Not Jack Sequeira, Nehru was Father of Opinion Poll: Uday Bhembre
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 20 April 2015 18:36 IST
Uday Bhembre, one of the leaders of Opinion Poll, along with two other Konkani leaders has opposed erecting a statue of Dr Jack Sequeira, calling him Father of Opinion Poll.
A statement in this regard is jointly signed also by Arvind Bhatikar and Nagesh Karmali.
The basic argument of all the three veterans is that Dr Sequeira was primarily the leader of Goa’s Christian community and no way we could win the historic Opinion Poll in 1967 with 35 per cent Christians.
“If at all anybody has to be called the father of opinion poll and his statue is to be erected at the goa secretariat, it should be Jawaharlal Nehru”, stated Bhembre, Bhatikar and Karmali.
A demand is becoming stronger day by day to erect Dr Sequeira’s status in the premises of Goa Assembly Secretariat, terming him the Father of Opinion Poll.
The Opinion Poll was held on 16 January 1967 by dissolving Goa Assembly and giving only two options for Goans: Vote for Rose Flower if you want Goa to be merged with Maharashtra or vote for Two Leaves if you oppose the merger.
Majority Goans, almost 54 per cent voted against the merger while 44 per cent voted for merging into Maharashtra.
Bhembre, who was actively campaigning through Rashtramat as well as by holding public meetings in Hindu-dominated areas, has stated as follows in the joint statement:
"The 100th birth anniversary of Jacque d Sequeira is being rightly celebrated today as he deserves to be remembered as one of the front-line leader of the Opinion Poll day. But he can neither be called the Father of the Opinion Poll nor should his statue be erected in the Secretariat complex at Porvorim.
Alvaro Loyola Furtado founded the United Goans Party by bringing together four small political groups, to oppose the rule of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the merger of Goa. Furtado later invited Jacque d Sequeira to head the united goans party because of his all-round leadership quality.
United Goans Party was primarily a party of Goan Catholics but there were many Hindu leaders belonging to other political parties including those working in Rashtramat Marathi daily and Purshottam Kakodkar, Adv. Mulgaonkar of the Congress party who worked hard to maintain the separate identity of Goa.
Hence it will not be right to erect statue of Dr. Jacque d Sequeira in the secretariat premises at Porvorim.
If at all anybody has to be called the Father of Opinion Poll and his statue is to be erected at the Goa secretariat, it should be Jawaharlal Nehru. Much before the formation of the United Goans Party in September 1963, Jawaharlal Nehru declared right from 1956 that Goa will remain a union territory and that eventually Goa's future will be decided by Goans themselves through a referendum.
The history of the Opinion Poll in Goa is written in a well-researched book titled 'Triumph of Secularism' by Rajan Narayan and Dr. Sharon D'Cruz.
Goa's population consisted of 65% Hindus and 35% Catholics as per the first census of Goa. There was no way Goans could win the opinion poll solely on the basis of the Catholic vote.
Rashtramat daily, some Congress leaders, Shabu Desai, Ulhas Buyao and other youngsters from the Hindu community played a pivotal role in convincing a substantial number of Hindu voters to vote against the merger. It is a pity that the contribution of this section of the Goan society is not remembered and recognized by the media."
APRIL 24, 2015
DR. JACK SEQUEIRA - FATHER OF OPINION POLL.
May the soul of the late Dr. Jack Sequeira REST IN PEACE. He is called the father of Opinion Poll and rightly he deserved this title though Adv. Uday Bhembro and of his tribe think Jawaharlal Nehru instead should be called the father of Opinion Poll. The Bhembros will never accept any great achievement of minority community member for the cause of Goa and Goans. He was one of the persons responsible for denying the Romi Konkani followers the privilege of recognition of Romi Konkani also. Today Romi Konkani is suffering only because of the chicanery of the Nagri Konknnivadis in KPA like Bhembros. Their crookedness towards Romi Konkani was facilitated by the dumbness in KPA of men like Tomazinho Cardoso and the late Mathanay Saldanha who should both have fought vigorously for giving recognition to Romi Konkani also. In view of this I lost all my hopes on any person in Goa to fight forcefully for Romi Konkani. If a known Konknnivadi like Tomazinho Cardoso failed us then who is left now to fight for our cause?
