Letter to BS: President Kovind's speech-writer should verify facts

While addressing a civic reception organised in his honour in Goa on July 7, President Ramnath Kovind, while referring to the liberation movement of Goa, hailed the contribution of Dr T B Cunha who was an eminent freedom fighter. Kovind stated it was Dr Cunha who invited the famed socialist Dr Ram Manohar Lohia to address the public meeting in Goa on June 18, 1946, a day celebrated as Goa Revolution Day each year. 

I regret to state that President Kovind erred in his statement because Lohia was invited to Goa by Dr Juliao Menezes from Assolna. Lohia had come to Menezes’ Assolna residence on a vacation and upon realising the tyranny of the colonial Portuguese regime in Goa, defied the prohibition on free speech by addressing a meeting in Margao. While this appears to be an inadvertent error, I wish that the President’s speech-writer would verify facts before including them in the speech.
 

Vikas Kamat  Goa

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