A Brace of Black Bills

By Vinayak Naik

Before the commencement of the recent State Legislative Assembly session the whole of Goa was in high ferment. The sole reason for this mammoth excitement was the voting that was expected to take place in the House on the two private members’ Official Language Amendment Bills. However, in the event, no such thing happened. Leave aside voting, the twin bills failed to get even introduced in the House. Here was an instance of something going up like a rocket only to come down like the stick. But the renewed language controversy continues.

Failure to get the gubernatorial nod is what blocked the initiation of the bills in the House, one is told. Nevertheless, the architects of the proposed legislations, Pandurang Raut and Manohar Parrikar – although they would vehemently deny it – must have congratulated themselves, in private, for getting just what suited them the most, that is, keeping the re-enlivened language row going at least till the start of the next assembly session, not due until five or six months from now.

Mark you, controversies are the very breath of our politicians’ nostrils. Put differently, they are the sine-qua-non for their political survival. So it isn’t surprising one bit to see our politicos being constantly at it siring fresh controversies, the current one in respect of Goa’s official language being just a case in point. Letting the dust to settle on any controversy is the last thing they would possibly want. 

Anyway. Notwithstanding Ramakant Khalap’s rather egregious attempt to fissure the Congress on linguistic lines, I dare say the two black bills would have fallen ignominiously flat had they been introduced in and voted on in the House. Yes, about that one can be dead certain. And I’m pretty sure that both Raut and Parrikar, in their heart of hearts, knew full well how slim the chances were for their bills’ passage. Else their effort towards getting the bills to move in the House would not have smacked of the kind of half-heartedness it did.

Even a cursory glance at the contents of the bills in question is enough to convince one as to how invidiously unfair they are. Make no mistake, while Konkani is the mother of all Goans, Marathi, at the most, can take the place of a governess, and that too only of a segment of Goan hoi polloi. And for someone to try and seek equality of status for a governess alongside his own mother is simply ludicrous. As for Parrikar’s bill, it’s devoid of any meaning simply because it seeks to acquire for Marathi what it has already acquired. A classic case of attempting to gild the lily, this surely is. Well, let’s leave it at that.

Now, a little bit about this issue. The whirligig of time has described yet another circle marking the completion of one more year of Goa Today’s existence. With the magazine now having gone into its 35^th year of publication, for us it’s once again an occasion for celebration. And we are jubilizing this time just the way we have on every such occasion in the past, by offering our readers this rather bulky celebrative volume – our 34^th Anniversary Special.

In keeping with our tradition, we have once again let our guest contributors call the tune in this special edition. Indeed, our roster of guests is pretty imposing this time with a host of acknowledged heavyweights from diverse fields figuring in it. Their punishing professional schedules notwithstanding, they all went out of their way to make time and chip in with their classy pieces for Goa Today. A million thanks to all of them.

By the way, this is a landmark issue of sorts for me, personally, in that it is the 160^th on the trot I have had the good fortune to work on since making my debut in Goa Today on All Fool’s Day, way back in 1987. For me, every issue has been a special one. And believe me, I can, serially recall, each and every cover story we have carried in the past 160 issues Goa Today has brought out since my joining. To boot, I can also recall, serially, all the Village Voice articles we have carried to date. By disclosing this I am not trying to toot my own horns, but just giving our readers an idea of the scale of my involvement in and commitment to Goa Today. Here, I would like to place upon record my sincerest thanks to my employer, Mr Dattaraj Salgaocar, for giving me the type of freedom in deciding on all the editorial matters which most editors would envy. Yes, to be honest, I consider myself privileged.

Finally, as promised last month, we are getting back on the internet with this issue. From now on, in the first week of the month, month after month, Goa Today’s online capsule will be on. 

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