TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: BJP on Monday accused India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of betraying Goans by not granting Special Status to Goa to protect its identity.
Addressing a press conference, party spokesman Dr Wilfred Mesquita said ‘if anyone has to be blamed for not granting Special Status to Goa, it is none other than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’. “He ditched lakhs of Goans by making a false promise in Parliament, after the invasion, wherein he had spoken of maintaining Goa’s identity, culture and integrity,” he said.
Mesquita said Nehru had acknowledged history and given Pondicherry and Goa an identity different from the rest of India and had assured that Goans would have freedom to retain their unique identity in a manner wished by them. “He, however, did not do anything. Nobody had stopped him from taking a decision… but he betrayed us,” he added.
State Legislative Assembly last year passed a unanimous resolution to urge Union Government to grant Special Status to Goa to protect its land resources, culture and identity. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi during his recent Goa visit also assured to consider the proposal if BJP came to power at the Centre.
Meanwhile, BJP defended government’s decision to name the Indoor Stadium at Taleigao plateau after Dr Shyamaprasad Mookerjee and has dismissed all possibility of re-naming it. BJP has also said that government will consider naming other newly developed sports facilities after Goan sports personalities.
Mesquita said that Dr Mookerjee was a political leader of calibre and there cannot be any doubts over his patriotism, nationalism and his fight for Kashmir. “The BJP government has come up with all-round development of the State with emphasis on infrastructure, Lusofonia Games being a shining example of this. Naturally, this has unnerved the Opposition who are nervous,” he added.
Nationalist Congress Party had recently protested outside North Collectorate office demanding scrapping of Mookerjee’s name claiming he was a RSS leader and a non-Goan who had contributed nothing to Goa.
