BY ABDUL RAUF BEIG | NT
PANAJI: B Vijayan, who recently retired as Chief Secretary of the state, has said that there were plenty of challenges that he faced while heading the state administration. He listed the micro issue of punctuality of the government servants among them but according to him the larger issue that the state was facing was identity crisis, which needed to be addressed at earliest.
Asked to elaborate in an exclusive interview with The Navhind Times on what he meant by identity crisis, he said that the question before a Goan was to who he is. Where does he stand vis-à-vis to the people from rest of the country? This to my mind is inextricably linked with the language, the culture of Konkani speaking population. What is currently being talked about is something to do with special status and according to me sale of land to outsiders is a smaller issue.
“To my mind the bigger issue is the attack the Konkani language itself is facing. It seemed to be besieged from all sides and its very existence is at stake today,” he said adding that he was saying this because the number of Konkani speakers in the overall context and number of Goans was decreasing.
“There is a declining trend in the population of Konkani speakers,” stated Vijayan, who served the state for four years.
The 2001 census reveals that Konkani speakers in Goa amounted to only 50 per cent of the total population. Added to this you have outmigration, which of course not very high, but in-migration is very high. We need to study this phenomenon of in-migration from other parts of country. The in-migration could be attributed to lack of sufficient manpower in the state to support the kind of economic growth that the state was witnessing, which Goans aspire for.
He further said that Goa was compelled to bring workforce from elsewhere, which is contributing to the economy but at the same time it is contributing to other problems like Konkani speakers becoming minority in their own land. This is a contradiction in itself as on one hand Goa needs them but on the other they could lead to Goa losing its own identity. Here I would like to state that Goa has a population of around five lakh people which does not speak either Konkani or Marathi – the two native languages. Along with this you have yet another issue, declining Konkani speaking population is one part of the story, you also have adverse sex ratio. Despite a very high literacy rate the state of Goa has low adult sex ratio in comparison in states like Kerala. Even more alarming than the adverse adult sex ratio is the adverse child sex ratio as we have only 937 girls for every 1,000 boys. “The medical fraternity in Goa has informed me that there was no selective female foeticide in the state,” he said. This (adverse sex ratio) will lead of eligible boys not being able to find brides in future and would need to ‘import’ girls in marriage as Haryanvis do. This will lead to hybridization of society over a period of time, which will again become a threat to Konkani language or Konkani culture, the Konkani identity or the Goan identity.
He further said that he felt that the major challenge for any state was that once its language was under attack the culture too comes under attack because they are linked together.
“I consider alienation (sale) of land as a minor issue as compared to decline in population of Konkani speaking people in the state of Goa. The matter has been worsened for the Konkani language and Konkani speaking people by the division on the use of script (Devanagari or Romi) for Konkani promotion, which unfortunately has gone on communal lines. These are all existential threats to the language and the Goan identity.
“Today they might be minor problems but in the days to come they can be become huge and in the process a civilization (of Konkani speaking people) could be lost,” he feared.
The matter has been further aggravated by the issue of medium of instruction. When those whose mother tongue is Konkani do not want to learn Konkani how do you expect other people coming to the state to talk in the local (Konkani) language. “The pride in one’s own language is pride in one’s own culture and if that is missing than that culture does not have much hope of survival, he said adding that he has always stated this before every one and have been branded as a gloomy pessimist. He also stated that if the demographic changes that were taking place in Goan society are not reversed Konkani speakers would have to be found only in museums in 100 years from now. “They will become a rare and extinct species,” he said.
Responding to a query on whether the government has taken steps to arrest slide in Konkani speakers, he said that the issue has at least been identified. The easiest way is to increase the number of Konkani population. For this, we might need to have a separate kind of policy (one away from the National Population Policy) and go for a new slogan – Hum do – hamare anek in contrast to national policy of hum do hamare do.
He said that pattern of migration into the state from other parts of the country had to be studied and it has to be ensured that the in-migration did not adversely affect the demography of the state to an extent that the state’s language, culture and ethnicity was affected and state’s identity was threatened. Even one or two lakh of people from other parts of the country could change the demography of the state, which should be contained.
‘Seniority list shouldn’t have been changed’
PANAJI: Former chief secretary B Vijayan has said that the changes in the seniority list should not have happened but the same have been done. “It is quite unfortunate that the seniority list of the state bureaucrats was changed,” he told The Navhind Times. He said that this was the legacy that was inherited by the present government. The seniority list was tampered with in the past. The moment you tamper it once, the affected parties would lobby to get it changed and there is bound to be reaction. The state now is witnessing reaction and counter reaction from “affected” parties and this likely to go on for quite some time at least. “The question that comes up is that if the old seniority list is restored than other affected by the government decision would take recourse to legal justice,” he said, adding that the government was shying in taking a final decision on it.
“It is rather sad that seniority list has been tampered with,” he stated, adding that it should not have happened under any circumstances.
In the case of All India Services is determined in the rank the officers get at the competitive exam and that remains irrespective of whatever promotions that we get during our career.
The seniority list at the time of recruitment is sacrosanct and should continue till the officers retire and it continues till one retires. So also should have been the case here (in Goa) but somehow somebody became a little ambitious and changed the whole thing.
Now the state is facing the problem and it is likely to witness series of litigations and the matter is likely to be fought till the Supreme Court of India, whose directions alone would help resolve the problem.
http://www.navhindtimes.in/goa-facing-identity-crisis-says-vijayan/
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