No point in fighting over Konkani and Marathi, fight Eng: MGP
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 04 January 2016 22:52 IST
The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, traditionally known to be Marathi protagonist, seems to be taking a cautious view on the bills proposed to be brought to make Marathi also Goa’s official language.
Parallel to the issue of Medium of Instruction, Marathi protagonists are also meeting all the MLAs to make Marathi also Goa’s official language.
Independent MLA Naresh Sawal and BJP’s St Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh have already announced their plans to bring private members’ bills in this regard in the forthcoming winter Assembly session.
“There is no point fighting over Konkani and Marathi at this stage when English is encroaching upon our lives”, said Dhawalikar, whose party was founded in 1962 to make Marathi Goa’s official language and merge Goa into Maharashtra.
However, today, he looks at English as prime threat rather than Marathi not being made the official language of Goa.
“I want to know first whether there is a provision to make two official languages in one state. I will not take any stand without making proper study of the issue”, he told goanews.com.
His stand made it amply clear that the private members’ bills coming up in the winter Assembly session, beginning from 11 January, will not get support of three-member MGP.
Rather than fighting among ourselves, he feels the need of the hour is to work for the preservation and development of both the languages.
“We need to find ways and means to have at least one Konkani newspaper while developing literature in both the languages”, said the MGP leader.
MGP has long ago abandoned the cause of Marathi language in Goa. MGP has today become "Dhawalikar pvt. ltd.", and the Dhawalikars don't have any interest in making Marathi a state language.
English is a great danger to Konkani than it is to Marathi. We, Marathi protagonists, are demanding that Marathi be made a state language in addition to Konkani. Then why are Konkani mhalgade opposing this?
Or do they fear that Marathi will mean Konkani's death? Anyway, even without being a state language, marathi is in a better position than Konkani. There's not a single newspaper in Devanagari Konkani. Why?
Goa need konkani Newspapers to unite goan & to reach every one settled across the globe like DD India Channel.
Santosh Fondekar, Keep your advice to yourself. Who are you to ask us to work for your 'Bamon' Konkani? There are more Marathi newspapers and lovers of that language than Konkani.
It would be more appropriate if Marathi and English should be made official language of Goa along with Konkani. The language issue sells in Goa during the time of elections among all political parties. Once the elections are over nobody even cares for the development of language. This is hypocrisy of politicians which divides the Goans on the basis of language. I have seen fanatic people who fight to preserve their language in the Southern parts of India. They live for their mother-tongue and try to nurture it from generation to generation. Our Goan politicians should learn from them as how to keep the language issue away from politics as it is the identity of the region in which people live.
Konkani is the identity of Goa. Most of the Goans speak Konkani at home and even though we have Konkani textbooks and novels, what percentage of Goans can write in Konkani? Isnt this a bit shameful thing for us Goans? The way Gujaratis are proud of Gujarati, Tamilians are proud of Tamil why can't Goans be proud of Konkani? Aren't we Goans disrespecting Konkani by not learning it? Scriptures of both the religions (Hinduism and Christianity) are available in Konkani, Catholics are at least aware of this fact, but how about Hindus? Do we even know that Mahabharata, Ramayana, Geeta and other religious texts are also available in Konkani? This is the time for us Goans to unite and stand and respect our mother tongue "Konkani". Let's take pride in considering it our Maybhaas.