With four days left for the Goa Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unleashed a scathing attack on the Congress, targeting India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru again for “not ensuring” Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule for 15 years after 1947, when India attained Independence. He was addressing an election rally in Mapusa in North Goa.
PM Modi reminded Goans of what he said in the Rajya Sabha two days ago, when he had made a similar attack on Nehru for not sending armed forces to liberate Goa from Portuguese rule for 15 years only to protect his “peace-loving global image” .
“The country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru declared from the Red Fort…you can hear his speech on YouTube today… that to help those struggling for the liberation of Goa, he will not send the army. Matlab tum jaano, tumhara kaam jaane, marna hai toh maro, jeena hai toh jee lo. Yeh tarika (Meaning you are on your own… die if you have to, live if you have to. Is this the way)? This is how Congress thought before and thinks even today. This same Congress is seeking your votes today. Congress has always pushed the state on the path of instability, whenever the Congress felt like it, it destablised the government here,” the PM said.
At his only rally in Goa ahead of the polls, Modi said, “Many things have been suppressed in history….Many people don’t even know that Goa was liberated a decade and a half after India got its freedom. For 15 years more, they (Goans) were forced to remain ghulam (slaves). India had the forces, the army, our strong navy. Something that could have been done in a few hours, the Congress did not do for 15 years. The people of Goa struggled for their freedom, satyagrahis faced bullets, endured atrocities but the Congress government did not help them.”
Lauding Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on achieving 100 per cent vaccination in the state, Modi said that reaching such a milestone indicated there was no discrimination in the state.
In an oblique dig at the TMC and AAP, Modi said the people of Goa have also seen some “new faces” in this election. “Some political parties are treating Goa like a launch pad for their selfish and power-hungry ambition,” he said.
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