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>From Deccan Herald/ January 12, 2003 A quarter of Goa's population, Kannadigas seen only as vote bank in Goa >From Devika Sequeira DH News Service PANAJI, Jan 11 A lacklustre turnout from the Kannadiga community and a poor show of protocol on the part of the Goa Government, proved major irritants on the opening day of the Kannada cultural meet here today. Organised jointly by the Government of Karnataka and the All Goa Kannada Parishad, Karnataka Minister for Culture Rani Satish flew down to attend the Kannada Sanskruti Mela�s inaugural function. But she was clearly put out by the thin turnout and the conspicuous lack of official representation from the Goa Government. Goa�s Power Minister Digamber Kamat who was to have inaugurated the event, excused himself at the eleventh hour. So did the state�s Minister for Culture Ramrao Desai. �I was expecting a crowd of 4,000, considering there are four lakh Kannadigas living in Goa,� Mrs Satish told Deccan Herald. The attendance was a mere 400, despite attempts to bring together the 10 Kannada sanghas that operate here. It was difficult to sustain such events without any support from the state government, Mrs Satish remarked to this newspaper. �There should be no bias in culture,� she said pointedly, and added that the Goa Government could have deputed a secretary or director to represent the ministers who were absent. The president of the All Goa Kannada Parishad Mr D M Ashrit, who was far more candid, said Goa�s politicians treated resident Kannadigas merely as a vote bank. �They use us for elections and then disappear.� In fact, there is resentment among the Kannadiga community here over what is perceived as a lack of reciprocity from the Goa Government. The Karnataka Konkani Academy had the crucial backing (including financial) of the Karnataka Government, but attempts to set up a Kannada Academy in Goa have had a lukewarm reception from officialdom here. Though Kannadigas make for a quarter of Goa�s 1.4 million population today, making it the single largest immigrant group here, the community has failed to assert itself politically. It may come as a shock to learn that the Kannadiga community has just one panchayat member (Mrs Vasundara Desai) in the whole of Goa, and no representation either in the municipal councils or the state assembly. Had we been a more united community, we could have had some seven or eight MLAs,� said Mr Prabhuling Dandin, the vice president of the parishad. Divisiveness, on the basis of area of origin, has weakened the community's power to lobby effectively with the government or organise itself, points out the president of the Margao Sangha Mr H L Kulkarni. As things stand, the nearly one lakh (50 per cent of them migratory) Kannadiga labour force in Goa are an easy prey to exploitative measures, point out parishad members. �They are contributing to a large extent to Goa� s development. But there is such public resentment against them that they are often a target of police excesses and poor living conditions,� Mr Kulkarni says. Copyright, 1999 The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd. -------------------------------------------------------
