Team Herald
PANJIM: Condemning former Union Minister Eduardo Faleiro’s statement that if Romi Konkani script is given Official Language status, then it will spell doom for the Catholic community in the State and their children will be in darkness, the newly-formed Global Romi Lipi Abhiyan (GRLA) said that Faleiro made the statement in a section of the media with no facts to support what he claimed.
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GRLA president Kennedy Afonso said that it appears that Faleiro was hired for the function by the Devanagari lobby, only to make such a statement, to swing public opinion.
Afonso reiterated that due to such leaders who betrayed their community by conniving in the conspiracy hatched by the Devanagari lobby, the Roman script was not included in the Official Language Act, and continues to suffer for their sins of treachery for the last 36 years. On the contrary facts point out that since Devanagari was made the Official Language of Goa by the then government in 1987, and the subsequent stand of the Sahitya Akademi of not honouring and respecting other scripts, the number of Konkani speaking people had dwindled by two lakh.
The GRLA would like to ask Faleiro, if the Catholic community took part in the Konknni language agitation of 1986, to make Devanagari as the Official Language of Goa.
It further demanded a denial or acceptance of these facts and answers from the former Union Minister.
Afonso has demanded to know if Faleiro can provide evidence that the Portuguese destroyed the Devanagari literature. If Konkani in Devanagari script was read and written during Portuguese rule, why did Shenoi Goembab alias Vaman Varde Valaulikar write his first 11 books in the Roman script? Isn’t this only because Konkani in the Roman script was widely written and read in the State and other areas where Goans domiciled?
According to Afonso, for the past 36 years, Devanagari script was the Official Language of the State and why hasn’t the Konkani language grown despite the Devanagari lobby getting crores of funds from the government and despite being taught in schools? The latest statistics show that Konkani language was on the decline, and was prominent on the list of the endangered languages list of the UNESCO. The number of Konkani speaking people has declined by two lakh, since the last Census done in 2001. This shows that the One language, One script policy ‘fraudulently’ adopted over the years by the Sahitya Akademi in connivance with the destroyers of Konkani language and the Goa government had failed to promote the language which failure had put the Konkani language on the list of the endangered languages list of the UNESCO.
Out of the 22 lakh people identifying Konkani as their mother tongue all over India, almost 9.6 lakh or 68 per cent are from Goa. Can Faleiro tell the Goans how by enforcing the one script policy and denial of accepting the Roman script had brought light into the life of Goans? Or can he elaborate how learning Romi will bring darkness in the life of the children of the Catholic community? Afonso asked.
