--- gilbert menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > For the life of me, I cannot > understand , how our > present day ministers could be intimidated by the > Armed Forces
Dear Mr. Menezes, You will never understand how present day ministers get intimidated by the Armed Forces, because you yourself were one of the Armed Forces (now retired, I presume). That is why, instead of permitting civilians to park alongside an Army depot near the Panjim Municipal market, the Panjim Municipality was forced to install a sign "No Parking By Order". Note the wording carefully as I have seen no such "By Order" on any other No Parking sign, in Panjim. And this too, after due representation was made by the then chief minister to the Chief Secretary to "keep the Armed Forces in check" (I don't have this particular news report at hand this moment). Then there were news reports (5Oct20002) as below: "The local fishermen of Bimbvel, a beach adjacent to INS Hansa, have been allegedly harassed by the navy over a decade now as the whole residential naval colony has been cordoned off, allowing no passage for the fishermen to go to their hutments on the beach. "The harassment continues in spite of all the courts, from the executive magistrate to the high court, instructing them to allow us free access and maintain a register. But they insist on issuing us passes as if we are strangers. We have been staying here much before the naval base came up", states Damaciano Dourado, the local fisherman. " So is the IN higher than the courts? I think this has been discussed in the past, and Dr. Jose Colaco also commented on it. > Lastly,Your reference to the Navy as *predators* , What else would you call someone who jumps upon a chance to grab a piece of land that did not belong to him and now refuses to budge inspite knowing of the illegality? "Warbirds of India" site says "With the Military action in 1961 against the Portugese in Goa and subsequent incorporation of Goa, Daman and Diu into the Republic of India, the Indian Navy benefitted the most with the sudden availablity of additional Port facilities. More importantly, Dabolim Air Field, was made into a center of Naval Aviation later on. Today Dabolim forms the cradle of Naval Aviation, providing training facilities as well as shore based facilities for the Naval Strike aircraft when they are not deployed among the carriers." http://www.warbirdsofindia.com/wbgoa.html "Following the Liberation of Goa in December 1961, the Indian Navy took over the Portuguese airfield at Dabolim by April 1962 and established facilities there, leading to the relocation of INS Hansa to Dabolim, in June 1964". http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/printer_432.shtml No information as to how the IN effectively took over - no contracts, requests or documentation mentioned. Just "taken over". I think I had requested you in the past for such a document - you have yet to make a pronouncement. Adjunct to the above. The airport at Dabolim was built with Goa's own funds and labour " ... as despesas com a construção destes aeroportos foram suportadas com verbas do plano de fomento." (Francisco Monteiro). (If you cannot understand the Portuguese, get some of your Goan neighbours to do so, for you - I know at least one who knows Portuguese in your neighbourhood). Dabolim was mostly crewed by Goans, some of who were, post 1961, refused induction into the Indian Airlines as the airline they belonged to, TAIP (based at Dabolim), was considered as a private airline by the courts. In fact, if you must know, and this is not part of this topic, TAIP air stewardesses (1956 - 1961) were probably the first international air stewardesses to wear a sari as part of their summer uniform (Patsy Almeida Cardoso - former TAIP air hostess, and comments by John Menezes). FYI, "western apparel was to remain the uniform for Air India air hostesses till 1960 when sarees were introduced" (http://www.airindia.com/page.asp?pageid=228). Dabolim was never an air force base nor a naval base pre-Dec 1961. In fact, from 2nd Dec to 18th Dec 1961, "baiting missions were flown right up to D-Day, trying to draw out the Portuguese Air Force, but to no avail." ... "The Goa operations gave the IAF an opportunity to employ jet air power for the first time on a massive scale. However that the Portuguese did not have any AA defences nor aircraft to defend their positions. This robbed the IAF of a realistic battlefield scenario." (http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1960s/Goa/). Dabolim, a Portuguese air-force base? You'd be joking. It was civilian to the core. And it ought to be civilian to the core this present day. > to every Indian who has abundant respect for our > armed forces. I don't think that it is exactly that attitude in Karwar at the moment. > All the Goans who live in Goa are Indians, > remember? Sorry, all Goans were "forced" to become Indians when the Indian Armed Forces invaded Goa. And all that to win Mr. K Menon enough votes to win the Feb 1962 elections - nothing to do with "liberating" Goa. "Charter or no charter, Goa will belong to India" I understand he said, to the UN security council, when India took action contrary to the UN charter that India had signed just eleven months earlier. Now was that a request by Goans, or a bombastic declaration by K Menon? Remember Pe. Chico Monteiro, the lone Goan who refused to give up his Portuguese citizenship? > I suggest that you keep that in mind in the future. Now who is being intimidating? Regards, Gabriel de Figueiredo. ____________________________________________________ On Yahoo!7 Messenger - Make free PC-to-PC calls to your friends overseas. http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
