Politics has hit a new high! Goa Forward supremo Vijai Sardesai warned that the youth wing of his party will stop airlines operating from the state if they are not ready to make an in-flight announcement in Konkani language while landing at Dabolim airport. In all the politics that the State has witnessed in recent times, its people haven’t come across such unadulterated love for their mother tongue. Strange are the ways of Sardesai to take Konkani forward and stranger are the ways politicos go about trying to make an impression.
Is Sardesai trying to teach a Konkani word or two like Dev Borem Korum to the thousands of foreigners that descend into Goa? Or does he think that the common Goan who arrives back to his homeland will be warmed upon hearing his mai bhas? If the government is serious about Konkani language, there are over a hundred ways to expand its use, from the KTC bus stands to the railway platforms. There are thousands of business establishments, including malls, where signboards are prominently flashed in the English language and sometimes in Hindi. Konkani is alien in our own motherland.
Goans will not be moved by these half-hearted attempts on promotion of Konkani. The language must be first strictly inculcated in the administration. Can Sardesai speak on how far Konkani is being used in government administration? Or for that matter, how does the government reply to those few who choose to communicate in Konkani when it comes to vacancies? Why does the government prefer to reply in English instead of Konkani? What about government hoardings and promotions which have not a single word of Konkani? Will Goa Forward tear them down? What has the government done to streamline a struggling Goa Konkani Akademi, which doesn’t even have a full-time president? Why is the government not promoting the only Konkani-English dictionary available? What about Goa’s only Konkani language daily Bhangarbhuim? There are countless questions to which Sardesai will have no answers.
Politicians should stop playing with emotive issues, more especially when a whiff of an approaching election has filled the air. There have been no visible signs of Goemkarponn in governance so far, and people have given up hope. There have been promises made, but delivery has failed. Parties have deviated from welfare to warfare to settle political scores. If BJP is marching to Congress House with its Rafale defence, Congress is offering them samosas in what it calls ‘Gandhigiri’. And now we hear Goa Forward planning a march to the airport to stop flights not making announcements in Konkani.
Goa and its people are long forgotten in these petty political fights. Raking up Konkani at this juncture is not going to enthuse citizens. If there are genuine concerns over the mother tongue, work should begin at home. Let government start talking in its mother tongue first.
