CM Sawant: Yet to understand why it took 14 more years to liberate Goa

He said the film, financed by the state’s information and publicity department, would be screened in colleges and higher secondary schools after it is certified by the directorates of information and publicity and school education.

Earlier, the chief minister inaugurated an exhibition on the archival records related to the freedom struggle of Goa. He said the government would bring back documents related to the freedom struggle from Portugal, Maharashtra, and Daman and Diu.

“We need to bring back documents related to Goa’s freedom struggle and other documents from Portugal. There are some documents with Maharashtra and we need to bring them back first. I think some documents may also be in Daman and Diu and we need to get them back,” Sawant said.

On June 6, he said his government would write to the Ministry of External Affairs for help to bring back the historical documents from Portugal.

Freedom fighters Ram Manohar Lohia, whose speech in Margao on June 18, 1946 triggered the revolution for Goa’s freedom, and Dr Juliao Menezes, who invited him to the state, were remembered in speeches as the government held various events on Goa Revolution Day.

Speaking on the occasion, Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai said the socialist leader had died at the age of 57 after a surgery went wrong. He also mentioned Bharatiya Jana Sangh ideologue Deendayal Updhyay, who was pushed to his death from a running train.

“It was not a risky operation, but the greatest Opposition politician in our country at that time…there were two important persons at that time Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. Lohia lost his life… and there was an inquiry. The inquiry report says (because of) the absence of providing adequate medicine and negligence on part of the doctor, he lost his life at age 57. Deendayal Upadhyay lost his life in three-four months after that in 1968. I don’t want to start a controversy on that aspect. But as a student of history…in 1967 there was a political change in India and two persons, the backbone of the (Opposition) movement at that time…Of course official records are there, CBI reports are there…all these things may be a subject of research by political students,” Pillai said.