ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE By Nisser Dias

Those opposing English MOI has a chequered background The Congress legislative party in Goa did it once again, it has done what it is best at – dashed the hopes of its voters by doing a volte facie on the ‘Medium of Instruction’ (MOI). And this time round they have stabbed parents of school going children and retracted from the promises of including English as one languages for MOI from the next academic year from primary level onwards.

The demand of the parents was simple give us the right to choose the best for our children, do not impose your view and dictate terms to us as we are living in a democracy and not under dictatorial rule. And to make their point, tens of thousands of parents gathered at Azad Maidan at a very short notice as a show of strength.

Here too promises were made by Congress party ministers and legislators that they respect parents anguish and would address the same promptly. But as days passed not only anti-English activists but also anti-Goans came together to forge a group to oppose grants to English medium schools in the state of Goa.

The people that are opposing grant-in-aid to English medium of instruction to our children are not at all parents of school going children, but some old haggard’s having no standing in the society and wanting 15 minutes of fame and publicity. For example Shashikala Kadokar’s love for Maharashtra is well established as she along her late father’s side tried to merge Goa with Maharashtra. Today she is spent force wanting to stay in the public eye. It is also well established that she has no love lost for the Konkani and will not lift a finger for the development of the mother tongue. What is she interested is in just making Marathi popular here in Goa. Should the government even take cognizance of this anti-Goan?

Then we have members of the RSS in the group opposing English as the medium of instruction at the elementary level. These are the people who had assassinated Father of the Nation Mahtatma Gandhi and were banned for many years. These are anti-national group who are also involved in terror activities in Mumbai. But they have the cheek to term parents as anti-national just because we are demanding English to be included as medium of instruction. Chief minister Digambar Kamat and Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar belong to this Hindu Fundamentalist outfit. Do we need these elements who breed and propagate hatred, ill-will, intolerance, fanaticism to tell us how to educate our children?

Then we have so called educationists in the group also. What can one except of personalities like the ones who go on a rampage of desecrating sign boards. How can they be role models to our children. And the less said about the priests supporting the movement against English is better as even the church has kept them at bay from the laity or its flock.

Such are the elements that have formed a pressure group to oppose a genuine demand of lakhs of parents. Sadly though Congress ministers and MLAs are falling prey to these personalities. Their only claim is that if English medium of instruction is allowed it will divide communities on communal lines and destroy the harmony and social fabric in the state.

Such logic does not hold any water as most of the private unaided English schools has equal number of students of either community studying in complete harmony. The only difference is that these parents can afford exorbitant fees charged by the managements of these schools, while poor are left behind. This is an indication that communal politicians and communal educationists like the ones grouped together to deny children their right to be educated in English medium of instruction should not be given the ear by a responsible government. Secondly a sizeable percentage of Hindu community students are studying in schools and convents run by the Archdiocese Board of Education and Diocesan Society of Goa in a secular fashion. How would allowing English as MOI destroy this fabric. It is only the wild imagination of the fundamentalist in BBSM.

However the government of Goa basically constitutes of Congress party MLAs who times in memorial have not only used, misused and abused the minority voters but have also taken them for granted for a simple reason that minorities do not subscribe to the BJP idealogy.

But now it is seems that the Congress’ run is over. People may forgive for the harm caused to themselves but no parent will forgive somebody for the harm caused to their children. And this time all the parents should consciously vote against any MLA who is opposing English medium of instruction. It should not stop at that, all the ministers and MLAs specially the ones from Salcete, who had attended the FORCE rally at Azad Maidan and showed their solidarity with the parents but as today have back-tracked should be shown the door. As for the chief minister Digambar Kamat, from the very beginning nothing much was expected of him as his is a member of the RSS whose aim is to be the main stake holders in the education sector, secondly his closeness to most of the managements running English unaided private schools who are Saraswats and most importantly his government is of the ministers, for the ministers and by the ministers and Digambar Kamat will go to any level to cling on to his chief minister’s chair.

The fight for inclusion of English as MOI is far from over. Before the commencement of the new academic year parents should boycott classes, the ABE and Diocesan Society of Goa should keep their schools closed till the government gives in to the parents demand and lastly parents should vote against those MLAs who are not only opposing English medium of Instruction, but also those collaborating with the chief minister and those not support the Education minister who want to bring about the change.