By Nandkumar Kamat
THE acid test of Goa’s Official Language Act (OLA) was availability of the most widely discussed, highly hyped and publicised and most controversial and expensive semi technical document - the Regional Plan 2021 being made available in Konkani.

The success of any government in Goa since statehood had depended on making government decisions and decision-making processes as complicated for the common man as possible. RP-2021 in English would permanently remain a mystery for a Dhangar at Mopa, a Kumeri cultivator in Canacona, a ramponkar from Velsao and the roadside vegetable vendors at Priol.
The government has admitted that it has no plans to publish even the state’s official gazette in Konkani and Marathi. Goa 25 years after passing of the Official Language Act has become India’s first state to deny to the people translations of all major acts, rules, regulations in the official language Konkani. Marathi enjoys the same status without appending the term ‘official’. Political parties are scared on these two issues -decentralisation of powers to local authorities and demystification of administration in Konkani and Marathi. If they do that then people would not depend on them. They would be more informed, demanding, vocal and articulate. Despite the much-hyped and costly Goa Broadband Network (GBN) and routine announcements on e-governance, not a single website of Goa government is in Konkani - the official language. Even the state’s information and publicity department doesn’t feel the need to have a bi or trilingual website. 
OLA was a strategic political necessity to get Konkani in eighth schedule of constitution and for making possible the coveted status of statehood for Goa. It was never meant to empower the Konkani speakers in governance, administration, economy, trade, commerce, business and employment. There was an understanding among the political class since 1987 that English would continue as usual and occupy primary position in all the affairs of the state. OLA was passed with a lot of jubilation in one camp. But there was no perspective plan with a realistic timeframe to enforce OLA. After one of the bitterest and violent movement, the legislative assembly had passed The Goa, Daman and Diu Official Language Act, 1987 (Act 5 of 1987), on 4-2-1987 which received the assent  of the President of India on 14-4-1987 and was published in the official gazette on 23rd April, 1987. On August 20, 1992, the Parliament of India by effecting the 78th amendment to the Constitution of India included Konkani in VIIIth schedule of Constitution of India. The Goa government then set up a 24-member advisory board for the effective implementation of Official Language Act 1987 headed by the Minister of Official Language as a chairman. But this toothless board could never function properly due to various reasons - apathy of the cabinet government being a major cause. Much water has flown through the eleven rivers of Goa since then.
Governance Taken to Ransom
Should it take full 24 years for any government to take simple administrative decisions? But that’s how political parties which fight for share of their votes by dividing people in the name of language, religion and caste hold the governance to ransom when they sniff and taste power. The directorate of official language waited all these years to issue five different notifications, wherein five different purposes for use of official language Konkani and Marathi language were notified under the OLA - display of name boards, publication of invitation cards, name/sign boards of roads/streets, notices of Devasthan/Comunidades in official gazette and recording police statements. The directorate declared that the date from which these notifications will come into effect, would be the 19th December 2010 that is golden jubilee liberation day of Goa. At this rate of implementation of OLA, 1987, Konkani would be relegated only as an academic subject in educational institutions.
No Compulsion to Learn Konkani
Marathi enjoys the support of more than 100 million speakers outside Goa. It is flourishing in rural Maharashtra. It is a joy to read circulars and notifications, act and rules of government of Maharashtra in their official language - Marathi. Goans have been deprived of this joy - consistently and this would never be an issue in assembly elections in March. Going by the failure of OLA-1987 in past quarter of century, Konkani as a spoken language is on its’ way of slow extinction by end of this century. The young and techno savvy generation cannot see any connection to Konkani and jobs or their future careers. Konkani has not served as a powerful cultural shield when Goans compete with outsiders for jobs or business opportunities in Goa. There is no compulsion on domiciled non Goan residents to learn Konkani.
In almost all urban markets, the Konkani speakers have to use Hindi. Residents of Morji may slowly forget Konkani and Marathi and due to economic compulsion and rewards pick up Russian. OLA-1987 is a joke in the full tourist belt of Goa.  Ironically the wheel of history has now come a full circle with a tragic polarisation of forces on the issue of medium of instruction (MoI). Those who had fought shoulder to shoulder in the name of Konkani as official language have turned into bitterest of the foes. Those who had heavily and most bitterly criticised each other – the Konkani and Marathi protagonists find themselves in the common camp and campaign against English as MoI.
Precious time and energy of an entire generation was wasted in the movement over Official Language Act which in practice achieved very little in safeguarding Goa and the interests of Goans. The language-based politics of 1962-1987 had swept aside genuine ecological, environmental and developmental issues. The post OLA generation paid a bitter price for such neglect. It is natural that having seen empty promises over implementation of OLA-1987 the new generation is rapidly patronising English. This doesn’t reduce the richness of either Konkani and Marathi which produce some of the best literary works. But for common people, the unemployed youth, creative and talented people, who have no second home outside Goa - their motherland, OLA-1987 needs to be visible in every place, in every sphere of Goa’s economic, social, cultural and political life (to be concluded).