Goan politics verging on the extremes

 What with Subhash Velingkar declaring the Goa prant of the RSS independent of the Konkan unit and conducting his show of strength at the 12th Sept 2016 meeting at Cujira, has found an uninvited strange bedfellow imposing upon him. This is in the form of the Shiv Sena who clearly want to fish in troubled waters. One is sure that Velingkar would not have bargained for the Shiv Sena, among the more extreme of the Hindutva brigade come calling on him. In the same manner you have the Marathi Rastrabhasha Samiti (MRS) making noises as a follow-up to the independent MLA’s private resolution seeking official language status for Marathi in Goa in the last Assembly to be implemented before the next elections. The move by the government in passing the private member’s resolution in the House with a rider that it should be subject to the acceptance of the people was with an eye to split the BBSM movement into Marathi and Konkani groups. The BBSM as an organization aligning itself with the RSS with Velingkar as its then head was unusual since the majority of the RSS in Goa would want Marathi to continue as MOI. This is not really wrong considering the precedence of the majority of vernacular schools in Goa being Marathi and that BBSM stands for Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch. But then the quid pro quo was expected to be placed before the BBSM members at any time and that was to make Marathi also the official language of Goa. Those in the RSS and now the new Velingkar-led Goa RSS would not be averse to this proposition. So the BBSM will find itself being pushed into an extreme corner where it will have to compromise since the majority of its leaders are considered pro-Konkani and not so amenable to Marathi. People like Uday Bhembre who their entire life have been working against making Marathi the official language in Goa will be left with no choice but to accept it as the 3rd official language of Goa. What next but Romi Konkani will follow as the next entrant to the official language status since it obviously has more right than Marathi. Thus the BBSM in its MOI agitation has clearly sacrificed the interests of Konkani. As for the BBSM forming a political party, almost 12 years ago, it is called a tup in the Hindu measure of time, Uday Bhembre and Arvind Bhatikar had been asked to form a regional party in Goa building on the Nitoll Jin platform that they have. At that time they had said that regional parties will not work in Goa. What was the compulsion now to consider forming a party? Was it just the MOI issue? Would a single point agenda form the basis of a party is what these eminent people heading the BBSM should mull over? On a point of principle the BBSM position on the MOI is divisive seeking to divide the people on language sounding at the same time holy because you are defending the mother tongue! If at that time Bhembre & Co. had listened to form a regional Goa based party since there were enough and more issues like corruption, protecting Goan land, IIFI etc. then one of the present leaders of the BBSM would have been the present Chief Minister and maybe the MOI issue would never have become an issue to agitate about. Now it is a big, political khichdi that has been formed and Goa may not come out of it unscathed and maybe will continue to be ruled from Delhi.