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Dr. Jack de Sequeiras Monument.
A million congratulations to Calangute Panchayat and its Sarpanch Joseph
Sequeira for financing and erecting the statue of late Dr. Jack de Sequeira
popularly known as the father of historic Opinion Poll. I must also
acknowledge the enormous contribution and efforts put in by Mr. Peter
Figueredo a resident of Caranzalem in helping Joseph Sequeira in erecting
this statute. Earlier in this forum twice I wrote about the necessity of
erecting the statute of Dr. Jack de Sequeira and even asked any Bom
Samaritan in Goa to come forward and give a lead for this great project.
Some people on the net advised me to take up this responsibility on my
shoulder but being away from Goa I declined but volunteered to raise funds
for this project in collaboration with my like minded Goans spread all
around the world. Anyway, either you or I, he or she, somebody must come
forward and finally and without a big noise Joseph Sequeira and Peter
Figueredo came forward and belled the cat. Wonderful job done by wonderful
persons, real lovers of Goa who deserve highest accolades. Where the top
politicians and ministers brought up under the umbrella of Dr. Sequeira as
political novices failed to deliver the goods Joseph and Figueredo
succeeded. The efforts of Dr. Sequeira to impress upon the then Premier of
India, Jawaharlal Nehru to hold the Opinion Poll in Goa were commendable.
According to reports available at that time, Nehru was reluctant to hold
this Opinion Poll because Nehru was more aligned with Y. B. Chavan and V. P.
Naik, the former was the Defence Minister of India and the latter was the
Chief Minister of Maharstra, both Congressmen from Maharastra wanted to grab
Goa bodily and soully. If it was not for the genius of Dr. Sequeira in
convincing Nehru, the historic Opinion Poll would never be held in Goa. As
a matter of fact, such an Opinion Poll was held only once in India, that is
in Goa. Dr. Sequeira was a genuine Goan who had great love for Goa and
Goans. He was not an illegitimate son of Goa fathered by unknown father to
a woman from Marcela and Bandoda. Dr. Sequeira was not a son of a Kolvont
from Marcela and because he was genuine son of genuine Goan father he gave
his heart for the cause of Goa. Overwhelming majority of those who
supported merger of Goa with Maharastra were not genuine Goans, their roots
were in Ghanttar and in other parts of Shivaji land.
Dr. Wilfred De Souza was inducted into Goan politics by Dr. Jack de Sequeira
and as such he should have made some efforts to initiate the move to erect
Dr. Sequeiras Statute in any part of Goa, if not appropriately in Panjim.
Dr. Willy was in position to do this because he was Chief Minister of Goa at
least for a while and during this period he could do something on this
subject. Erecting the statute of Dayananda Bandodkar in Calangute near the
beach was a great insult to Goa lovers Goans, especially for Calangutkars
who were always pro-Goans and not pro-Maharastrawadis. Calangute was not the
strong citadel of Bandodkar and his MGP. Calangutkars always stood by Goa
for Goans ideology propounded by Dr. Jack de Sequeira. Calangutkars and Dr.
Sequeira always maintained a very cordial relationship. The late Pedru
Coutinho from Calangute and the late Ubaldo the fatherinlaw of the present
Sarpanch of Calangute Joseph Sequeira were a great support for the efforts
of Dr. Sequeira in winning maximum number of votes in favour of Two Leaves
during the Opinion Poll, from Calangute and surrounding areas. I was a
young Arpora School student at that time and I took very active part in
supporting the vote for Two Leaves campaign and also involving in all the
rallies organized by Pedru whose muscle and money power were a great help
for us against our opponents. Josephs father-in-law Ubaldo also spent lot
of money from his own kitty. Once we organized a cycle rally from Calangute
to Mapusa under the leadership of Pedru in support of Two Leaves. On that
day we never knew that Bandodkar and his gang brought at Mapusa Friday Bazar
live Lions from Maharastra along with top Maharastrian goons to frighten
Goans from supporting Two Leaves. Before entering Mapusa road, after
crossing Parra, we were stopped and attacked by the hired MGP goons but
luckily for us Pedru like a Tiger stood by us openly daring every opponent
to keep a distance from us. With his support we as young and energetic boys
put all our weight behind Pedru. Dr. Sequeira had great respect for Pedru,
Ubaldo and all their colleagues. Bandodkar tried his best to woo Pedru
towards him thru bribe but Pedru was an unbribeable niz Goykar. When Pedru
died at an early age Dr. Sequeira paid glowing tributes to Pedrus work for
the cause of Goa in general and for the cause of Opinion Poll in particular.
