Wagh plays 'Romi politics' with Lang Act & Education
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 20 January 2015 21:12 IST
Perhaps eying for his political survival in St Andre constituency, BJP MLA Vishnu Wagh has now echoed demand for recognition to Romi Konkani script in the Official Language Act as well as in education.
The occasion was the release of five books of 20 Tiatr by Tomazinho Cardozo, a writer and Tiatrist, who is also a strong proponent of Romi Konkani script.
Cardozo however did not utter a single word supporting Wagh’s demand.
Premanand Lotlikar, the President of Dalgado Konkani Academy, responded, but not directly.
“We will focus more on creating literature in Romi Konkani which would ultimately compel the concerned authorities to give Romi its due recognition”, said Lotlikar.
It was only Wagh, the chief guest at the function, who echoed this demand but the organisers preferred to keep mum.
They included Dalgado Academy’s president Lotlikar, vice president Fr Conceicao da Silva, Secretary Vincy Quadros, vice president of Goa Tiatr Academy Joe Rose and Cardozo himself.
Most of the speakers spoke before Wagh, except Lotlikar and Cardozo.
As the audience included invitees from all the fields of literature, culture etc as well as Konkani writers who otherwise oppose recognition to Romi script in the act, perhaps the organisers as well as the host decided not to rake up the issue.
But Wagh raked it up.
Later, while talking to goanews.com, he said: “Sixty per cent of my constituents use Romi script, so is the case elsewhere in Goa. It is has a tradition of 500 years. They why not grant recognition to it?”
In his speech earlier, Wagh had just mentioned that Romi should be recognised, without mentioning where.
When asked after the function, he initially recalled his stand as the Kala Academy chairman, to recognise Romi Konkani literature for awards separately than Devanagari Konkani.
But when asked further, Wagh did not deny that his demand is beyond recognising Romi script in literature but also in the Official Language Act and primary education.
He argues that this will help in bringing those people to Konkani who have opted for English.
All the Church schools have shifted from Konkani to English medium due to the pressure from the community while the governments – both Congress as well as the BJP – have accepted the demand.
“Let the Medium of Instruction bill come from the select committee to the Assembly. I will make the demand”, says Wagh.
What will you do if party doesn’t agree with your stand? – goanews.com
“Let’s us see. Let the bill come to the Assembly first. Then we’ll see.” – Wagh.
i beg to differ on the accusation tagged to Mr. Wagh. I do not feel that Wagh has played politics in this case. It is the "malgodde" of the Dalgad Konknni academi that have played politics by keeping mum. All the office bearers of the academi are politicians if you see, even the priest who is a covert politician. If the chief guest had the guts to say what he said, why did not the office bearers echo this sentiment? Are they hypocrites? secondly my question has always been about the author of the books that were released. No doubt, he has contributed emmensely towards the cause of konkanni through his books, articles and tiatrs, but where was he when he could have actually done something? he was the Speaker of the Goa Assembly for some years and had a lot of powere to get things done. Was he sleeping or playing politics?
Alot needs to be done for Konkanni whether it is is Romi or Devnagri. Sympathisers of the two waring scripts will continue fighting and Marathi will benefit, what about a situation when the CM of the state and the majority of the ministers choose to take oath in Marathi. "Tisro gheta laav" will be end result, so it is time that all Konkanni sympathisers let go of their ego and join forces for the sake of Konkanni.
Ignorance coupled with desire for power