Language controversy hots up

Konkani Ekvott against changing Official Language Act


The Konkani Ekvott forum has firmly demanded that no changes should be made to the Official Language Act of 1987.
This demand of the Konkani Ekvott comes in the wake of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) deciding to effect changes to the Official Language Act, according equal status to Marathi and Konkani script on par with Konkani in Devnagiri script.

The Konkani Ekvott, a forum comprising various bodies in Goa today addressed a press conference in Panjim city. Shridar Kamat of Konkani Bhasha Mandal, said “Konkani Ekvott is not against the Roman script. State patronage should continue to Konkani in Roman script with vigour as long as its usage continues. However “no changes should be made to the Official Language Act of 1987,” said Kamat.
Stating the reasons for their demand, Kamat said, “if Roman script is given the official status it will open the doors to the Marathi language.” Kamat said “on the education front, books have been published in the Devanagri script since 1963. Kamat also said “there are fears that there is a hidden agenda of fundamentalist forces to divide Goans on communal lines.”
As for the demand from various factions to give Marathi equal status in the Act, Kamat said “to give equal status to the Marathi language in the Act, the language should be spoken in the State. As Marathi is not a spoken language, it has not been given equal status in the Act.” According to Kamat, “knowledge of Konkani is essential for government jobs. If this clause is not made compulsory then we will be opening government jobs to people from Maharashtra. Kamat said, “we (Konkani Ekvott) are not opposed to Marathi but we fear that the job opportunities of Goans will be hampered.”
The Konkani Ekvott is also apprehensive that if changes are made to the Act, Keralites and Kannadigas that account for 7 per cent and 10 per cent of the population respectively might demand for the recognition of these scripts as well. Referring to the 14 demands made by the Dalgado Konkani Academy, Kamat said that the Konkani Ekvott opposes the first demand for the change in the Act, but supports the other 13 demands which do not require the change in the Act.
Kamat said, “we are prepared for any eventuality. If there are more indicators that there will be changes to the Act, we shall be forced to take democratic means to oppose.” Serafino Cota of the Konkani Ekvott, Nagesh Karmali of the Akhil Bharatiya Konkani Parishad, Fr Jaime Couto, Prof S M Borges from the Catholics for Devnagiri, Prashant Naik and Jose Lourenco from the Goa Hitrakhan Manch, Arvind Bhatikar and Prof H Nagvenkar from the Asmitai Pratisthan were also present.