A large number of aggrieved people, unhappy at the way Goa is being ruled by opportunist politicians, proved that the power of the people is much stronger than the people in power by inaugurating the ‘Opinion Poll Square’, a day ahead of its official unveiling at the hands of the Town and Country Planning Minister Vijay Sardesai, at Margao, yesterday.
In an unprecedented turn of events, the people gathered at Colva Circle and marched to the nearby Ravindra Bhavan and asked an elderly woman, Rosie Marie, to unveil the plaque, that left the minister red-faced as he was trying to encash the popular sentiment attached to opinion poll.
January 16 is the 51st anniversary of the historic Opinion Poll in Goa, the only referendum so far held in India. On that day in 1967, Goans under the leadership of the late Dr Jack de Sequeira, who is revered as the Father of the Opinion Poll, had overwhelmingly voted against a merger with Maharashtra to keep their unique identity and culture. The cause of the merger was espoused by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party that was in power in Goa that time.
The current government this year has declared that the Opinion Day will be celebrated as Asmitai Divas (Goan identity day) and as part of the celebrations the square in Margao is to be named as Opinion Poll Day square.
However, most of the Goans are unhappy at the ruling coalition comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Goa Forward and three independents who cobbled together a majority in the 40-member house under the chief ministership of former India defence minister Manohar Parrikar.
The people of south Goa are especially are more piqued with Sardesai, leader of the Goa Forward Party, for his ‘betrayal’ after winning the elections on an anti-BJP plank and then along with his two other MLAs propped up the BJP-led government in the state.
In a statement released to the press, the organisers said: “Rosie symbolically represents the ordinary people who fought to save Goa from being merged into Maharashtra.”
The citizens’ grouse was that politicians such as Sardesai wanted to draw undeserved mileage from the likes of Sequeira and the opinion poll just as he did with Goenkarponn (Goanness) — a plank on which the Goa Forward Party won three seats.
Freddy, one of the organisers, said “Today we the people, true Goenkars have come to pay our respects to the great son of Goa and father of the opinion poll, late Dr Jack de Sequeira and to all those who sacrificed their lives to preserve and save Goa for us. But today’s turncoat politicians have sold Goa for making money out of coal. They’ve sold our rivers and land to the land mafia. Shame on them. Watch out, the people of Goa will throw the turncoats out and preserve Goa for our future generations.”
Goa was a Portuguese colony from 1510-1961. Indian forces liberated Goa on December 19, 1961, and incorporated it into the Indian union.
