Goa is facing an identity crisis. Twenty-nine years after it gained statehood, which was a defining moment, Goa is back at the crossroad and it seems to be asking itself a profound yet simple question: Who am I? Nothing can be more unsettling than that. The resolution passed by the Assembly to consider making Marathi the official language of the State along with Konkani suggests that the State, and more particularly, its leaders
are suffering from split personality disorder. For over 25 years, Konkani has been the official language of the State with Marathi enjoying near equal status. Then, it was deemed necessary for the State to have an official language, which was to be the basis for seeking statehood. It might be recalled that when
State leaders had approached then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
to press their case for statehood he reportedly told them to
first settle the language issue. The issue was settled when the
Official Language Act was passed.
Later, an attempt by Marathi protagonists
to gain official status for
the language came to naught when
the High Court upheld the validity
of the Official Language Act.
Since then governments, have resisted
all moves to amend the Official
Language Act simply because it
represented a fair balance between
languages. Secondly, no one wanted another language agitation.
Now it seems, the BJP government has thrown that wisdom
out of the window by extending support to the resolution
placed before the House by independent MLA Naresh Sawal.
This only goes to show how weak and desperate the BJP is at
this stage. It is willing to plunge the State into chaos to shore
up support. It does not get worse than this.
Goa cannot and should not have two official languages. Even
though Panaji MLA Siddarth Kunkalienkar sought to temper
the effect of the resolution by insisting that the Act should be
amended only after consultation with people, the damage to
the State has already been done. While Caetano Silva, Vijai
Sardessai, Aleixo Reginaldo and Mickky Pacheco rightly stood
up to oppose the resolution, the only sane voice on the government
side was Milind Naik who rightly pointed out that Marathi
enjoys equal status under the Act and there was no need to
pass a resolution. This sane advise was lost on a desperate BJP
which is already facing a serious threat from the BBSM.
Goa is a small State with fragile identity. And this identity is being
diluted by ingress of migrants. But today, it seems, the greatest
blow to its identity has come from within. And what will happen
next? Will the BJP also reverse the gains of the Opinion Poll?
Will merger with Maharashtra be the next step towards total annihilation
of Goenkarponn? If BJP and its allies decide to amend
the Language Act then they should also be ready to give up Statehood,
because Statehood was granted on linguistic basis!
