Goa Special Status

At an emergency UNSC meet on 18 December 1961, to discuss the Goan crisis, a resolution seeking the withdrawal of the Indian forces out of Goa, was vetoed by the USSR, despite getting majority votes.

That night, Mr. C. S. Jha, the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations conceded that it is now the time for all the UN resolutions pertaining to de-colonized territories to come into play[citation needed].

The UNO General Assembly had already adopted a resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 on the granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

In reaction to growing dissent, the Portuguese government in Goa implemented policies which curtailed civil liberties, including censorship of the press.

The Portuguese governor of Goa was empowered to suspend publication, close down printing presses and impose heavy fines on newspapers which refused to comply with these policies.

Many Goans criticised the curtailing of press freedoms, stating that the only newspapers and periodicals the Portuguese permitted them to publish were pro-colonialist propaganda materials.

[5] He played a pivotal role in convincing the government of India to hold an opinion poll to decide the issue of the merger of Goa into the state of Maharashtra Recently, there has been a renewed surge in the support for Romi Konkani and in the demand for official recognition for the Roman script alongside the Devanagari script.

Some examples of this are the growing online readership for Vauraddeancho Ixtt[6] and several groups and pages on social networking website Facebook,[7][8] in support of Romi Konkani.

It is argued that giving official recognition to Romi Konkani will help strengthen the language by creating an inclusive environment for users of the Roman script and also to the Christian community of Goa.