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Some time ago Margaret Alva called Churchill Alemao a
"Joke", albeit with dubitable justification. But the
current Director of TSKK rightly deserves the title
"Standing Joke" (SJ).
(1) For the last two years, he has been issuing "last
calls" to the CM, Congress Party, Margaret Alva,
Catholic MLAs et al. These calls, though signed by
different individuals, have invariably been
communicated to the media by this SJ. The substance
of these "last calls" has always remained the same,
but they have been issued in the name of various
outfits, most of which are ephemeral. These are TSKK,
DKA (Dalgado Konknni Akademi), RLA (Romi Lipyecho
Avaz), KLE (Konknni Lipyancho Ekvott), TS
(Tiatristancho Sonstho), TA (Tiatr Akademi), RLAF
(Romi Lipi Action Front) etc., to mention just a few,
with a different Director / President / Convenor each
time. The latest is RLC (Romi Lipyechi Chollvoll)
with Fr. Conceição Silva as Convener. The SJ may soon
run out of letters in the Roman alphabet. Not to
worry! He could always borrow a few from the Greek.
He has already set a precedent by borrowing one for
his Konknni Orthography which nobody (including
himself) follows!
(2) The choice of conveners of the outfits is based on
the individual's estimated crowd-pulling capacity.
Tiatrs run to full houses for a minimum of fifty shows
each. If Hindi cinema stars can draw crowds, why not
our tiatrists? So tiatrists were roped in. But the
meetings, even in tiatr-crazy villages like Benaulim,
could draw barely twenty bystanders in the audience,
in spite of as many as twelve tiatrists (including the
Sarpanch) being present on the dais, with the SJ.
This has probably sobered the tiatrists who were
earlier threatening to contest all the 40 seats to the
Goa Vidhan Sabha; they probably reckoned that this
was synonymous with Gomant Vidya Niketan. Throngs of
people attend Fr. Conceição's Novenas. Perhaps one of
these may now be converted into an "RLC rally" and
shown as such on TV!
(3) The Mull Goenkarancho Ekvott (MLE) was agitating
for a location in Margao for installing a statue of
Floriano Vaz who was murdered by the Police at the
height of the Language Agitation. The MLE has quite a
following in the "Mull Goenkar" community. The SJ saw
an opportunity to capitalize on this and instituted an
Award of Rs. 5000/- in the name of Konknni Martyr
Floriano Vaz, for "the BEST Konkani Book written in
the Roman script during the year 2006". Since the SJ
has been shouting hoarse that CATHOLIC writers are
denied the Konkani Awards because they write in the
Roman script, it was expected that a Roman script book
written by a Catholic will bag at least this one. But
this did not happen. The Award went to a book written
in both Romi and Devanagari by a HINDU author, Ashok
Chodankar. In effect, SJ conveyed the message that
only Hindus can produce quality literature in Konkani
irrespective of script. But at the Award Presentation
Function, the SJ announced that at the selection
stage, he had shifted the goalposts to Chodankar's
advantage by eliminating the books written by those
who had earlier won the Jesuit Antonio Pereira
Puroskar (JAPP). Was it necessary to humiliate
Chodankar in this manner by telling him publicly that
his book was not the best and that a favour was done
to him? The JAPP, by the way, is NOT a Literary Award
and is not given to a SPECIFIC book. The SJ had
invited "all those who support the inclusion of Roman
script in the Official Language Act" to attend the
function in large numbers. About a third of the forty
strong audience comprised relatives and friends of the
author, and they had nothing to do with the script; in
fact some of them, whom I know personally, are
staunchly anti-Konkani. Even Ulhas Buyao (UB), who
spoke in "Bamnni" (his term), commented on the poor
turn-out. (But what he said in Bamnni was understood
by everyone though he was the only Bamonn in the
hall.) Although the President of MLE, Antonio
Gaoncar, was invited as the Chief Guest of the
function, the attendance of the "Mull Goenkar"
community was meager; not a single Konkani writer from
this community (and there are many, in both the
scripts!) attended the function. Probably they
boycotted the function even at the cost of appearing
to disrespect the memory of Floriano Vaz. Prince
Jacob, in his address, very condescendingly told
Antonio Gaoncar and the few Mull Goenkars present,
"Floriano Vaz was your son but I accept him as my
brother". A fine means of garnering support, indeed!
