the goan I network
MARGAO
Leading stalwart of the Opinion Poll movement, Adv Uday Bhembre has said that decisive voting by a significant Hindu section of the Goan society had helped save Goa from being merged into Maharashtra in the historic 1967 Opinion Poll.
In fact, Bhembre went on to say that victory for the anti-merger movement would not have been possible had not the Hindu community voted decisively against the merger.
Delivering a lecture organized by Asmitai Prastishan at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, Bhembre said those working against Goa’s merger had a major challenge to convince the Hindu community to see reason and vote against the merger. On the other hand, he pointed out that United Goans leader Jack de Sequeira did not encounter such a challenge since the entire Catholic community was already behind the movement to save Goa. “I can say that 99 % of the Hindu community were initially associated with the pro-merger groups, may be because of the Marathi language and their association with the MGP party. Comparatively, the 35% Catholic community was solidly behind the anti-merger campaign,” he said.
Bhembre reiterated that the Opinion Poll movement was not led by a single entity, but by five different entities “ United Goans, Congress, Rashtramat Group, Ulhas Buyao and Shabu Desai. “While the pro-merger movement had a single platform and a single leader, Dayanand Bandodkar, there was no single leader who led the anti-merger movement,” Bhembre said. He, however, hastened to add that though there were five anti-merger groups, there was no antagonism between them.
He recalled the role played by then Congress leader Purshottam Kakodkar, who tried to convince the party central leaders, including then PM Indira Gandhi to change the cabinet decision taken during then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri’s tenure, favouring holding mid-term poll to resolve the
merger issue.
