The following write-up of mine appeared in the local daily Arab Times dated 12.07.07.
I am reproducing it for the goa.kranti readers.
Quote "This is with regards to the death of former Premier of India Chandra Shekar at the age of 80 in New Delhi. Chandra Shekar no doubt will be remembered in the history of India as one of the dynamic leaders of modern India always with revolutionary ideas yet with regards to Kuwait I will rightly call him a great friend of Kuwait. For saying so I will give my reasons too.
In another few days time, on 2nd of August, we will be observing the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. When invasion of Kuwait took place Chandra Shekar was not in power, V. P. Singh was in power at that time. The invasion of Kuwait took India by surprise and V.P. Singh and his Government was in jittery position not knowing what to do, what statement to issue and whom to side openly. Though V.P. Singh was more an Indian oriented parochial leader without much exposure to foreign affairs yet his Foreign Minister Gujral who later on became Premier of India, was expert in foreign affairs as he was a career diplomat. Though India under V.P. Singh failed to openly condemn Iraqi invasion of Kuwait for reasons best known to New Delhi yet India knew it is a short lived crisis. Soon after the invasion of Kuwait when Gujral came to Kuwait after meeting and hugging Saddam Hussein or Saddam Hussein imposing his hug and kiss on Gujral to create a false image of Gujral in Baghdad, at Shara Istiklal in the Indian Embassy compound, to a multitude of Indians gathered there for receiving good tidings from him for their safe return back to India, said he as an expert on foreign affairs: “this is just a temporary crisis” and rightly it remained so. But ordinary people were restless while intellectual Indians wanted V. P. Singh government in Delhi to openly condemn Iraq and its leadership under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein for invading Kuwait illegally. But V.P. Singh and his Government played the role of hide and seek thereby lowering the prestige of India known in the past to side with the aggrieved party, like Kuwait. By his silence V. P. Singh as a Premier of such a great country India that championed the cause of freedom all around the globe made India look a cheap and weak country.
However, that India was not a cheap and weak country was made known to the world including Kuwait by Chandra Shekar when he dethroned V.P. Singh and took control of the Government of India. It was a blessing in disguise. Kuwait was under the occupation of Iraq for seven months and incidentally Chandra Shekar too was in his Premiership for seven months only. But during these seven months period, he was straight forward and direct in his statement regarding Kuwait. When he became Premier of India in November 1990, he issued a strong warning to Iraq that India will not support this invasion and India will stand by Kuwait. For those who were equating Kuwait’s case with Palestine, he openly told them that Palestinian issue was different from Kuwait issue. Kuwait issue was purely an issue of invasion of a sovereign country and as such India could not accept it. The issue of Palestine cannot be linked with the issue of Kuwait since both these two issues were of different in nature, though he said India fully support the cause of Palestine.
His above bold statement on Kuwait issue was also a direct slap on those fake Indian pundits who were equating Goa’s issue with that of Kuwait issue saying that the way Goa in 1961 was annexed to the motherland by Bharat thru military force to free it from Portuguese colonialism so also Kuwait was annexed to the motherland Iraq. Kuwait’s case and Goa’s case were totally different. Kuwait was invaded against all international norms by Saddam Hussein. Kuwait at the time of invasion was a sovereign country while Goa was just a Portuguese colony and as a colony Goa had to be liberated. But according to the landmark judgment of Supreme Court of India, Goa was not liberated but conquered by Bharat.
India by using military force evicted Pakistani authority from East Pakistan and gave it in the hands of Bangladeshis for them to rule their country. It was India that liberated East Pakistan and handed over to the sons of the soil, i.e. Bangladesh. But as far as Goa was concerned, India did not do the way it did for East Pakistan.
Coming back to Chandra Shekar, as a friend of Kuwait and also as a lover of Kuwait’s liberation, he even allowed refueling facilities in India for American Planes involved in the liberation of Kuwait. In his death Kuwait lost a great friend who spoke openly and forcefully on the need of its liberation. Not only this, he even allowed Indian space and facilities to augment the liberation process of Kuwait. During his tenure as Premier of India he was much responsible for strengthening the friendly bonds between Kuwait and India. May his soul rest in peace.
Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait” Unquote.
