VASCO
The popular saying "A Soldier is never off duty, on the field and off the field" came out true after Captain Viriato Fernandes, a former Navy officer played a major role in clearing the misunderstanding that led to the Navy and islanders jointly hoisting the National flag at St Jacinto Island on Saturday afternoon.
When contacted, Captain Viriato informed that he had heard about the issue late Friday evening where the news was distorted and wrongly reported that villagers opposed the Navy to hoist the national flag at the island.
"I was shocked when I heard the incident and by Saturday morning matters became worse as a tweet by CM Pramod Sawant as well as Mauvin Godinho calling the Islanders anti national did the rounds on all social media platforms and it went out of hand as the issue suddenly became a national topic. I even got calls from National newspapers for my comments on the issue." said Capt Viriato.
"I then began to enquire about the incident and on Saturday morning spoke to high level officials of the Indian Navy, one of whom has been known to me since the Kargil War. He explained to me the entire episode and said the Navy was simply being dragged in the issue which was unwarranted and avoidable. This episode was because of a misunderstanding and could go legally in the wrong side. I got a call from an officer in the Navy again in the afternoon saying that a tweet is going all across India calling Islanders as anti-national but we have never said anything of this sort," said Capt Viriato.
Capt Viriato said he decided to mediate and requested a senior Navy official to put an end to the controversy and send the naval officials so that the Islanders can be explained. The naval officials arrived at the Island and said that they were only following a circular issued by the central government and expressed that there was a communication gap and also agreed to his request to jointly hoist the tricolor jointly with the Islanders.
The Captain requested the politicians and parties not to aggravate matters and drag the Navy into controversies for political benefit.
"That would be the biggest anti national act to drag the armed forces into a conflict with the citizens of the country. I thank the Islanders as well as the Indian Navy for acting in a mature manner and putting to rest the unwanted controversy," he said.
