate wealth nor build dynasties. He did not weaponise religion or language for short-term gains and he remained friends with his adversary, Dayanand Bandodkar.
This is because his was a politics of service, not spectacle. Dr Sequeira stood for a Goa whose unique identity was lived and was protected not wrapped in false narratives and publicity stunts for the cameras.
But history does not remain silent forever. Dr Jack Sequeira does not need official celebrations to validate his place in Goa’s story. He lives on in the constitutional fact of Goa’s statehood, in every Konkani conversation freely spoken, and in every Goan who still believes that politics can be guided by what is right.
The tragedy is that most of our contemporary politicians know that without him, they would not be legislators of Goa, but representatives of a district in Maharashtra.
