PANAJI
As many as 21 Goan freedom fighters attempted to enter the Indian Parliament by contesting Lok Sabha elections. All of them in the pre-1999 era, but the electorate hasn’t been very kind to them only five achieved success – Felix Rodrigues, Purushottam Kakodkar, Peter Alvares, Narayan Rao and Shivaji Desai.
In multiple elections held between 1963 and 1999, in addition to the freedom fighters, there were also three famous literary figures who contested – Shankar Bhandari, Ravindra Kelekar and Manoharrai Sardesai. All three failed in their quest to enter Parliament.
Political observers recorded in written contemporary history cite the reasons for the Goan electorate disfavouring intellectuals and freedom fighters, although they are generally held in high esteem, as “a mystery”.
It is also said to be one of the factors that prompted former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to famously remark ‘Goa ke log ajeeb hain’ in a reaction to the result of the first election post Goa’s liberation in 1963.
The Nehru-led Congress, which had fielded several freedom fighters and intellectuals, had expected to win that maiden election, but ended up drawing a blank with most of its candidates losing their deposits.
Meanwhile, several of the 21 freedom fighters who contested the elections between 1963 and 1999, did so as candidates of mainstream political parties, most of the freedom fighters did so as Independents or as candidates of lesser known parties.
Janardhan Shinkre, who contested as an Independent and won in 1967 in North Goa also contested unsuccessfully six more times. Thomas Dias, another freedom fighter, who was fielded by the MGP from South Goa once also contested five more elections as an Independent.
Political observers attribute the disappearance of intellectuals and literary figures from the list of candidates post the 1999 era to the primacy given by political parties to money and muscle power besides the ‘winnability’ factor of the individual candidate.
In the first Lok Sabha election post the 1961 liberation of Goa, the MGP had fielded Peter Alvares who won the North Goa seat in 1963.
The MGP also fielded freedom fighters for the two Lok Sabha seats multiple times thereafter the latest being in 1984, when it fielded senior counsel Joaquim Dias for the South Goa seat. Dias lost to Eduardo Faleiro in that election and several years later served as Goa’s Advocate General in the early 1990s.
