SC’s Citizenship Act ruling will give boost to our demand for Roman- script Konkani: GKF

Judgment reaffirms linguistic and cultural rights, strengthens case for amending Goa’s Official Language Act, asserts forum
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Team Herald

MARGAO: The Global Konkanni Forum (GKF) on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court judgment, which has upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

GKF members told the mediapersons that this judgement will give significant boost to their long-standing demand for Roman-script Konkani to be declared an official language, granting it equal status to Devanagari-script Konkani.

The Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 states that “any section of citizens, residing in India, or any part thereof, and having a distinct language, script, or culture, of their own, shall have the right to conserve the same”.

GKF saw this judgment as a reaffirmation of linguistic and cultural rights, which strengthens their case for amending Goa’s Official Language Act (OLA) of 1987.

GKF President Kennedy Afonso, reiterated that the OLA in its current form is discriminatory as it only recognises Devanagari as the official script for Konkani, thus excluding the Roman script used by a significant portion of the Goan population.

“This exclusion violates the fundamental rights of the Roman script users, who have long demanded equal recognition for their preferred script. The right to conserve Konkani language and Romi script, as guaranteed by Article 29(1), is being denied,” Afonso said.

The GKF has been vocal about the need to amend the OLA to ensure that both Devanagari and Roman scripts are treated equally. The forum argues that the government’s failure to address this issue has led to the marginalization of the Roman script community, depriving them of their cultural and linguistic rights.

With the recent SC judgment providing new momentum, the GKF has called on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, to take a non-partisan approach and introduce two bills supporting Roman script Konkani in the Goa Legislative Assembly.

The forum remained hopeful that the government will review the OLA in light of the judgement and ensure equal recognition for both scripts.

GFK also demanded the introduction of Roman-script Konkani in schools, which they see as a critical step toward achieving equal status for the community.

In a bid to address these concerns, the GKF passed resolutions in 50 Gram Sabhas, urging the Commissioner of Linguistic Minorities to intervene.

The forum has pointed out that the Commissioner is specifically tasked with addressing linguistic violations under Article 29(1) of the Constitution, and they have requested a thorough review of the alleged discrimination against Roman script Konkani users.

As part of their advocacy, the GKF is meeting with all 40 MLAs to raise awareness about the fundamental rights of the Roman script community.

According to Afonso, many MLAs are unaware of the implications of Article 29(1) and its relevance to the ongoing debate. The forum believes that educating the legislators about these rights is crucial to advancing the cause of Roman-script Konkani within the State Sssembly.

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