BJP demands apology from Cong for retaining Goa's colonial rule
SANDESH PRABHUDESAI, PANAJI | 09 February 1998 13:39 ISTTaking a dig into Indian history, the Bharatiya Janata Party has now demanded an unique apology from the Congress, which targets country’s first prime minister - Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It’s obviously his granddaughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, who has to apologise.
The crime is not making India fully independent for 14 long years. The reference is with liberation of Goa. The tiny state on western coast was liberated from the clutches of the Portuguese imperialists through military action in 1961, around 14 years after India became independent. Prakash Jawdekar, the member of Maharashtra Legislative Council, during his elections campaign here, has made a demand in this regard. "If Vallabhbhai Patel’s advise was heard by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, then Goa would have been part of the Indian union in 1948 itself", he says. The Congress party must apologise for the 14 years of additional Portuguese yoke that Goans had to bear upon themselves, he feels.
He also demands a wholesale apology from the Congress for 45 years of corruption, the emergency and using the minorities merely as a vote bank.
