Editor, Goemkarponn
AERIAL VIEW
The BJP’s alliance partner MGP has passed a resolution that the airport is named after the late Bhausaheb Bandodkar, the first chief minister of Goa, while some said it to be named after Father of Opinion Poll Dr Jack Sequeira.
There has been a vast debate on social media as to whose name should be engraved on the nameplate of Mopa airport.
Some BJP leaders, as well as supporters, suggest the airport be named after the late Manohar Parrikar, who is called the architect of Modern Goa.
While the Congress has not adopted a formal position on the naming of the airport, former chief minister Churchill Alemao, who had contested the 2022 polls on a Trinamool Congress ticket, has demanded that the airport be named after Jack de Sequeira.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
Well, the new Greenfield Airport at Mopa is all set to be inaugurated next month, depending on the availability of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently busy with Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls, also subject to completion of work, which seems far from over.
The authorities seem to be pushing hard for the airport’s inauguration next month for the reasons best known to them.
But whatever the reasons may be, it must not end up the way the Morbi bridge in Gujarat was inaugurated in a hurry, only to collapse a few days later, killing approximately 150 people, including 50-odd children.
There have been minor cases of land caving in, near the airport at Mopa, raising eyebrows as locals have been maintaining the land earmarked for Mopa has several caves below.
Nonetheless, the construction has reached the advanced stage or the completion stage, and the government seems in no mood to look back.
Amidst all this, the airport is surrounded by another controversial issue, which is the naming of the airport.
Now the question is who deserves the name on the Goa International Airport at Mopa.
The BJP’s alliance partner MGP has passed a resolution that the airport is named after the late Bhausaheb Bandodkar, the first chief minister of Goa, while some said it to be named after Father of Opinion Poll Dr Jack Sequeira.
There has been a vast debate on social media as to whose name should be engraved on the nameplate of Mopa airport.
Some BJP leaders, as well as supporters, suggest the airport be named after the late Manohar Parrikar, who is called the architect of Modern Goa.
While the Congress has not adopted a formal position on the naming of the airport, former chief minister Churchill Alemao, who had contested the 2022 polls on a Trinamool Congress ticket, has demanded that the airport be named after Jack de Sequeira.
There have been some suggestions that the airport is named St Francis Xavier airport; some said Parshurambhoomi airport, while there have been cryptic tweets that the airport will finally be named after BJP as Deen Dayal Upadhyay airport or Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee.
Of Course, the Mopa airport is a prestigious project for the BJP and Goa, but the controversy on naming is needless.
However, the citizens are not wrong when they say that the airport must bear the name of a Goan leader like Parriker or Bandodkar or Jack Sequeira. Finally, it is a Goan airport, and the recognition of local leaders should be a must.
Why should somebody like Deen Dayal Upadhyay or Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee or Atal Bihar Vajpayee or Indira Gandhi, or Jawaharlal Nehru’s name be at the airport?
During the Congress regime, all naming was on the names of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi, while in BJP, it is Deen Dayal Upadhyay or Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee or Atal Bihar Vajpayee.
Hundreds of Goans (Pernekars) have given their livelihood for the airport, parting away from their agricultural land, and it would fitting that the airport is named after a Pednekar or a Goan.
