Team Herald
PANJIM: Attaining Statehood is a proud moment in Goa’s history and it should be written in letters of gold that movement for mother tongue and Statehood were fulfilled,” former Chief Minister, Rajya Sabha MP Faleiro Luizinho Faleiro said on the eve of State’s 35th Statehood Day.
“On January 4, 1987 the Official Language Bill was passed and Konkani was made the official language. Finally, as per the promises of then PM late Rajiv Gandhi, the central government moved the Constitutional Amendment Bill in the parliament to grant Statehood,” Faleiro said.
On May 3, 1987 the constitutional amendment bill was passed and on May 30, 1987 Goans got statehood.
“This is a proud history and it should be written in letters of gold that movement for mother tongue and Statehood were fulfilled,” the RS MP said.
But the Opinion Poll was just the beginning of Goans’ struggle to maintain their identity and have it respected.
“In my view and in the view of all self-respecting Goans, the gains of the Opinion Poll had to be consolidated. Konkani had to be recognised as our Official Language. Goa had to be given the status of a full-fledged State of the Union. It could not remain any longer a Union Territory with a legislative Assembly with limited powers, with a Goverment which, for all purposes, was accountable to a Lt. Governor whose Secretary participated in and monitored Cabinet meetings.
“I tried – but to my luck, failed – to raise the question of Goa’s twin aspirations in the various fora of the Party. To my mind, the MGP sword was still hanging over our heads. Their logic had been that Marathi is the language of Goa, and therefore, Goa is a part of Maharashtra. This mischief had to be settled once and for all through constitutional provisions,” he said.
He, therefore, tabled a resolution in the Goa Assembly on March 31,1982 that Konkani is the mother tongue of Goans and therefore should declared the Official Language. Hence, also, the Konkani Academy should set up, to develop the language. It was an historic resolution in the sense that it was for the first time that such a resolution had been moved and unanimously, irrespective of the party affiliation or ideologies of the MLAs.
“I followed up that initiative with another resolution on January 14,1983 urging the Government of India to grant statehood to Goa and fulfil the long cherished dreams of Goans. It was another historic resolution, passed unanimously by the House,” Faleiro said.
The two resolutions on Konkani and Statehood earlier alluded to were unanimously passed but nothing concrete happened as a result.
“The inaction spurred me to a more aggressive pursuit of my goal, which I knew in my heart and mind was the dream of every true Goan. On July 19,1985 I introduced the Official Language Bill, declaring Konkani the official language. The Bill to my utter surprise was summarily thrown out. Ten days later, about 3000 writers, poets, dramatists and intellectuals courted arrest at Altinho. A movement, Goencho Porjecho Avaz, was born as a result, a movement such as Goa never before or since witnessed,” the former General Secretary in the All India Congress Committee of Congress (I) said.
Finally, on February 4, 1987, the Official Language Bill was passed. The corollary followed.
“The then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi had told us we were still in the opposition then that if we could prove the legitimacy of our demand for Konkani, which we so emphatically did, he would, on his past, clear the decks to grant Goa full-fledged Statehood.
“He did it. He kept to his side of the bargain, we had kept to ours. And there being no longer any reason for disagreement with the Congress (I) party we all forgot the past and worked for the future. Goa Congress, of which I was the lone MLA in the Assembly and General Secretary merged in the Congress (I) in 1989, as a result of the official recognition of Konkani and the now strengthened and consolidated Congress (I) was returned to power in 1989,” he said.
