TIATR ACADEMY
Fatorda, Margao, Goa - 403 601
06 July 2006
Sir,
Kindly give publicity to the following press release issued by Tiatr Academy.
Yours truly,
Prince Jacob
Convener
Congress Vichar Vibhag denies the right of Roman script users
It is learnt that Mr. Uday Bhembre, the Chairperson of Think Tank (Vichar
Vibhag) of the Indian National Congress Party in Goa has circulated a letter to
all the ministers of the ruling party. In that letter he has instructed the
ministers to restrain from any effort to amend the Official Language Act 1987
to grant equal status to Konknni in Roman script.
For the last five hundred years Goan Catholics in their cultural, social and
religious activities used Roman script for Konknni. Due to this a standard
Konknni was evolved and became popular. This Konknni has a great acceptance
among all sections of Goans. Prior to the liberation of Goa, there were only
two dominant local languages, namely, Konknni and Marathi. In those days
Konknni meant Konknni written in Roman script only. Konknni in Devanagari
script was a non-entity then and it was considered a dialect of Marathi. It
had no social status among the majority community. However, after the
liberation of Goa, a handful coterie of Hindu bamons under the guise of
nationalism and patriotism brainwashed a few and succeeded to convince them to
introduce their bamon Konknni in Devanagari script in minority schools. At the
same time these bamons continued to run Marathi medium schools and educate
their children in these schools.
During the language agitation these few bamons used the Catholic community, to
get the official status for Konknni as a State Language. During the agitation
there was no mention of any particular script for Konknni. However, while
passing the Language Bill, Uday Bhembre and his cronies managed to introduce
the draconian clause "Konknni language means Konknni language in Devanagari
script." This discriminatory clause has negated the Herculean work done in
Konknni by the Catholic community for centuries. These few individuals usurped
all benefits through chicanery and crookedness and deprived the Catholics of
their rightful due.
To get the long denied justice to Roman script, its users started a sustained
campaign to get equal status to Konknni in Roman script. The coalition
government has shown willingness to amend the Official Language Act 1987 to
include Roman script. There is a general consensus in the Cabinet and within
the government to accede to this demand.
The master manipulator Uday Bhembre, instead of supporting Roman script users
and the minority community, is working against the move of the government to
amend the Official Language Act. It is evident from his devious actions that
he is afraid that if due recognition is given to Roman script, the Devanagari
script will certainly die a natural death. He is apprehensive that if the
Roman script gains the official status, the Catholic community will get equal
status and accrue benefits along with the Konknni in Devanagari. Therefore, he
has launched a vicious and malicious campaign against Roman script and its
activists.
We, the tiatrists and artistes of Konknni stage unequivocally condemn Uday
Bhembre's nefarious designs and his actions which are harmful for, not only
Konknni but also the age old communal harmony of Goans which he seeks to
destroy and disturb.
We earnestly appeal to the government not to fall a prey to the Vichar Vibhag's
divide and rule policy which is dangerous to peace loving Goan community.
Therefore, it is imperative that the Congress Party dismantles its Vichar
Vibhag headed by Uday Bhembre who is known to be anti Roman script and anti
minority.
We sincerely hope that the long pending demand of Roman script users will be
fulfilled by suitably amending the Official Language act during the ensuing
Monsoon session of the Goa State assembly. By doing so the government will
meet our Constitutional right to give official recognition to our mother
tongue, namely Konknni in Roman script which is pride and heritage of Goa and
true Goans.
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