On 11th of this month, in the Herald “Café”, in its front page, the well-known Devanagri Konknni protogonist Adv. Uday Bhemre speaking to Café and while expressing his view made it clear why the awards given to him for his books he rejected and returned back. According to Adv. Bhembre he took such a drastic action as a mark of protest against the government decision of giving grants to the English medium schools.
Commenting on this, let me say first that there is the strong malaise some Nagrivadi Konknni stalwarts are suffering from not much for the love of Nagri Konknni but as it looks, much because of their dislike for the Roman Script Konkani whose promoters have contributed immensely for the cause of Konkani. If Konkani is kept alive till now then it is and I repeat, it is ONLY BECAUSE OF THE SUPERLATIVE EFFORTS MADE BY THE ROMI KONKANI LOVERS AND PROMOTERS. If it was not for the Goa Church, Konkani would have gone by now into extinction. Full credit to the Roman Catholic Church for its tremendous efforts to organise Church functions and all the prayers and rituals in Konkani. While the Nagrivadis are happily using their religious rites and formalities in the Non-Konknni language. Instead of appreciating the efforts of the Church and of all other Romi Konkani supporters, most of the Nagri supporters are vomiting venom at Romi Konkani and its followers. I still dont find any soft corner from Nagrivadis for Romi circle and to a certain extent I feel many of them will rather embrace Marathi than to support the Romi Konkani. That they have affiliation to Marathi is a sure fact based on the Maratik Konknni they have succeeded in dumping on Goa. The Devanagri Konknni they managed to get converted into official language is more Maratik than Konknnik.
Since many of the current Devanagri script Konknnivadis were sympathizers of Maharastarawadi Gomantak Party that was fighting to get recognition for Marathi as an official language of Goa because they wanted to punish in a Hitlerian manner all the Christians by making them useless in grabbing the available opportunities in Goa. Many of these Nagrivadis had no hearts in their Chests, like sadistic minded they wanted to enjoy the hardships of Romivadis would face in Goa. I am sure, not a single leaf would shake an inch forward for the recognition of Konkani minus the support Romiwadis have rendered to get Konkani recognized, even up to the cold blooded murders of 7 Konkani martyrs. Today it looks to me they are all forgotten because none of them belongs to the Nagri camp.
Since many of the current Devanagri script Konknnivadis were sympathizers of Maharastarawadi Gomantak Party that was fighting to get recognition for Marathi as an official language of Goa because they wanted to punish in a Hitlerian manner all the Christians by making them useless in grabbing the available opportunities in Goa. Many of these Nagrivadis had no hearts in their Chests, like sadistic minded they wanted to enjoy the hardships of Romivadis would face in Goa. I am sure, not a single leaf would shake an inch forward for the recognition of Konkani minus the support Romiwadis have rendered to get Konkani recognized, even up to the cold blooded murders of 7 Konkani martyrs. Today it looks to me they are all forgotten because none of them belongs to the Nagri camp.
Adv. Bhembre is insisting on justice to Konknni by stopping the grants to English medium schools but people like me in the Konkani movement are insisting to give justice to Romi Konkani first. Wasn’t this injustice to Romi Konkani meted out by the Nagri Konknni stalwarts? Can my respected friend Adv. Bhembre throw some light on the events taken place prior to the drafting of language bill and who drafted it without allotting any benefit for the Romi Konkani? That means the enormous efforts put in by the Romi Konkaniwadis were useless? What about the financial contribution we gave from the Gulf in general and Kuwait in particular?
The need of the hour is to undo the injustice done to Romi Konkani and this must be done immediately with the lead given by those who denied justice to Romivadis. Because of this injustice there appeared a big rift between the Nagriwadis and Romivadis which is not good for the development and promotion of Konkani.
A.Veronica Fernandes.