By Jerry Fernandes
It is finally official! The ruling Laxmikant Parsekar led BJP government is hell-bent on dancing to the tunes of BBSM group and betraying the wishes of all English supporting parents over the issue of MOI in Goa.
For what are the BBSM leaders really fighting? For mother tongue or regional language? Because they are always seen confusing people by sometimes talking about mother tongue and sometimes regional language. And which is Goa’s actual mother tongue and which is practically spoken by all the communities in public? Isn’t it Konkani? Then why is a regional neighboring language like Marathi taught for free, especially in all the government primary schools since ages in Goa? Yes, if this whole fight is really for the love of mother tongue then why are these individuals not asking the government of the day to stop giving grants to all such Marathi medium primary schools in Goa as well? Why these double standards?
The one thing I know about these sick outdated communal-minded selfish individuals is that they are working only to finish the prospects of all Church run English medium primary schools by forcibly imposing Devnagiri-Konkani in these schools to somehow help all the private run English medium primary schools which are run by all their business-minded industrialist friends to make fast bucks demanding hefty donations in Goa.
Another reason why they are trying to communalize the MOI issue is because they somehow want to show the same as a Hindu V/s Catholic issue to keep the big communal divide alive forever between both the communities despite of knowing full well that most children who are studying in Church run English medium primary schools are practically Hindus in Goa. Why, are the church run English medium primary schools committing a big crime by imparting free English primary education for all such poor children in Goa?
Well, they say that English is an alien language but what about Marathi? Isn’t the same also alien for most Goans in Goa? But still many (especially Hindu students) go to successfully pass out in this language because there is a famous saying “where there is a will, there is a way” and this also applies to all the other students studying in English medium primary schools as they also go to successfully do the same without any difficulty.
My main argument is that if the leaders of BBSM and their supporters (most of whom are not at all Konkani but Marathi supporters) can give their children free primary education in Marathi medium primary schools then why not others in Church run English medium primary schools? Don’t English supporting Goan parents pay their respective taxes for the government in Goa? Then why are these sick individuals fighting to take away the fundamental basic right of all English supporting parents even on the issue of primary education in Goa? And by the way, who are these sick outdated leaders to decide about the medium of instruction of our children when we parents are alive in Goa? Don’t these sick people have any other work to do in Goa?
I think that these outdated individuals should immediately stop misguiding Goans by unnecessarily communalizing the MOI issue for their own selfish gains but instead learn to accept the fundamental right of all parents who believe in giving primary education of their choice for the betterment of their children as free-born open-minded human beings…. Coz finally they should realize that most Goan parents are smart enough to decide what is best for their children and that includes primary education of their choice…. Simply harping on UNESCO guidelines to buttress their own view-point on MOI won’t help because Goa has never been following that particular policy at all as our respective governments have mischievously always been promoting not Goa’s mother tongue Konkani but regional neighbouring language Marathi through the back door misguiding everyone to divide Goans.
I therefore think that it’s time for all secular-minded Goans to start a massive revolution to free Goa from all such anti-Goan forces who are out to keep the big communal divide alive forever by communalizing the MOI issue and to save all our basic fundamental rights for good. Yes, it’s time to say ‘yes’ to freedom of choice of parents…. Freedom of choice Zindabaad…. Down with all those who are hell-bent on dividing Goans even on the lines of languages… Viva Goenkaar…
