Betrayal of Koankanni over the years Dear Minguel,
thank you very much for your informative updates. I really appreciated that and took me to a nostalgic trip down to the happenings in Goa in the 80s and now. The devnagri koankanni writers like Pundalik N Naik and Uday Bhembre had vested interests in fighting for the koankanni language. It is now a fact that they took great advantage of politicians like churchill and luizinho in the run up to the koankani agitation of the 80s. Once the hidden agenda was achieved, they deserted the cause. We are to be blamed as at that time our leaders didnt have the insight how Rane was taking us for a ride by promoting marathi in Goa through the back door and slowly but surely letting koankanni bleed to death. The devnagri writers who supported the agitation had a lot of literature in the script that would make them famous and rich. It was only later when the official bill was passed in devnagri that we realised we were fooled badly. None of the koankanni supporting legislators then had the guts to come out in the open except luizinho and churchill (both were in the goa congress and used this agitation to further their careers). Of Uday Bhembre the less said the better, His fluke success was the trouncing of Babu Naik in his own bastion thanks to the anti-Babu wave then mostly drived on the factor of ignoring his constituency badly. I distinctly remember how Sardinha and Manu fernandes, then staunch Rane loyalists had to be chased out of their homes to support the agitation when the public stoned their respective homes. The kala academy is nothing but a pro marathi institution. Thanks to Rane and Mr Phalgaonkar (if i get his name right). Not much has been done for koankanni by kala academy. In fact the very name of Kala academy should have been kept after a staunch \Goan personality who promoted goa through his/her art and not something like Dinanath Mangueshkar...we were taken for a ride there too. Sometimes i feel out tiatrists should have displayed a more united approach. But maybe they know best why the situation is like that. Actually now is the time to ask both the candidates Wilfred Misquita n Sardinha as to what they would do to ensure the survival and promotion of the koankanni language specially in sashti....which played the major role in getting koankanni the official language status. Of Churchill....Goans have seen through him and his selfish politics. At times we hope Churchill would fight a brave fight and thereby regain peoples support. But just have a look at churchill's record from the koankan railway agitation to meta strips to mopa and now the romi koankanni issue. I leave the rest to readers to guess! Regards Cedric __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
