MARGAO
As the Sahitya Akademi’s two-day seminar titled ‘My Country and Foreign Land’ in Konkani literature, held in collaboration with the Education Department, begins on February 22, the Global Romi Lipi Abhiyan has sent a message to the dignitaries of Sahitya Akademi that instead of organising what they called ‘whitewashing’ seminars to promote only the Devanagari script, the Akademi should hold a joint seminar in Goa to promote all five scripts of the Konkani language.
Addressing the media on Friday, GRLA president Kennedy Afonso said Purnananda Chari, GC member of the Sahitya Akademi, and Shashikant Punaji (member of the Sahitya Akademi Konknni Advisory Board), who will be addressing the Sahitya Akademi’s seminar should discuss ‘’how the Sahitya Akademi, has killed and destroyed the Konkani language, with its “one language, one script policy”, thus destroying the rich literature of the four other scripts of Konkani language, namely Romi , Kannada, Malayalam and Perso Arabic, and discuss ways on how to rectify the damage done by this failed policy.
He said the “one language one script policy” of the Sahitya Akademi goes against the Indian Constitutional Article 14 , which guarantees equality before law, and Article 29 (1), which gives the minorities community the fundamental right to protect their language, script and culture. “In Goa the minority community is fighting for justice for Roman script, which has been ignored in the Official Language Act, and even deprived of being taught in our own minority run Diocesan schools.”
The Sahitya Akademi and the Goa government has successfully destroyed the rich and diverse literature of the Konkani language in our own State and country, with its “one language one script policy ‘’ and the passage of the Official Language Act 1987, with official script recognition to Devanagiri script only,” he added.
Calling for a change in the selection process of constituting the Konkani Advisory Board, he said the outgoing committee must not be allowed to choose the incoming new committee members.
