The
Maharashtrawadis obviously have not yet reconciled themselves to the
fact that Konkani is the
official language of the state of Goa. When I use
the expression
Maharashtrawadi I do not mean the residents of Goa. The
overwhelming majority of
the residents of Goa have no problems with the
official language. They
have no problems over the provision introduced
during Luizinho Faleiro’s
time as minister for Industries and Labour
stipulating that knowledge
of Konkani is essential and that of Marathi
desirable for jobs in the
government. The residents of Goa do not have any
problem with knowledge of
Konkani being essential for jobs in the
government. Because in any
case despite the best or worst efforts of the BJP
to rig the census over 95
percent of the population of Goa acknowledge
Konkani as their mother
tongue. Even pockets of Marathiwadis in the North
have long since understood
and accepted the rationale of the insistence of
the compulsory knowledge of
Konkani as pre-requisite for government jobs.
That if such a provision is
not there the majority of government jobs will
go to residents of
Maharashtra. Marathiwadis by which I mean residents of
Goa who have historically
been using Marathi for their religious rituals
have no problem with
Konkani in the devnagiri script being the official
language. If anybody has
some grouse it is the minority community who are
not familiar with Konkani
in the devnagiri script.
When I use the expression
Maharashtrawadis I have in mind the lunatics and
the fanatics. In fact I do
not mind the lunatics and the fanatics. Every
society and every country
and every state has its share of fanatics and
lunatics. Far more
dangerous than the fanatics and the lunatics are the
opportunists and the
mercenaries. Who hide under the mask of politicians and
statesmen. Historically it
is the politicians who sought to divide Goa along
linguistic lines for their
own petty personal objectives. The BJP took off
when the MGP seem to have
lost political credibility in the state. The MGP
lost political credibility
not because its cadres deserted the party but
because the leaders in
their greed for power abandoned the party. At least
the MGP leaders, to give
them the benefit of doubt, had some attachment to
the Marathi language. But
the BJP abuse of the language issue has always
been malicious and
mischievous. BJP leaders like its rabid president
Rajendra Arlekar have been
singing artis to Marathi not of any love for the
language. But in relentless
pursuit of their now open agenda to divide Goans
on communal lines. For the
BJP Marathi equals Hindu and Konkani equals
Christaos. The BJP knows
that this is not true. That the overwhelming
majority of the population
of Goa acknowledge Konkani as their mother
tongue. But the BJP is once
again trying to revive the long dead language
controversy to pursue its
communal agenda. What we are amused by is the MGP
descending like so many
vultures on the carcass of the controversy that is
being sought to be revived
by the BJP in the run up to the Bye-elections.
The Sub Post Master in
Bicholim should be canonised by all Goans who love
Konkani mai. The sub post
master Laxmi Mayenkar needs to be declared a
heroine of Konkani because
she has gone much further than any of the Konkani
stalwarts did. She did not
limit herself to the official policy of the
government of Goa of
stipulating that knowledge of Konkani while that of
Marathi was desirable for
government jobs. Even Luizinho Faleiro who made
this provision to protect
the jobs of Goans did not stipulate any academic
qualifications in Konkani.
Laxmi Mayenkar has done Konkani proud by
stipulating that only
candidates who had opted for Konkani as a language for
the tenth standard would be
eligible for jobs as postal assistants. Surely
since Konkani is the
official language of the state this stipulation should
be made across the board
for jobs in the state government. The truth is that
even Konkaniwadis are
little uneasy because children of the staunchest
Konkaniwadis seldom opt for
Konkani at the tenth standard. One cannot blame
the Konkaniwadis because
successive governments including those presided
over by staunch
Konkaniwadis like Luizinho Faleiro have not dared to stop
grants to Marathi medium
government schools. If Konkani has survived and
thrived it is not due to
government patronage but inspite of government’s
bias towards Marathi. The
overwhelming majority of government primary
schools continue to be in
the Marathi medium. All lovers of Konkani should
felicitate and congratulate
the Sub Post Master of Bicholim for her
contribution to preserving,
promoting and strengthening the hands of Konkani
mai.
