BBSM activists staging a dharna near South Goa Administrator of Comunidades building on Thursday. Captured by : Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Accusing the BJP government of betraying the mother tongue of Goans, Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) Convenor Subhash Velingkar on Thursday gave a call to the people of Goa to brace up and defeat and bring down the strength of the BJP in the Legislative Assembly from 13 to zero.
He also made an appeal to the Konkani teachers and all those working in the regional languages in the state of Goa to come under one banner to protect the local languages from discrimination by the Goa government.
The BBSM staged a dharna in front of the South Goa Administrator of Comunidade building here on Thursday to protest against the government grants to English primary schools and the indifferent attitude of the government to the Marathi and Konkani medium schools.
In his fiery speech, Velingkar said the BJP has not learnt a better lesson in the 2017 Assembly when the party’s tally in the Goa Legislative Assembly came down to 13 from 21 when then Defense Minister late Manohar Parrikar was looking forward for 28 seats. “The BJP had to face the waterloo because of the BBSM and the lovers of Marathi and Konkani lovers who worked overtime to defeat the ruling party as it was working in the interest of both Marathi and Konkani languages”, he said.
He recalled that the Congress was rejected by the people after BBSM and other language groups had launched an agitation against the decision to provide grants to English medium primary schools.
Velingkar raised apprehensions that the very culture and art of the people of Goa may be affected if Konkani and Marathi education does not receive government full support. “Our culture, including bhajans, kirtans, and devotional music and songs etc which had survived the test of time may just disappear if the present government policy continues”, he added.
Charging that the BJP had betrayed the mother tongue to support grants to the English primary schools, Velingkar warned the government to listen to the voice of the BBSM activists and concede their demand. “Otherwise, we will all work to reduce the BJP to zero seats in the coming election”, he warned.
Demanding the immediate implementation of the MadhavKamat recommendation, he further demanded that the government give permission for opening of Konkani and Marathi schools and restore the promised grants to these schools.
