Goemkarponn desk
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s criticism that Goa’s liberation was delayed due to Jawaharlal Nehru was a “desperate attempt to distort history” and asserted that India’s first PM intervened at the right time to free Goa.
In an interview with PTI, Mr Chidambaram also stressed that no Congress MLA elected in the upcoming assembly polls can be poached by the BJP in Goa this time, saying “our house is well-guarded” and though the “thief” is still out there, the people “will teach him a lesson”.
He said that with every passing day, it is becoming clearer to the voters that they have to choose between the BJP or the Congress and “small parties” such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are “splitting” the non-BJP votes.
Mr Chidambaram also said that announcing a chief ministerial candidate is “not a factor” in this election.
Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent criticism that Goa’s liberation was delayed because of Nehru, he said this is another “desperate attempt to distort and re-write history”.
“Mr Modi and Mr Shah do not know the history of the world post World War II. They do not know the history of post-Independence India, especially the nascent years 1947-1960. They do not know how deftly Jawaharlal Nehru steered India to a position where India became a champion of peace and the acknowledged leader of the Non-Aligned Movement,” Mr Chidambaram said.
Nehru intervened at the right time to liberate Goa and that is why not a single voice was raised against the military action, he said.
And Nehru followed up the liberation by offering the Goan people an opinion poll to decide their future.
“Thanks to Nehru and the opinion poll, Goa today is what it is — an independent state. Whatever Mr Modi and Mr Shah may say, and however history is sought to be distorted, the people of Goa will always remember the great contribution of Nehru,” Mr Chidambaram asserted.
Addressing an election rally in Goa on Thursday, PM Modi said if Nehru wanted, Goa could have been liberated “within hours” in 1947 when India attained independence, but it took 15 years for the state to be freed from Portuguese rule. Shah had also made similar charges recently.
Goa, liberated from Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961, was a part of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu till May 30, 1987, when it was carved out as a separate state.
Asked if the possibility of a repeat of what happened in the current assembly in terms of Congress MLAs switching loyalties has been ruled out and party is now “poaching-proof”, Mr Chidambaram said there is absolutely no question that any Congress MLA can be poached by the BJP this time.
“Our house is well-guarded. We know the ‘thief’ is still out there, but the people of Goa will teach him a lesson this time. Our appeal to the people of Goa is to give the Congress-GFP a clear mandate with a simple majority or more,” he said.
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