(4) But the SJ's latest missive is the clowning glory,
the joke of the millennium. He says he is "really
shocked by the decision of CLP to give Official Status
to Marathi in the Language Act". What else did he
expect the CLP do do? Or does he reckon the CLP to be
made up entirely of utter fools and imbeciles? For
the last 15 years, at least, the SJ has been preaching
that Marathi was the literary language of Goa even
prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in the
sixteenth century and that Konkani was given a
literary form in the Roman script for the first time
by the missionaries during the seventeenth century.
This was reiterated by him recently in the Marathi
daily, PHUDDARI. He has also been claiming that
nothing will change if Marathi is also made the
Official Language since it is already the 'de facto'
Official Language. For the last two years, at least,
he has been hobnobbing with Ramnath Naik, the
President of Marathi Rajbhasha Prasthapan Samiti
(Committee for the Establishment of Marathi as the
Official Language); even brought him to deliver a
talk at XCHR. Until very recently, the SJ always
carried this Ramnath in tow wherever he went. Now it
is the turn of UB, his current crony, who says
basically the same thing: "Marathi is to Hindus what
Konkani in Roman script is to Catholics". SJ and UB
have also been saying that, among the Hindus, Konkani
in Devanagari script (i.e. "Bamnni") is favoured only
by Saraswats who constitute only 3 percent of the
Hindu population, whereas the remaining 97 percent
(the "Bahujan samaj") Hindus favour Marathi. So, what
is the reason for his shock? How does he expect the
CLP to bow down to the demands of barely 26 percent of
the electorate (assuming that 100 percent of Catholics
favour the amendment to include Roman script) and
ignore the aspirations of 67 percent (assuming that
100 percent of the Bahujan samaj wants Marathi as an
Official Language)? In the face of all these "facts"
provided by the SJ and his cronies, how could the CLP
dig its own grave by favouring a language and script
which has been around as a literary vehicle in Goa for
some 75 years and ignore one which has been here
continuously since before the 15th century, as claimed
by the SJ himself? The SJ further says, "Goa is a
tiny State and, hence, there is absolutely no place
for two State Languages since in our neighbouring
States only one language has been given the State
Language Status." Could the SJ please tell us which
State has adopted two scripts for its State Language?
Talking of size, does the Konkani-speaking population
(arguably the smallest linguistic group in India)
require a multiplicity of scripts? What is sauce for
the goose is sauce for the gander! Or is it? And now
he has the cheek to say, "If Devanagari proponents
really care for Goa and Konknni, then they should join
with Roman script supporters and force CLP to change
its decision. If they failed to do it they will be
remembered in the history of Goa as betrayers of
Konknni." Why should the "Devanagari proponents" bail
him out? The mess is certainly of his own making.
Let him inter himself in the grave that he has dug!
But if he succeeds in bringing the expected disaster
on Goans - the adoption of Marathi as one of the
Official Languages with or without the Roman script
for Konkani - he will be held entirely responsible
for the outcome; he will be dealt with as a betrayer
of Goa in general and of the Goan youth in particular.
And let him be warned that not only he but his entire
brotherhood will be in peril in Goa; Pombal might
revisit Goa in the shape of Goan Youth. Therefore,
let him salvage the situation before it gets far too
late. Let him approach the CLP or Margaret Alva, on
bended knees if necessary, and unconditionally
withdraw his crooked demands. There seems to be no
other way, since the matter has gone way too far. The
sooner he moves in that direction, the easier it might
be.
Let truth prevail!
Sebastian Borges
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 "pratap naik" wrote
Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr (TSKK), Porvorim has served Konknni language
in its both scripts, namely, Devanagari and Roman in Goa for the last 25
years. TSKK also has played an active leadership role in the movement to
get Roman script the Official Status in the Language Act 1987. TSKK as a
research institute firmly believes that for the survival of Konknni in Goa,
both the scripts are essential. Language is far more important than
mere script. Since Roman script is the most popular script for Konknni TSKK
fully supported the movement and it would continue to support it.
