Word: goa
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Banging his fist on his desk, Nehru declared that NATO is "a powerful protector of colonialism," which has had the "gross impertinence" to hint to India that it would protect Portuguese Goa. "We should not take any sides in the cold war," said Nehru. "It is an intolerable humiliation for any nation of Asia or Africa to degrade itself by becoming a camp follower of one or the other of the power blocs . . . We will not join either bloc because that means losing our identity...
More than the prickly heat was worrying Pandit Nehru. He was vexed about Goa, because the "inevitable historical process" of taking over this Portuguese colonial remnant had gone awry; the Goans had not risen up, as expected, to demand liberation, and Nehru had been made to look foolish. Nehru was also annoyed by his Minister of Labor who resigned from the Cabinet because Nehru had arbitrarily overruled the Labor Tribunal. But above all, Nehru showed telltale signs of jealousy. For one thing, Attlee & Co. Ltd. (of Great Britain) had poached on his position as No. 1 interpreter to the world...
...saluted the Indian tricolored flag which they carried, for the day was India's Independence Day. Finally the marchers reached a sagging chain across their path. Behind the chain stood seven Goan policemen and a small dog. Undaunted, the little band stepped over the chain and tramped into Goa...
...miles north, two other groups of peaceful invaders, one with 20 marchers, another with ten, all Goans, walked calmly into the little colony. Back at his headquarters in the Indian town of Karwar, 46-year-old Peter Alvares. president of the National Congress of Goa and mastermind of the unarmed invasion to "liberate" the colony, insisted that all this was according to plan: he had instructed his liberators to scatter among the people of Goa and preach freedom until captured...
...Portugal's flag still flew over Goa. Earlier in the week Nehru had announced:"The Indian Army could take Goa in a trice if it wanted to. but we do not want to." Apparently, having heard from the rest of the world, Nehru decided that now was the wrong moment for swallowing up Goa...