Goa should follow Karnataka in terms of quality of roads. Our roads up to Polem and Karnataka’s roads starting from Majali cannot be compared. Despite the fact that the Centre provides the same amount for the maintenance of national highways, Goans travelling to Karnataka have experienced that the roads in the neighbouring state are much better.
The reason to remember Karnataka in this context is the upcoming Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Bill which will replace the Karnataka Official Language Act, 1963, and Karnataka Local Authorities (Official Language Act), 1981. The bill will also define who can be referred to as a Kannadiga. The bill provisions reservation of jobs for Kannadigas in government and private sectors while also aiming at making Kannada language compulsory in education.
As per the bill, a person or his parents who have resided in Karnataka for over 15 years and can read, write and speak the language will be considered as a Kannadiga. This explains how aware Karnataka is to retain its identity. Maharashtra too has its own official language in Marathi. However, there are hardly any efforts being put in this regard in our State. Everyone seems to be stuck on which one is our official language. The Official Language Act, 1987, makes the use of Marathi mandatory wherever the Government uses Konkani. Hence, the authorities should now stress on using the official language. At the same time, why not classify Goans on the basis of how Karnataka has done with the Kannadigas? Nobody seems to be serious on this front. Given the calculations around vote banks, politicians will not take up this subject. The people working at the social level do not bother that almost all the government affairs are carried out in English. Even today, a person who does not know English is looked down upon and is considered as backward. But in this tug of war, nobody is paying attention to both Marathi and Konkani suffering a setback. Many do not even consider it as a social cause either. Hence, Goa needs to learn from Karnataka.
Government affairs need to be carried out in the official language. In the neighbouring states, learning the local language is mandatory even for the officials of IAS, IPS and IFS. There is no need to do such a thing in our State as administration itself does not use the local languages. On one hand there is a push to safeguard our State’s identity while on the other, English is being followed blindly. The government did signal at publishing the official gazettes in the local language, to say the least. In the interim, the Department of Urban Development had broadcasted their orders in the vernacular languages. Barring exceptions which are still few and far between, these efforts are extremely insufficient.
It is necessary to administer and run the government in a language which can be understood by the locals. All the subjects after Class V are taught in English and steps should be taken to teach them in the local languages. However, the region’s identity does not mean mere hollow speeches but concrete action is needed. Which is why the government should carry out its governance through official language and only then one can accept that the government is sensitive towards protecting the State’s identity. Sometime back, efforts were made to run the proceedings of the Assembly in the local language. First of all, the rules of the Assembly proceedings have to be made in Konkani. It is often said at the government level that the students do not have an affinity towards the local languages. However, it is not the fault of either parents or their children if the government proceedings itself are held in English. No steps have been taken since the Liberation of Goa to administer in the local language, not even after Goa attained statehood in 1987.
The subject of how many are native Goans in the State could be controversial, but there would be no objection to running the government in the official language. There has been no awareness amongst the people who reside here regarding claiming their rights as a linguistic minority yet. Once they approach the court for the same, then the government will have to administer in Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Hindi, etc, without complaining. The government has not understood the depth of this issue yet. There is still time and the government should implement the official language in the true sense of the word.
