Two regional political outfits on Monday demanded an apology from Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa for the atrocities committed by the erstwhile colonial Portuguese rulers on Goa, its former colony.
The parties, the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), in alliance with the Shiv Sena are set to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the February 4 State Assembly elections.
Mr. Costa, during his two-day visit to Goa on January 11 and 12, will visit his ancestral house in Margao in south Goa. Rebel RSS leader Subhash Velingkar has already accused the BJP of using Mr. Costa’s visit to woo the State’s Christian minority ahead of the polls.
While the MGP has also demanded that the Portuguese Consulate be shifted out of Goa, its alliance partner the GSM has accused the BJP in Goa and at the Centre of shedding their “nationalistic veil” for political gain.
“Mr. Costa should first apologise to Goans first, for all the hardships and atrocities Portugal has committed in Goa while they were ruling,” MGP’s Chief Ministerial candidate and former PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar told presspersons here on Monday morning.
“The amount of destruction they caused while leaving Goa in 1961 by blowing up bridges and the mayhem they unleashed is unforgivable,” Mr. Dhavalikar said.
His comments come 48 hours ahead of Portuguese Prime Minister Costa’s scheduled Goa visit. Mr. Dhavalikar, however, said that the MGP would not protest against Costa’s visit because “he is a son of the soil visiting his home State.”
Mr. Dhavlikar said the reason why Goans were seeking a Portuguese passport was because of the presence of the consulate in the State and demanded that it be shifted to Delhi. “They are trying to lure our youth with the help of the consulate. It should be shifted out of Goa immediately,” he said.
President of GSM Anand Shirodkar also supported the stand taken by the MGP and reiterated their demand that Mr. Costa apologise soon after he lands in Goa.
Mr. Velingkar said, “The BJP is using the visit of the Portuguese Prime Minister to garner the minority vote.” Mr. Velingkar, who is the mentor of GSM, has been critical of the BJP government over its policy of giving patronage to the primary schools run by the Archdiocese, which have English as the medium of instruction.
Mr. Velingkar, however, said later generations of Portuguese were not responsible for the atrocities in Goa before 1961.“We are demanding an apology from the Portuguese nation. We have nothing against the new generation in Portugal. We are also aware that India has diplomatic relations with the new democratic Portugal.”
Goa was one of Portugal’s oldest colonies and was liberated by the Indian Army from colonial on December 19, 1961. Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday declined to comment on the demand made by the MGP and GSM but stated that the visit of Portuguese Prime Minister was a matter of diplomacy.
Congress General Secretary and spokesperson Advocate Yatish Naik said the parties would do well to understand that “we are a country having dimplomatic relations with Portugal. In that context, their head of the state is visiting India and Goa. He is of Goan origin.”
