Team Herald
MARGAO: Advocate Radharao Gracias recalls Victoria Fernandes as being an activist who used to take up all causes affecting Goa and Goans and remembers her agitating at St Cruz when he used to travel to Panjim to study law.
Recalling that she first contested assembly elections as Janata Party candidate, he said she was elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly for the first time as an Independent candidate and subsequently she joined Congress.
“Though some of her ardent supporters did not agree with her changing parties later on, one cannot deny the fact that people from anywhere used to visit her whenever they had any problems and she was a fighter for all Goans,” he said.
Advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho called her the “darling of the masses” especially when she was elected as MLA for the first time. “She was in the forefront of all movements in the 80s and early 90s of last century. An activist to the core who fought for a just society and a better Goa and Goa has lost a great star in her death,” he said.
The present day competitive politics, particular the Santa Cruz politics took it’s toll on her functioning in recent years he said while asserting that Victoria deserves to be remembered as a “fighter activist”.
Former Chief Minister and Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro remembered Victoria as a valiant fighter who never gave up and recalled how bravely she took up the battle for Goa’s popular aspirations of statehood and recognition of Konkani as the official language.
“She was a true nationalist for Goa and Goans and she was a member of my cabinet,” said Luizinho while recalling her commitment to making Konkani the official language of Goa for which she even supported the resolution moved by him in the Assembly.
Another former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao said Victoria was a “fighting social worker” who not only took up issues that matter the society but even took to the streets to see that justice prevailed and said her struggle to retain Goa as an union territory during the Opinion Poll and to make Konkani the official language of Goa will never be forgotten.
“She fought for Goa and Goans and even launched Goa Protectors to protect Goans,” he recalled and said that her death is a great loss for Goa has it has lost a daughter who truly loved it without any conditions.
Meanwhile, GAKUVED Federation paid tributes to Victoria and recalled that “Mummy had played a crucial role in getting the notification declaring Gawada, Kunbi and Velip communities as ST in Goa” and recalled how she got the then government to constitute the ST Finance and Development Corporation.