For 5 years the so called “our man” Tomazinho Cardoso was in the Goa Legislative Assembly holding the post of the Speaker. During these 5 years what did he do for Romi Konkani? Couldn’t he do anything? Instead he acted for 5 years as a feudal lord because temporary power reached to his head. He thought he would always remain the Speaker or MLA but never expected a kick from the voters. His political downfall was his artificial pride. For this reason one has to be very careful before elevating a small background man to the big post. Otherwise, we would have Tomazinho Cardosos only in Goa.
Regarding Nehru and Goa and also Bhembro, Nehru declared in Bombay on 4th June 1956: “If and when the Portuguese go and the people of Goa deliberately wish to retain separate identity – I am not going to bring them by force or compulsion or coercion into the Indian Union”. Finally what did Nehru do to Goa? He used force and violence to conquer Goa and thus paved the way for Goa to lose its separate identity. He internally wanted Goa to lose its geographical and separate identity to declare to the World that Goa is a part of Indian Union because the world was accusing Nehru for using military force to conquer and invade Goa and not to liberate Goa. On 19th December 1961 Goa was not liberated but according to the Supreme Court judgment, on 19th December 1961, Goa was conquered by India against the wishes of Goans. Since this is the case, Nehru’s India still treats Goans as conquered people denying every demand of ours including the Special Status which we will never get because Central governments of BJP and Congress want Goa to be converted into a big brothel for all the rascals and Pimps from Delhi.
According to my information, immediately following the declaration of the Opinion Poll result, during the rally and meeting at Campal where the entire family of Dr. Jack Sequeira also participated, participants spontaneously raised the slogans saying “Dotor, you are the father of Opinion Poll”. Since then, rightly he goes as the father of Opinion Poll.
Bhembro must know that Nehru cannot be the father of Opinion Poll. It was Dr. Sequeira who out of concern for preserving Goa’s identity first impressed upon Nehru to have the Plebiscite for Goa to decide the future of Goa as per the above statement of Nehru but Nehru was Nehru, a cheat, a liar and a traitor and today we are suffering in Goa the sense of non-entity it is only because of Nehru who failed to maintain his assurance. For such a man to call the father of Opinion Poll will be a big crime and an insult to Dr. Sequeira who moved boulders and mountains to get an Opinion Poll for us. Nehru citing the demand of Kashmiris for Plebiscite in Kashmir to decide its future which India did not want to give, rejected Plebiscite in Goa also. But what Nehru failed to realize was this that Kashmiris case is totally different from Goa’s case.
No doubt everybody under the umbrella of “Anti-Merger” worked very hard even snatching Siolim and Mapusa constituencies from MG teeth yet the leadership of Dr. Sequeira was the need of the hour. He was during that time acted like a Hinge to unite anti-mergerists and in this mission he was successful. He went to Bombay and contacted Bombay Goans and impressed upon them to return to Goa to vote against merger. Bombay Goans played a good role to save Goa from getting merged with Maharastra. CM of Maharastra VP Naik and another mighty Maharastrian leader Y. B. Chawan in the Central Ministry played a huge role by sending deputionists to Goa to vote for merger. But Dr. Sequeira played his card very well to counter their onslaught by bringing Bombay Goans to Goa to vote for Goa. In this strategy Dr. Simon Fernandes based in Bombay played a pivotal role.
Dr. Sequeira was such a fine administrator, so beautiful orator of whose type Goa is yet to produce another one and above all he was the great secular by core. It was a pity that we missed his leadership to rule Goa. If UG had to win the first election itself, today Goa would be like gold because of his efficient administrative leadership but instead the “Rostad” anti-Goan administrator Bandodcar got the chance not only to misrule Goa but also to destroy Goa which he finally did. Bandodcar destroyed Goa because he was not a good administrator; he was the hard core communal and a big dictator worse than Salazar. It was not he alone that was a curse on Goa but the entire MGP is the curse on Goa and unfortunately we still are suffering from this curse because the last remnants of MGP are still existing. We the elders have fought vigorously in the past to half finish it from Goa and the remaining job the new generation must complete. The MGP is still craving to convert Goa as one Vaddo of Maharastra (Maharastra Vaddi).
