Recently, the Panchayat Minister Babu Azgaonkar who was the chief guest at a workshop in South Goa to discuss the Brazilian experience in 'Participatory Budgeting' tried to match the Brazilian team that spoke in Portuguese by announcing that he will follow their example and also speak in his own mother tongue. Leave aside the fact that the State knows the level of English or Portuguese this minister can speak. And here was the minister of Dhargal constituency in Pernem speaking in his mother tongue which surprisingly turned out to be konkani. This led some in the audience to comment, "since when has konkani become Babu's mother tongue?"
-Soter D.
