PANAJI
At a meet of Marathi language protagonists in Pernem on Sunday, the State government came in for sharp criticism over the allegation of “deliberately” shutting down Marathi schools in the State and promoting private educational institutions in the English medium.
Former chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Goa, Subhash Velingkar was at the forefront of these allegations when, in his address at the Marathi Rajya Bhasha Karyakarta Prakhand Melava held in Pernem, he directly accused the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government of “deliberately shutting down Marathi medium schools while promoting English medium private institutions.”
He alleged that the State’s push for English education is part of a larger design to erode local culture and language.
Velingkar questioned the government’s financial and policy support for English medium schools when Marathi institutions were struggling amid neglect and lack of funding, leading to falling enrolment.
“What is being marketed today as ‘Asmita’ (identity) is actually a product of a distorted culture once opposed by the Portuguese,” he said.
He advocated that Marathi lovers start organising themselves as a “Marathi vote bank” if the language is to get its due in the State.
Velingkar said that in the 2027 assembly elections in Goa, only those candidates who openly backed Marathi to become an official language of the State must be supported, even as he called it a “do-or-die battle.”
“Marathi must be the State language. There is no middle ground,” Velingkar declared at the meeting, as some in the audience began raising slogans.
