The territory of Goa was under the Portuguese dominance for 450 long years from 1510 to 1961. ‘Operation Vijay’ of the Indian Armed forces liberated Goa from the said foreign rule on 19th December 1961. Before the Portuguese rule in Goa, various dynasties like the Kadambas, Chalukyas, Silharas etc ruled Goa and left their imprint on this soil in many ways.

Upon Goa’s liberation, Lt. Gen. K.P Candeth was appointed as the Lt. Governor of Goa. The first polls were conducted in Goa on 9 December 1963. The political scene then was dominated by the United Goans Party (UGP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gamantak Party (MGP). While the UGP were votaries for preserving Goa’s separate identity, the MPG were proponents of Goa’s merger into the State of Maharashtra. The first elections to the 30-member Legislative Assembly of Goa, Daman and Diu saw the MGP emerge victorious in 16 seats while the UGP won in 12 seats, thus paving the way for the first democratically elected Government in Goa of the MGP led by late Dayanand Bandodkar.

While the MGP Government in Goa had passed a resolution in the Assembly on 22 January, 1965, the Maharashtra State Assembly also followed by passing a resolution on 10 March, 1965 in favour of merger of Goa into Maharashtra.

Our country’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru who was a democrat to the core had made a promise to Union Territory of Goa at the time of Goa’s accession into India that the future of Goa would be decided by Goans. This promise of Pt. Nehru was honoured by his daughter and our former Prime Minister India Gandhi while in her stint as Prime Minister. Following the death of Pt. Nehru on 27 May, 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded Pt. Nehru as our Prime Minister for a brief period upto Shastri’s death on 11 January, 1966. Following the death of Shastri, Indira Gandhi assumed the reigns of our Country as the Prime Minister on 24 January 1966, upon which she and her Government decided to honour the promise made by Pt. Nehru to Goa which led to the historic enactment of the Goa, Daman and Diu (Opinion Poll) Act by the Parliament which then received the assent of the President of India and accordingly 16 January, 1967 was the date fixed for conducting the historic ‘Opinion Poll’ or ‘Janmatkaul’ as referred to in Konkani.

The MGP and proponents of merger argued that Goa being a small State, it must be merged with Maharashtra. They also argued that Konkani was only a dialect of Marathi and that Marathi was the mother tongue of all Goans. Against these arguments, the anti-merger forces argued that Konkani was an independent language and that Goa had unique and distinct identity of its own which had to be preserved.
In the run up to the Opinion Poll, the Central Government advised the Government of Goa to resign before the poll exercise which decision upon being conveyed to Chief Minister Bandodkar to put in his resignation papers on 28 Nov, 1966.

Apart from UGP and Congress, organizations like Council of Action along with anti merger voices like Rashtramat, OHerald, Navhind Times, Goa Today etc played a vital role in creating awareness against merger. Several other artists, writers and tiatrists also played an important role in this anti-merger endeavour.

The Opinion Poll offered Goans two choices; to remain as a Union Territory (Two leaves symbol) and for Goa’s merger with Maharashtra (Flower symbol). Upon voting, the counting exercise which began on 17 January, 1967 continued for three days concluding on January 19. The counting revealed 1,72,191 votes against merger whereas 1,38,170 votes in favour of merger. Thus the people of Goa spoke through the ballot in the first ever and only ‘Opinion Poll’ exercise carried out by independent India and voted against merger with Maharashtra so as to remain a separate Union Territory.

While we celebrate and commemorate the anniversary of the Opinion Poll each year, we must as grateful Goans remember the great sacrifices and acts of courage of our great Goan men and women who worked selflessly, tirelessly and with immense conviction to achieve success in this struggle of realising the popular Goan aspiration towards retaining and preserving our separate, unique and distinct identity. In the same breath we must also remember and pay our respect to the former Prime Ministers of India Pt. Nehru and Gandhi for respecting and acknowledging the sentiments of Goans to pave the way for the first ever and only ‘Opinion Poll’ in the history of Independent India.
After achieving success in the Opinion Poll, Goa has also earned its Statehood on May 30, 1987. The said decision of the Central Government led by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in acknowledging the popular Goan sentiment and granting Statehood to our State also needs to be remembered while cherishing the success of the Opinion Poll.

Thus while we celebrate the ‘Opinion Poll day’ as ‘Asmitai Dis’, it is imperative that each of us rededicate ourselves by taking a solemn pledge to preserve and protect this unique and distinct Goan identity in every nuance and connotation of the term so to as to realise the Goa of our dreams. Hence as we take this vow, we must realise that only sincerity of purpose and unflinching commitment to the cause on the part of each of us can lead us in realising this avowed goal of ‘ideal Goa’ through unity and brotherhood just as the battle of ‘Opinion Poll’ was successfully fought and boldly won.
(The author is a practicing lawyer.).