28. Goa's Nakli Freedom Fighters Fibs fed by fake 'freedom fighters', and accepted at face value without verification by GK Handoo's intelligence apparatus, painted the picture of a fairly strong Portuguese military presence in Goa equipped with the latest transonic jet fighters like Sabres, Fouga Magister and Starfighters, transports modified to drop bombs, anti-aircraft guns, frigates, submarines, et al. India mobilised a far larger than warranted force, which no professional army in the world likes to do. The deployment and baiting operations for over a fortnight also resulted in a substantial economic loss to India.
Handoo was accountable but he was to become Nehru's chief trouble-shooter in Goa. (He was more a trouble maker but of that later.) Major General DK ("Monty") Palit who, when a Brigadier was Director of Military Operations at Army HQ in December 1961, candidly assessed, "The strength of the Portuguese forces was negligible; at no time had they posed a military threat to India. Indeed the entire course of the operation amounted to little more than large-scale military manoeuvres...this episode was just comic relief [from the actual pressure at India's northern borders with China and Pakistan]" (Palit, Musings & Memories Vol II, 2004, Page 411). Note that these are words of India's Director of Military Operations at the time. On the flip side, wrong inputs fed by fake Goan freedom fighters may have benefitted Goa in a roundabout way. As a result of their inputs, India mobilised an overwhelming force, which may have been a blessing for Goans: in the face of a mighty enemy, the Portuguese garrison gave up without a fight, avoiding a tragedy -- for themselves and for Goans who, caught in the crossfire, would be counted as collateral victims. In that sense, nakli (fake) Goan freedom fighters -- cross-border smugglers though they may have been -- can be regarded as asli (real) saviours! Another marvel dogs the dubious freedom fighter. The freedom movement definitely ended on 18 December 1961. Freedom fighter Dr.Suresh Kanekar wrote in 2011, "...most of the freedom fighters are now dead" (Kanekar, 2011, Page 255). Yet, their official number as of 31 March 2005 -- 44 years after the event -- was 1,393. Assuming without admitting that the figure was not inflated, their official number as of 31 December 2010, five years later, actually rose: from 1,393 to 1,501! A strange species that runs contrary to the laws of evolution. This is not to suggest that freedom fighters were smugglers, as Goa's first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar evidently thought. (Some fakes were, no doubt; and smuggling continued post 1961; there was no gold and foreign merchandise, but in prohibition-prone neighbouring India, Goa's feni and IMFL liquor ensured the tribe of smugglers increased.) Goa produced a large number of genuine freedom fighters who suffered detention and police brutality, served prison sentences, at times in exile in Portugal/Africa, and in some cases, death. Some of those freedom fighters have been named in published accounts like: * Dr. PD Gaitonde, The Liberation of Goa: A Participant's View of History (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987), * Dr. Suresh Kanekar, Goa's Liberation and Thereafter: Chronicles of a Fragmented Life (Goa: Goa,1556, 2011), * PP Shirodkar, My Life in Exile (translated into English by Lt.Col.Dr. Pravinkumar P. Shirodkar, Goa, 2012) and * a press statement issued by 12 freedom fighters carried in the Goan daily ‘oHERALDo' of 2 February 1987 at Page 2 under the title, "Goan Catholics are not anti-nationals!" Many genuine nationalists did not register themselves as freedom fighters. And some genuine and famous freedom fighters like Dr. PD Gaitonde, Dr. Rama Hegde and Adv. José Inácio "Fanchu" Loyola took off for foreign shores after seeing the fruits of Goa's freedom. Quite a few of those who stayed back, notably Lambert Mascarenhas and Prabhakar Sinari, lamented the post-1961 fallout. Others like Roque Santan Fernandes, later an elected MLA, stayed back -- but their families left, many on Portuguese passports! Some registered 'freedom fighters' had nothing to do with nationalism or the freedom movement. Some were plain smugglers, a few were in jail on 19 December 1961 for entirely unrelated offences, and fewer still were innocent fun-seekers who fell unwitting victim to Portuguese police paranoia. A man was in jail for some offence on 19 December 1961. It was his lucky charm. He became a registered freedom fighter. He never stopped receiving his monthly pension and began wearing a Gandhi topi (cap). He was short on temper and once flung a sandal at a judge in an open courtroom. He was fond of venting his powerful oratory with loud and long speeches at Margao's Lohia Maidan -- before audiences that literally didn't exist. Street idlers knew how to unnerve him with catcalls from the adjoining streets. In the midst of fiery speech, he left whatever he was haranguing about and responded to the catcalls -- with a shower of chaste expletives let loose in the choicest Konkani -- over the public address system. Small mercies the venue was hemmed in by compound walls and the catcallers remained unseen; else our hero might have abandoned not just what he was saying but mike and maidan as well, to pursue his tormentors. Some economically-challenged but genuine freedom fighters, particularly of the underground variety, had to make a living, even when hiding from the Portuguese police and PIDE. A retired Goan IAF fighter pilot relates how he accosted one such from the same Salcete village who tried to make off with his sister's gold chain after she alighted from the last bus home. Remember there was no electricity or street lighting in villages then. The enraged pilot, on home leave, almost choked the freedom fighter in his own shirt collar outside the latter's house the same night. The image of freedom fighters in local lore, however, was one of 'chicken thieves'. A well-known Margao-based freedom fighter had given his best years for the cause. He was beyond the age of acquiring gainful skills. He would explode when street urchins taunted him with catcalls of Kombie pak (chicken feather). This had to do with his taking a post-1961 rehabilitation package to start a poultry. A visiting audit team saw no signs of the poultry. When quizzed, the freedom fighter explained that all the birds had died of disease. "Then where are the feathers?" the accountant smarties pressed. Our Alec replied, "When hens die, they don't leave their feathers behind". What was left behind was the chicken feather taunt, and its permanent rile. Another Salcetan was the butt of jokes. Post lunch while the land slumbered into a siesta, it seems our hero was habituated to tell his wife that he was going for a walk. Walk he did, in search of fun. One day, he spotted comely Jakin (Joaquina) bent over her paddy crop. Crouching at the edge of the quiet 'bund' bordering the paddies, he beckoned, "Jakin, Jakin!" A passing Portuguese police party, not conversant with the local idiom, heard that as Jai Hind, Jai Hind! The poor fun-seeker was bundled into the jeep and into jail. On 19 December 1961, he emerged as a triumphant freedom fighter. There was another from Canacona who similarly earned a Tamrapatra and lifelong pension. A fun-seeker he was, a freedom-seeker he was certainly not. This author's friend, Dr. Dhillon Dessai of Palolem-Canacona, a neighbour and at times physician to freedom fighter Dr. PD Gaitonde, tells the story. This politically innocent hero went to the Barcem temple area, near Padi village, for a night of fun. When returning pre-dawn, jittery Portuguese soldiers detained him on suspicion at the Pissonem Check Post. A few days later, he was liberated from custody -- and proudly strutted about as a registered Goan freedom fighter! -- Excerpted from revised text of the book, Patriotism In Action: Goans in India's Defence Services by Valmiki Faleiro, first published in 2010. 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