In the light of what I said above about Dr. Jack de Sequeira, I maintain that it is none other than Dr. Sequeira alone is the FATHER OF OPINION POLL.
Congratulations to Calangute Panchayat under its leader Joseph Sequeira for being first in Goa to erect the monument of Dr. Jack de Sequeira. Tomazinho Cardoso was ruling Candolim Panchayat for a long period but such idea of constructing the monument of Dr. Sequeira in Candolim never dawned in his head though he talks a lot on Dr. Sequeira now. Where Tomazinho failed, Joseph Sequeira succeeded.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349
After reading the above article and the article published in SUNAPARANT dt.17.04.2015 written By shri Udaybab,as per that I feel If at all anybody to call as father of Opinion Poll then he should be Shri Bhau Purshottam Kakodkar who convinced all leaders at Delhi and forced them to change the cabinet decision of deciding GOA's future through Election polls.
If statue of Jack Sequeira is erected then it will always remind MGP that they are the losers. For this reason they don’t want the statue of Jack Sequeira. Do Goans don’t want Goa to be a separate State? Goans should come openly against MGP-BJP for again trying to merge Goa into Maharashtra by speaking Marathi at the official functions and in Oath taking Ceremony. Goans must say that Goa is for Goans and Goa’s State Language is Konkani and not Marathi. Goans should be faithful to their mother tongue KONKANI.
Who is the father of opinion poll ? YOU BE THE JUDGE!
MGP won the first election after Liberation and its party leader Dayanand Bandodkar became the first Chief Minister of Goa. The MGP and politicians in Maharashtra touted this victory as a mandate that the majority of Goans were in favour of merger. Following MGPs victory and the raised pitch for merger. Dr. Sequeira visited New Delhi along with his MLAs and impressed Nehru about the need of an opinion poll on this matter. However Nehru died before Parliament could take this decision and Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded him as Prime Minister.
A delegation consisting of MGP MLAs and Maharashtra’s leaders went to New Delhi to convince him that a vote on the merger should be conducted in the Goa Assembly
Dr. Sequeira, along with others went to Bangalore where an AICC session was being held and met Shastri. They opposed the move to get the merger voted in the Assembly and impressed on Shastri and Kamraj, the need to put this question before the people of Goa themselves.
Dr. Sequeira shrewdly managed to get the backing of the legislators of Mysore state (now Karnataka). He impressed them that if Maharashtra managed to convince the centre to merge Goa into Maharashra, it would only bolster their case for Karwar and Supa.
However Shastri died in 1966 in Tashkent and this decision was now left to the new Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Again Dr. Jack and his legislators met the new Prime Minister and submitted a memorandum that such a monumental decision affecting the future of the State could not be left to legislators alone, but should be put before the people to decide. The referendum could be conducted via a signature campaign or by secret ballot. Since a large number of Goans worked outside Goa and indeed, outside India itself as expats, he demanded that these expats should be allowed to vote by postal ballot. Parliament finally agreed to conduct a referendum by means of secret ballot but ruled out postal ballots.
Now that the referendum would be conducted, Dr. Sequeira feared that Bandodkar may use the state’s administrative and law-enforcement machinery to browbeat the anti-mergerists into submission. The UGP demanded that the MGP government resign so that the referendum could be conducted in a free-and-fair atmosphere. On 3 December 1966, the MGP government resigned.
Dr. Sequeira also traveled extensively exhorting people to vote against the merger. In this cause, he also visited places such as Colaba and Kalyan in Bombay, convincing Goans staying there to support the cause. The opinion poll was held on 16 January 1967. A total of 3,17,633 votes were polled. The merger was defeated by 34,021 votes