The voters who voted for Two Leaves were genuine lovers of Goa and they were
unbribeables while many who voted for Flower the symbol for merger were
bribed heavily by Bandodkar's illicit money received from Maharastra.
Almost all the Christians of Goa along with their Muslim brothers and
sisters voted for anti-merger i.e. for Two Leaves along with the elite class
of Hindus while lower strata of Hindus who were misguided by Dayananda
Bandodkar and his MGP against Christians, voted for merger. We as young
boys were helpers in our locality for our voters. When counting started,
the North Goa ballot boxes were opened first and since it was the strong
citadel of merger, mergerists gained foothold over non-mergerist. Gradually
counting started for Calangute constituency votes, it was approximately at
4.00 p.m., we were in class at that moment, one of my classmates Rego from
Calangute village brought his radio set and hid it in the desk. Raphael was
our Maths teacher and he was giving a class in Algbra which was the last
period of the day. He was a very strict disciplinarian hailing from Saligao
and he would never allow anything in class besides lesson. When Saligao
ballot box was opened and counting started, my classmate Rego switched on
the radios sound a little louder. Sir Rafael suddenly forgot that he was
in class and teaching there and instead asked Rego to make the sound a
little louder. It was here that the lead of Two Leaves voters started
taking a surge till we maintained it to the total demolition of mergerists.
When on the final day the counting got over, Justice Jetley passed a verdict
to delay the final results and introduced a Section under which more than 5
persons were forbidden to assemble together. Suddenly police patrols
started moving all around Goa to prevent assemblies of more than 5 persons.
This was done to avoid the blood bath of mergerites in Panjim first and
elsewhere later. Some supporters of Two Leaves were in readiness to attack
mergerites near the vote counting hall because earlier when mergerites were
gaining lead, they were mocking at anti-mergerists. In my locality in
Candolim some hardened mergerists were burning fire crackers at the feet of
anti-mergerists at the Candolim Tinto insulting and mocking at us. But when
we won the victory we never got our revenge because we believed in
forgiveness. Eye for an eye and tooth for tooth was not our policy. It was
the first Code of this planet introduced by the ancient King of ancient
Mesopotamia that currently falls in Iraq. Because of the application of
this Law of Hamurabi, Iraq is burning today and it will go on burning till
the doctrine of Eye for an eye and tooth for tooth is stopped. My elder
brother who was attending the counting of votes in Panjim already guessed
the outcome of the results in our favour and came home with a big box of
Fire Crackers and started firing them to the thunderous applause of a big
gathering at my place. Incidentally one of the persons whom we used to fire
these crackers was a staunch mergerist who suddenly within few hours changed
his colours. Earlier at Candolim Tinto he was firing crackers at the feet
of anti-mergerists thinking that mergerists have won the Poll. This was the
quality of these mergerists. Today all the mergerists who are gaining
political mileage in Goa it was only because of us anti-mergerits who stood
by the late Dr. Jack de Sequeira, the father of Opinion Poll whose Statute
at Calangute will remind every one even posterity to pay obeisance to this
great man for fighting for the cause of preserving the identity of Goa.
Viva Jack de Sequeira. Viva Calangute Panchayat.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
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