Marathi-Romi Konkani join hands to oppose Devnagari script
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 22 October 2013 23:47 IST
Fr Pratap Naik addressing the media with Marathi protagonists
Goa’s unending language controversy has taken a new turn now, with protagonists of Marathi and Romi Konkani sharing a platform, to oppose Konkani, written only in ‘Devnagari’ script.
Fr Pratap Naik, who came to Goa and started Konkani classes in Devnagari two decades ago, today joined hands with Marathi Rajbhasha Andolan Samiti, to claim that Konkani in Devnagari is not a ‘language’ at all.
Both Fr Naik as well as Pradip Ghadi Amonkar however could not explain how they differentiate between a language, based on ‘written’ script and not spoken language.
Konkani was made the official language of Goa in 1987, with Devnagari as its script with Goa Assembly passing the act in this regard.
A similar decision was also taken by Sahitya Academy, the premier institute of the country, way back in 1975, recognizing Devnagari as the official script of Konkani.
Since 1963 till date, students of all the communities in Goa have been studying Konkani in Devnagari script in schools, from primary till post-graduation.
Both Ghadi Amonkar and Fr Naik also warned the government to make both Marathi and ‘Romi Konkani’ the official languages of Goa, before the Lok Sabha election.
They feel that Marathi and Konkani written ‘only in Romi script’ are used by the majority of Goans and thus deserve official status.
If Marathi is forced on Goa, then Goa’s existence is in risk because every state has its own language like Gujarati for Gujarat, Marathi for Maharashtra, Bengali for West Bengal, Tamil for Tamil Nadu, Malayalam for Kerala, etc. If Goa does not have Konkani then Goa’s existence is gone. Konkani and only Konkani must be Goa’s Official Language with both Scripts (Roman & Devnagri).
Is Fr.Pratap Naik a Goan? to demand official lanaguage status to Marathi?Goan have already made konkani as the sole official language of Goa but eventually leaders like Uday Bhembre,Pundalik Naik,N.Shivdas,Prashant Naik betrayed majority of Goans who fought for konkani by only making Devnagiri script konkani as official language
MRA is shooting the bird by keeping the Gun on the shoulder of RKA. MRA don’t mind anything as far as Marathi is made Goa’s Official Language. Marathi is the imported language of Maharashtra. Those who support Marathi are Traitors and working against Goa & Goans and working in the interest of Maharashtra & Maharashtrains.