The recently elected South Goa MP, Narendra Sawaikar said he spoke about his five-point action plan in Parliament. The first on his list was the dual citizenship issue. Sawaikar claimed that over a lakh Goans, largely from South Goa, who hold Portuguese and Indian citizenships, desperately require the issue to be resolved and he will work towards this end. Others in his ruling party, including the earlier CM, and now Defence Minister of the country, have also dangled this carrot of dual citizenship to win political support of the Catholic community in Goa for its other controversial schemes, including a new airport in North Goa.
The leader of Goa Suraj Party, which is yet to make its debut in Goa’s Legislative Assembly has on its party manifesto as clause 28: Dual Citizenship for Goans: The party shall work with the Central government to introduce dual citizenship to Goans who prefer to hold Indian as well as Portuguese passports. This Party believes that it is the birth right of Goans to hold dual Portuguese-Indian passports under the circumstances that Goa was annexed to the Indian Union without the UN mandated plebiscite.”
Going by this logic of birth rights, one may also expect any Indian citizen to claim the birth right to hold British nationality. The problem is that the British may find it a funny demand after the Indian freedom fighters asked them to Quit India without any plebiscite.
The Portuguese colonial authorities, aware of their relatively fragile international position and moved by political cunning decided to grant to Indians born in Portuguese India, or descending from parents or grandparents born in Portuguese India before 1961, the right to “recover” the Portuguese nationality.
But this continues to be their sole discretion and not depending on the Indian Constitution to grant Goans as a special status. The most the Indian Government could do is to include a clause of tolerance with respect to those who opted or may opt to benefit from the Portuguese nationality gift.
It should not to be forgotten that India’s Operation Vijay was backing the demand of a significant section of Goa’s population earning its living in India and feeding the families in Goa with remittances. Besides, a recent research by Valmiki Faleiro (Patriotism in Action, 2010, p. xxvi) has listed eight high ranking Goan officers of the three services of the Indian armed forces involved in the military operation that overthrew Goa’s colonial yoke.
In real life there can be no legislation to cover every case, and only good sense can take care of ad hoc situations. This applies to regulation of inter-State relationships which in the modern context of globalization is raising serious problems of international terrorism. I remember that in 1973 I needed to do my Ph.D research in the Portuguese archives. My passport was valid for all countries, except Portugal and South Rhodesia. However, the Portuguese embassy in Madrid issued a special visa which allowed me to spend 6 months in the Portuguese archives. I was advised by the Portuguese authorities to leave Lisbon on the eve of the April 25 Revolution in 1974. That was a unique privilege which I greatly appreciated.
I am sure there have been no lack of such humanitarian or goodwill gestures by the Indian authorities as well. Such was probably the case of the former president of the High Court of Goa, Abel Colaço, who opted to abandon Goa as Portuguese national in 1962, but was allowed to spend last years of his life in Goa, where he died in 90s. Or the case of Maria de Lourdes Albuquerque, who was MP representing Goa in the Portuguese parliament from 1965 till 1969, but chose to return to her home in Goa in recent years.
When I decided to opt for the Portuguese nationality in 1995, in keeping with the Indian legislation I surrendered the Indian passport. I was happy to apply and get the OCI status in 2007, but at no stage the Portuguese nationality came in the way of my love for India. The Indian ambassador in Lisbon, Surendra Kumar Arora, was present at my wedding, and I was invited to accompany the President of India, KR Narayanan in 1998 to Fatima during his official visit to Portugal.
Dr. Vasco Graça-Moura, a former Portuguese Minister of Culture and a renowned literary figure was the god-father of my marriage celebration in the historic Castle of St George in Lisbon. It provoked some unpleasant correspondence in a prominent Lisbon daily criticizing the said official for patronizing a critic of the Portuguese colonial past. His curt response in the press was that Portugal was no longer a dictatorship with censorship.
I wish the Government of India finds a reasonable political solution to help all Goans with Portuguese nationality to remain close to lndia, be it as citizens or not. I was amused when my close Goan friend from the village and with family name shared by the archbishop-patriarch of Goa, regained Portuguese nationality on 19th December a couple of years ago! It was a mere coincidence, but it is surely unique and special for someone who loves India and cherishes Goa’s liberation.
(Teotonio R. de Souza is the founder-director, Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa, 1979-1994).
