THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO
The Global Konknni Forum has applauded the Supreme Court judgement, passed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, while upholding the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act.
Forum president Kennedy Afonso said the CJI referred to Article 29(1) of the Indian Constitution, which states, “Any section of citizens, residing in India, or any part thereof, and having a distinct language, script or culture of their own, shall have the right to conserve the same.”
“This is exactly the reason why the Global Konknni Forum has been repeatedly telling our Goa government that the Official Language Act 1987 needs to be amended, as it is discriminatory in nature, as it caters to only one segment of the Goan community by making Devanagari the only official script of Konknni, thus depriving another community of their preferred Roman script,” he said.
He added, “The other segment of the Goan community, which uses Roman script in all walks of life, has been bypassed completely in the Official Language Act, and their fundamental rights are denied and trampled upon. The demand for equal status for Roman script and its introduction into schools is a fair demand, as the community is demanding their fundamental rights as per Article 29(1), and is only trying to protect their language, script, and culture, as enshrined in the Constitution of India.”
It is for this reason, Afonso said, that GKF passed a resolution in 50 gram sabhas, addressed to the Commissioner of Linguistic Minorities, informing him that there is discrimination against the Roman script of Konknni, as per Article 29(1) of the Indian Constitution, and requesting him to look into the matter. The Commissioner is specifically appointed to look into linguistic violations under Article 29(1).
“It is for this reason that GKF is meeting all 40 MLAs to make them aware of the fundamental rights of the Romi community, which is deprived of using a script of their own due to the discriminatory policies of successive governments,” he said.
Saying that many MLAs were not even aware of Article 29(1) and its implications, he stated it is the duty of legislators/MLAs to protect the fundamental rights of the people, adding, “To do this, they need to know and study Article 29(1), so that they can argue the case of Romi Konknni in the Assembly.”
“We hope that with this new judgement, the government will have a fresh look at the OLA. We request the CM, Dr. Pramod Sawant, to rise above petty politics, to introduce the two Romi script bills in the House and get them passed,” he added.
