MARGAO: Saying that the party is neither shocked nor surprised at the decision of the Union government to deny special status to Goa, United Goans Democratic Party has said that no national party will ever concede such a demand and the same can be achieved only by forming a single regional party if the people of Goa are seriously keen on Special Status.
Party Vice-President Radharao Gracias said it is well-known that the BJP has been consistently opposed to Article 370-A and Article 371-A of the Constitution which deal with Special Status. “Matanhy Saldanha was certainly the earliest stalwarts demanding not just Special Sstatus but autonomy for Goa. But by the dawn of the twenty first century, and after all his fruitless struggles, Matanhy had realised that his ideology would take him nowhere. He therefore did the next best thing, and joined the BJP with an ideology chronically opposed to what he had preached and practiced. And this shift in stance enabled him to come to power. Thus, it is futile to talk of Matanhy, and his call for Special Status, as his new avatar had completely negated his earlier one”, he said.
Saying that it is true that the BJP at the Centre has been opposed to Special Status, Radharao said its Goa leader and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had equally consistently campaigned for a Special Status for Goa. “But then, our Chief Minister is a graduate in Metallurgy from IIT and has shown that he is malleable and ductile on every issue”, he added.
The UGDP vice-preside also took a dig at the Congress. He said the sudden awakening of the Congress for the need for Special Status to Goa is unbelievable. “The Congress was in power at the Centre for the last ten years and in the State for almost as many. During this entire period Shantaram Naik was a Rajya Sabha MP. Will Naik explain to the people of Goa why the Congress had failed to grant Special Status? Does Naik think that all Goans are morons? He has to expalin Goa’s pitiable plight despite the promise of protection of Goan identity by the country’s first PM and Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru,” Radharao added.
