Only 7 takers for Konkani, all 40 MLAs take oath

GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 19 March 2012 13:29 IST

40 MLAs of Goa Assembly 2012

The newly elected Assembly found only seven takers for Konkani, to take oath in their own mother tongue, 25 years after the same Goa Assembly made Konkani Goa’s official language.

The maximum number of 18 MLAs preferred to take oath in English, followed by equally large number of 14 legislators taking oath in Marathi.

The language of oath taking has a socio-political significance in Goa, due to historical language controversy that keeps reflecting in state’s political arena.

Till the last century, the Konkani-Marathi controversy dominated Goa’s politics and it even witnessed Goa Assembly getting vertically divided across the party lines.

The controversy keeps haunting Goa Assembly even after Konkani was made the official language on 4 February 1987.

In addition, a new controversy has erupted in Goa recently due to the issue of giving grants to English medium primary schools.

In fact the Congress openly admitted that its confusing stand on the Medium of Instruction issue was one of the prime causes of its miserable defeat.

In this background, seven out of nine Congress MLAs took oath in English while six out of 21 BJP MLAs also followed their suite.

Both the Goa Vikas Party legislators – Mickky Pacheco and Caetan Silva – preferred English.

Similarly, three independents – Rohan Khaunte, Avertano Furtado and Benjamin Silva took oath in English.

The only independent to take oath in Konkani was Vijay Sardesai.

Similarly, independent MLA Naresh Sawal from Bicholim preferred Marathi.

Neither any Congressman nor any GVP legislator however preferred Marathi.

Besides all three MGP men, 10 BJP legislators preferred Marathi.

These are Speaker Rajendra Arlekar, Laxmikant Parsekar, Dayanand Mandrekar, Dilip Parulekar, Vishnu Wagh, Anant Shet, Pramod Sawant, Ganesh Gaonkar, Subhash Faldesai and Ramesh Tawadkar.

Chief minister Manohar Parrikar however took oath in Konkani, along with three other BJP men – Matanhy Saldhana, Kiran Kandolkar and Rajan Naik.

The only two Congressmen to prefer Konkani were former chief minister Digambar Kamat and Alex Reginald Lawrenco.  Rest all seven Congress legislators embraced English. 


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Previous Comments

@keny, Vasco, good point.

'Maharshtrawadi" in MGP has become irrelevant. But currently the party has been hijacked by a few interests. As you say they should either merge with BJP or come up with alternate plans and policies (I wonder if they have any at the moment, apart from being single-minded power brokers).

- Jagan Kamat, Canada | 20 th March 2012 21:44

 

congratulations to TEAM-DE-PARIKAR

and sincere thanks to all goans here and abroad for giving support direct or indirectly.

let hope the best will be done.

people say margao MMC is more corrupt, but we know Vasco, mormugao MMC is the worst in delivering its duties towards locals.

for temporarly migrants.... their slogan is "we at your service sir any time -anywhere"

bab manohar parikar.. only u r the hope

thanks n regards

prashant

- prashant naik, vasco | 20 th March 2012 19:26

 

Taking oath in Marathi though does not mean Maharashtrian by heart. But, i believe MGP should change its name suitably by deleting the word "Maharashtra" from its name.

How about mearging the party itself in BJP ?.

- keny, Vasco | 20 th March 2012 14:53

 

Manadik Saib Manohar Parikar,

aum zholl fuxi zalom quiteak tuven amche konkani baxen "oath" dilo munn. Amim Goenkar lozonk upkarnam, amchi konknim bas uloupak. Amchi bas titli guirest num, punn amcheani torui baxen pollounk zata, amchem kalliz quitem sangonk sodta tem. Muzo respeit tuka anim tukollem magtam amchem Goiem voir add munn.

Deu borem korum.

Tuzo manadik Goenkar bau,

Lourenco Ferrao

- Lourenco Ferrao, Dinslaken, Germany | 20 th March 2012 04:56

 

Congratulations!!!!

Run the Government House smoothly and clean the worst corrupt Margao Municipal Council on priority basis.

Carmo Santos

Kuwait

- Carmo Santos, Margao / Kuwait | 19 th March 2012 19:45

 

Guys cool down. Just because somebody took an oath in Marathi doesn't mean he is for merger with Maharashtra.

Goans may not be able to speak decent Marathi, but for most of them it is culturally and emotionally very close to the heart. Every Hinud Goan is so fond of Marathi literature, music, natak, natyasangeet, etc. Look at the number of marathi newspapers thriving in Goa, that will give you a sense of popularity of this language.

That doesn't mean that these people hate Konkani, they speak it at home but in different dialects. I bet the Konkani oath that Parrikar or Mathani took will resonate with people from Pernem, and that is the reason Parsekar had to take the oath in Marathi. These people will find Marathi closer than Sashti or Ponda Konkani. It is the reality that cannot be forgotten.

Anyway, Churchill also was the first guy to speak in Konkani in the parliament, what did he do after that? nothing, in fact , Mayabhushan did a sting on him in Delhi to expose his true love for Konkani.

It is the need of the hour to foster love for different languages and not create animosity, hatred and war between languages. We do not need any 'Waadis' (like konkani or marathi waadis). We need people to love all languages and enjoy them.

- Jagan Kamat, Canada | 19 th March 2012 19:32

 

An oft repeated joke on Goans saying their mother tongue was Marathi is as follows: During the height of merger issue, many Maharashtrians had descended up on Goa to canvas when one of them remarked, 'I have moved along the length and breadth of Goa, but could not find anybody speaking good Marathi. Of course we are happy that you want to join Maharashtra but you should improve your Marathi. One MGP eader in Mapusa replied, 'we have but they are all for Konkani and Goa to be seperate from Maharashtra'

- Kalidas Laxman, Panaji Goa | 19 th March 2012 18:19

 

Bravo new CM. Manohar, Matanhy, Kiran and Rajan

took oath in Konkani. Other who are not goan's taken

oath in Marathi/English they have shown that they are not belong to Goa. Those are oath in Marathi still love

to merge Goa to Maharashtra dream of Mr. Bandodkar who was is ignorant and dishonest goans.Those who oath in English are not even know how to speak English surprised . New CM bravo and clean up corruption like margao collecgorate and mamladar

office which facing and hard time for south people

being not deliver goods in time.Please visit surpise

check in mamladar office and check the work they

carried out in time or takes more than one month.

Mamladar office say this officer is not there other officer on holidays it it panic south people. Caught them and suspend on the spot.

- Sanjay Kumar , Goa | 19 th March 2012 14:14

 

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