Sandesh Prabhudesai
9 Feb 1998
Taking 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.
