Santosh has hit the nail right on the head! Further, why should anyone vote for a party whose founder and head honcho peddles a blatant lie, makes a baseless accusation which flies in the face of the legislative history of Goa? In Portuguese days, if you wanted to damn someone all you had to do was to brand him a "communist"; today's equivalent word is "communal". The Official Language Act was passed by the Goa, Daman & Diu Legislative Assembly of which Uday Bhembre was an Independent Member. He was not a Ruling Party legislator. He was not even a Congress supporter, since the Ruling party had a comfortable majority on its own. This being the case, how could he have had any part in the drafting of the Bill or inserting the impugned words? Was the Congress Party so bankrupt of law-makers that they had to rely on outside help? Did Bhembre move an Ammendment to insert those words? The fact is that he did not even vote for the Bill; he and Luisinho Faleiro (another non-Congress member) had walked out of the House in protest against the inclusion of Marathi. Therefore, if anyone is to be blamed, it should be the members of the then Ruling Legislature party all of whom voted for the Bill. All this can be confirmed by just perusing any newspaper of the days when the event occurred. The newspapers are available for perusal at the Central Library, Panjim; all that is needed is a desire to know the truth. Having been on the high seas, or high on spirits, on the day in question is no excuse for not doing one's homework before shooting one's mouth or keyboard! A person who has no patience to check the relevant newspapers for information barely 24 years old, could not be expected to be accurate on matters which go back some centuries. So the rest of his post should be treated with the contempt it deserves. Why should others do his homework?
Sotachench zoit zatolem. Sebastian Borges On Sat, 12 Feb 2011: Santosh Helekar <[email protected]> wrote: << Goa was conquered by the Portuguese in 1510. India conquered Goa in 1961. Most Goans living in Goa today consider themselves Indian. Why would they want to vote for Goa Su-Raj whose founder does not consider himself an Indian, and holds Goa's independence from India as his ideal goal? >> On Thu, 10 Feb 2011: "floriano" <[email protected]> wrote: << Let me respond to Adv. Bhembre's insinuations and expose him as a communal mind at work. 1. Adv. Bhembre is one of the main persons to have included 'ONLY IN DEVANAGIRI' in the Official Language Act. The word Konkani should have and will have stood all on its own without this devious communal insertion. >> Sebastian Borges
