At a time when the Congress is urging voters to “save democracy and the Constitution” by voting for it in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, its South Goa candidate Viriato Fernandes finds himself in the middle of a controversy over his old remarks on the Constitution. The BJP has targeted Fernandes for saying that the Constitution had been “imposed” on Goa. The ruling party has accused the Congress of insulting the Constitution and making a “calculated move to break the nation”, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing this up recently. “The Congress candidate is saying clearly that the Constitution was forced on Goa… Is this not an insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Constitution? Today, they are rejecting the Constitution in Goa, tomorrow these people will commit the sin of rejecting it in the entire country,” Modi said at a rally in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. What did the Congress candidate say? At a corner meeting in Betalbatim in the Nuvem Assembly segment of South Goa, Fernandes on Monday recalled a discussion on dual citizenship with then Congress president Rahul Gandhi ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was then a member of a citizens’ collective called “Goencho Awaz (Voice of Goa)”. “We placed 12 demands before him and one of them was regarding dual citizenship. When he asked me if the move was constitutional, I explained to him that the Constitution was adopted in 1950 while Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule only in 1961 and the Constitution was imposed on us. When the Constitution was adopted, Goa was not a part of India,” he said. Fernandes said he told Rahul that Goans acquire Portuguese citizenship due to a lack of jobs in Goa. “They go abroad, support their families and more importantly, they send remittances. Rahul said that I had a point.” What is the dual citizenship issue? Portugal offers those born in Goa before December 19, 1961 — the day Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule — and two future generations the option of registering as its citizens. Since a Portuguese passport provides the holder visa-free entry to several countries, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, many in Goa in the last few decades have been transcribing their births in the Central Registry in Lisbon and acquiring Portuguese citizenship to avail employment and educational opportunities. The issue gained prominence in the past year after Indian authorities stopped issuing surrender certificates, rendering many Goans ineligible for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status. Earlier this month, two Goans filed petitions in the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court after their Indian passports were revoked by the regional passport office in Panaji. How has the BJP responded? Hours after Fernandes’s remarks, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant accused him of “undermining the Constitution”. On Wednesday, the BJP filed a complaint with the Goa Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) demanding Fernandes’s disqualification for violating the Model Code of Conduct. It accused Fernandes of having views “that stink of anti-national and divisive mentality, which were detrimental to the democratic and social fabric of the country”. Mormugao BJP MLA Sankalp Amonkar has filed a police complaint against the Congress candidate. Who is Fernandes? Fernandes is a retired naval officer and a Kargil war veteran who received the Vijay Star medal. He was preferred by the Congress over sitting South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha for the polls. He joined the Congress ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls and made his debut from Dabolim, losing out narrowly to the BJP’s Mauvin Godinho. In the parliamentary elections, he will lock horns with Pallavi Dempo, the first woman in Goa to contest the Lok Sabha polls as a BJP nominee. Fernandes told The Indian Express that he did not use the word “forced”. “The Constitution has stood the test of time and has held India together. My only contention is that there should have been some provision or special status to ensure the protection of Goa’s land, culture, and Goan interests. If that had been done, today the Prime Minister and the BJP would not have sold our land and destroyed Goa’s identity. I spoke about safeguarding Goa’s identity,” he said. Accusing Modi of “murdering the Constitution”, he challenged him for a debate on the issue. “You are challenging a soldier who has served for 26 years in the Navy? I have the highest regard for the Constitution and the armed forces. When I joined the Navy, I took an oath on the very Constitution that you are trying to amend,” he said. What is the Congress’s stand? The Goa Congress has thrown its weight behind Fernandes and accused the BJP of “misinterpreting and doctoring” his speech to mislead people. “He was raising the dual citizenship issue, which had been raised by former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar in the past. Does that make what Parrikar said unconstitutional?” said Goa Congress chief Amit Patkar.
