FORCE – IS IT HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION? by Nisser Dias

Last week the frustration over inaction by the members of the FORCE to compel the government to commit - including English as medium of instruction spilled over with villagers from the coastal belt of Salcete organising themselves as a parallel outfit. At their very first meeting they fired salvos at Benaulim MLA Mickky Pacheco and PWD minister Churchill Alemao, something which members of FORCE were avoiding so far.

From the beginning the movement to demand inclusion of English as medium of instruction alongside Konkani and Marathi was ‘fear based’, simply because the insistence would given communal colour to the issue. However I am of the opinion that this concept is mis-founded as a language cannot have colour or religion. However if some thought that Christians were demanding English, then the percentage of the majority community studying in convents and schools run by Archdiocese Board of Education or the Diocese Society of Goa is more than 50 percent, thereby putting to rest the sentiment. However those appointed on these boards cannot digest this simple fact even when they themselves have the statistics. This is our irony of fate.

Two decade ago church had solidly supported the movement against the government’s lop-sided policy of refusing to extend grant-in-aid to schools instructing in English, but at the eleventh hour backed out. One cannot deny the fact that the church has the influence to draw people for public meetings to take a movement forward at the same time it also has the knack to crush the movement and 20 years back it had happened.

This time round the parents have come together again to demand that English be made as medium of instruction but the movement seems to be controlled by a handful of parents who are in turn controlled by handlers in-charge of Archdiocese Board of Education and the Diocese Society of Goa. In fact these handlers are holding the gun on the parents’ shoulders with the trigger in their hand. The chosen members of the adhoc committee of FORCE are all ‘Yes Sir’ type, who carry out the dictum of the blindly.

The strategies if at all are planned are made known to select few in the adhoc committee while thousands of parents attending the public meetings are treated as cattle. They are fed only with speeches repeated at other venues but future plan of action is not disclosed till date. Just saying that MLAs and ministers are going to be ghearoed if their demand is not met by 6th May 2011 is not sufficient because atleast the ruling MLAs from Salcete will simply pacify the parents by saying they are supporting the cause. Congress ministers and MLAs made their presence felt at Azad Maidan on 21st March 2011 and showed solidarity with the parents and that too when assembly was in session. However these same bunch of self centred politicians refused to support the Education minister Babush Monserrate when he wanted to introduce the Bill extending grant-in-aid to English during the Assembly session. However when the assembly session ended, PWD minister Churchill Alemao was the first politician to sing the chorus that he was with the parents. This is hypocrisy because he too had refused to support the Education minister during assembly session. Secondly Alemao had threatened to overthrow the government on two occasions (induction of Mickky Pacheco and likely dropping of Babush Monseratte for his alleged involvement in smuggling of Foreign currency) but in the case of parent’s demand he is only giving lip service.

The parents have seen through the designs of these politicians – that they just want to drag the issue till next assembly elections and they just cannot win without the votes of the parents. The frustration of the parents over inaction came to the fore at the Varca meeting of the FORCE on 4th April 2011, wherein some parents demanded to know the future course of action. Without mincing words some parents questioned members of FORCE about the 25th March deadline set for the government’s to include English as medium of instruction. Nobody from the FORCE could spell out further course of action as either there was no action plan or they too were kept in the dark about it by the very people who are using parents shoulders to carry forward the movement.

These same personalities went a step ahead to rub the salt into the wounds of the parents. Margao meeting was called at Lohia Maidan. None of the speakers were parents of schools based in the commercial capital of Goa. Even national awardee and social activist Dinar Barros who first planted the seeds for this movement and is a parent of Margao school was not requested to address the gathering by FORCE. This has not gone down very well with a large section of the parents.

For the select few that are allowed speak at meetings it seems that even their speeches are screened and some of the select few among the repeated speakers have developed a notion to contest the forth coming elections as parent’s candidate. Furthermore the movement began with a self imposed restriction and a wrong concept of keeping politicians at bay but all the time members of FORCE and their handlers rub shoulders with politicians. The same people who are leading the movement have failed to realize that some politicos are also parents and also want English as medium of instruction. The people who are using the parents as their shield and also using their shoulders to fire the gun have nothing to lose but the parents and students do, and therefore the handlers of the movement and members of the FORCE have to mend their ways to carry forward the movement, which is already losing steam.

All the parents of school going children have a right to know the future course of action being chalked out. The demand of the parents is genuine and there is nothing to hide. If at all the handlers of the movement want to remain anonymous then they have to step down as 20 years back this same movement was aborted in a similar manner. We cannot let history repeat itself. Otherwise before more splinter groups are formed and the movement goes awry, future course of action should be spelt out with an aim to make the government give in to the demand immediately.