1961 Indian Annexation of Goa - Portuguese Actions Post-hostilities

Portuguese Actions Post-hostilities

On 18 December, even as Indian forces were rolling into Goa, a special emergency session of the United Nations Security Council was convened at the request of the Portuguese government. At the meeting, called to consider the Indian invasion of Portuguese territories in Goa, Daman and Diu, Adlai Stevenson, the US representative to the UN, criticized the Indian military action. He then submitted a draft resolution that called for a ceasefire, a withdrawal of all Indian forces from Goa, and the resumption of negotiations. This resolution was co-sponsored by France, UK and Turkey, but failed after the Soviet Union, India’s long-time Cold War ally, exercised its veto.

The New York Times of December 19, 1961 reporting the Western response to the invasion of Goa stated: "Adlai E. Stevenson warned the Security Council early today that the United Nations was in danger of dying as the result of a Soviet veto killing a Western resolution to tend the Indian invasion of Goa. The resolution would have urged India to accept an immediate cease-fire and recall her invasion troops from Goa and two other Portuguese enclaves on the Indian coast. Moscow, however, hailed the invasion as a liberation drive and accused the United States of hypocrisy in its criticism of India's military moves. Observers believed the Russians were trying to fan resentment against NATO, to which both Portugal and the United States belong."

Canadian political scientist AR Bandeira has argued that the sacrifice of Goa was an elaborate public relations stunt calculated to rally support for Portugal's wars in Africa.

Upon receiving news of the fall of Goa, the Portuguese government formally severed all diplomatic links with India and refused to recognize the incorporation of the seized territories into the Indian Republic. An offer of Portuguese citizenship was instead made to all Goan natives who wished to emigrate to Portugal rather than remain under Indian rule. This was amended in 2006 to include only those who had been born before 19 December 1961. Later, in a show of defiance, Salazar's government offered a reward of US$10,000 for the capture of Brigadier Sagat Singh, the commander of the maroon berets of India’s parachute regiment who were the first troops to enter Panaji, Goa’s capital.

On receiving news of the fall of Portuguese India, Lisbon went virtually into mourning, and Christmas celebrations were extremely muted. The U.S. embassy placed a curtain in front of its Christmas display in the ground-floor window of the U.S. Information Office. Cinemas and theaters shut down as tens of thousands of Portuguese marched in a silent parade from Lisbon's city hall to the cathedral, escorting the relics of St. Francis Xavier.

Portuguese Prime Minister Salazar, while addressing the National Assembly on 3 January 1962, invoked the principle of national sovereignty, as defined in the legal framework of the Constitution of the Estado Novo. "We can not negotiate, not without denying and betraying our own, the cession of national territory and the transfer of populations that inhabit them to foreign sovereigns," said Salazar.

Relations between India and Portugal thawed only in 1974, when, following an anti-colonial military coup d'état and the fall of the authoritarian rule in Lisbon, Goa was finally recognised as part of India, and steps were taken to re-establish diplomatic relations with India. In 1992, Portuguese President Mário Soares became the first Portuguese head of state to visit Goa after its annexation by India; following Indian President R. Venkataraman’s visit to Portugal in 1990.