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Goa's language row fizzling out

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panjim

Goa's language row appears to be fizzling out with no possibility of the proposed private member's amendments to the Official Language Act being taken up in the current session of the state assembly, which ends next week.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party, a constituent of the ruling coalition, and a faction within the Congress had initially supported the move to amend the act, it now appears that everyone concerned wants to bury the matter quietly, since public perception is strongly against any change.

Under the act, Konkani is the sole official language of the state. But Marathi is allowed for all official purposes and is also given full protection in the social, cultural and educational spheres.

The latest move was to grant Marathi too official status.

While the amendment moved by the two legislators of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party aims to make Marathi the official language, the BJP's private bill proposes to grant equal status to both languages, though nobody disputes that 95 per cent of the state's people speak Konkani.

The movement of the Marathi protagonists had gained momentum after the Bombay high court had upheld the state's recruitment rules, which make knowledge of Konkani essential for jobs, and rejecting the plea to make knowledge of Marathi also essential.

Though the movement initially gained some momentum, the Goa Hit-Rakhan Manch, a newly formed organisation of youths, turned the tables by vehemently opposing the move on the grounds that it would enable non-Goan Marathi-speaking youths from neighbouring Maharashtra to get jobs in the state.

The GHM also alleged that the move was a sinister design of the Marathi lobby across the border to make Goa a bilingual state and then merge disputed areas with substantial Marathi-speaking populations like Belgaum, Nipani and Khanapur, now in Karnataka, into Goa, making it Vishal Gomantak (Greater Goa).

The huge GHM morcha of students and youth that marched into Panjim on July 5 perhaps opened the eyes of the politicians, especially because there was lukewarm response for the movement begun by the protagonists of Marathi, which was largely restricted to a few Marathi newspapers.

The BJP also feared the breakup of the ruling coalition, with Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha remaining firm on his party's stand not to support any such amendment. On the other hand, the Congress faction led by Ramakant Khalap, a former MGP politician, was threatened with disqualification when the high command instructed the local leadership to issue a whip to oppose both bills.

As Sardinha's 11-member Goan People's Congress and the 15-member opposition Congress together constitute a majority in the 40-member assembly, the solution found by Speaker Pratapsing Rane has come as a kind of face-saver to get rid of the issue.

The speaker is learnt to have referred both bills to the governor, arguing that the amendments would involve a financial implication -- though the bills claim otherwise -- on which the Cabinet has to guide the governor.

The aim appears to be to allow both bills to lapse as only one more Friday, July 21, is left to introduce the bills. Friday is the day when private members can introduce legislation in the assembly. And the governor, who is away, is expected to be back in Panjim only on July 20.

With no new session likely to be scheduled for the next six months, the bills may lapse on technical grounds, thus allowing all those political parties which had initially sided with the protagonists of Marathi to breathe easy.

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