Goa, May 30 -- Vivek Menezes

The case for Goa was always cultural. Here's how Armando Menezes put it at the historic Anti-Merger Conference on April 17, 1965: [our land] has always been coveted, because she is so voluptuously beautiful. Her very loveliness has proved her greatest curse. But in the past, we were conquered, not liberated. The question before every self-respecting Goan today is - are we to be conquered once more, in the name of liberation? If we are not to be conquered again, bullied or brought into a denial of our freedom, the essence of which is the assertion of our distinct personality, we must begin by giving up our political apathy, and put more grit and iron into our souls. [Because] the case against the integrity of ...