If shifting of navy from Dabolim can be termed as anti-national what should Goans call a person who first raised the demand to shift the navy from Dabolim, so as to protect Dabolim as the sole International airport is the question I would like to ask the ex-chief minister and the present union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar . The ex-chief minister who rode on piggy back of Mathany Saldhana during the 2012 Assembly election to destroy the Congress Party citadel and after his death to honour him, his BJP government named the new South Goa Collectorate building.
Mathany had in his possession pre-liberation documents that shows that Dabolim was a civilian airport and that the Indian Navy had illegally occupied it till date which he placed even on the floor of the Assembly as an MLA and demanded that the Indian Navy should either part away with enough land to retain Dabolim as the only international airport of the state or else be shifted to the nearby upcoming Naval base at Karwar. During election times the ex-chief minister along with Mathany also accused the Indian Navy and Army for unnecessarily occupying vast stretches of prime land in Goa and supported Mathany vision for Goa.
It is common knowledge that in times of war the Union Government has absolute powers to take over any civilian airports in the country for logistic purposes. If the Navy is shifted to Karwar and Dabolim is developed as the only international airport of the state, the union government in a war situation can still take over Dabolim if it is logistically more beneficial than Karwar.
