Dayanand Bandodkar must have never dreamt that he would climb to the top in his political career in Goa. When I was a child that is about 70 years back, I heard about this person who was keen to lift the downtrodden people in Goa who were starving for food due to Portuguese interference. Bandodkar saw it and worked some strategy how to get rid of Portuguese dictatorship in Goa. When I started my working carrier, the first job I got was in Goa Medical College in 1964. I heard Bandodkar's first assignnent in his political carrier was to meet the government department officials. Bandodkar's first visit was at the Goa Medical College and he met the Dean of GMC Dr Prof Vengserkar in his office. We the staff assembled in his office to see this personality at the Dean's office. The discussions took place on how Goa can give jobs to Goans and get benefit for our territory.
I was too young to grasp the interest of Bandodkar at my young age but his vision was so strong that being a person of high integrity and probity in public life for development of Goa and at that time he sought to protect the interests of backward classes.
Although he was supporting the merger of Goa with Maharastra in the only referendum held in independent India on January 16, 1967 was the Opinion poll in Goa resulting in the emergence of a distinct identity which led to the formation of a separate State, Bandodkar accepted the verdict of the majority of Goans gracefully.
