Hundreds of Marathi-medium primary schools have been shut down for want of students in Goa.

By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when unlike poor Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia, Rahul Gandhi got his bail extended till his appeal for cancelling the conviction by the Surat Court is confirmed. For a Saturday following the week on disaster Atal Sethu high bridge. For a Saturday following the week when English medium newspapers, particularly the `Herald’ came to the help of late chief minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar. For a Saturday following the week when we discovered there’s a sharp decline in demand for education in Marathi and Konkani at primary school level. For a Saturday following the week when the government was unable to get rid of the sports mafia in Goa.
AND a few stray thoughts on how poor Manish Sisodia wasn’t able to do it but Rahul Gandhi managed to get his bail extended till his appeal for cancelling the conviction by the Surat Court is confirmed. As with everything else that Rahul does he converted the bail application hearing at Surat into high drama or tamasha. Rahul, though his presence was not required, went to the Surat Court in a bus and accompanied by sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, three Congress chief ministers and dozens of media people.
Clearly, the public message going out is that the BJP may fool around with the Aam Aadmi party but the Congress is still strong enough to take on Narendra Modi and company. The Sessions Court in Surat has suspended Rahul’s conviction till April 13, 2023. The Congress plans a fresh protest morcha against the deliberate harassment of the Gandhi parivar. Rahul has refused to apologise for the questioning remark he made about the Modi name being synonymous with crime?
The problem with Rahul Gandhi is that while he has garnered mass appeal and has great charm with his dimple adding to it, he does not think before he walks the talk. In this sense, we have a very arrogant Rahul. It would have been simple enough for Rahul to have clarified in the Surat Court that he was referring only to some Modi’s and not the whole community. The major goofing is that while referring to Nirav Modi and other big time crooks, Rahul suggested that all those with the surname Modi were criminals. So it became a defamation case of the Modi community.
It is not clear now whether Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification will be revoked. But Rahul doesn’t seem to be concerned as he thinks the disqualification will be knocked down. Rahul’s popularity is growing at the right time for the Congress as elections are due in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. The conviction of Rahul and his disqualification would only create more sympathy for him. Internationally at least the Gandhi family has greater credibility than the Modi family. Even the United Nations has accused Narendra Modi of destroying Indian democracy in India.

DISASTROUS ATAL SETHU
AND a few stray thoughts on the disastrous Atal Sethu bridge. The bridge has causing problems right from the start and has not been function ever since it was informally inaugurated in haste by the late chief minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar himself. Parrikar, fitted with running around his body and critically ill though he was, managed to stand on the Aal Sethu to declare “Hum ko hosh hai, aur josh bhi hai.”
In theory there is no reason why the Atal Sethu bridge should have turned out to be such a disaster. The contract for its construction had been given to Larsen & Tubro (L & T) which is considered among the biggest and best engineering companies in the world. Unfortunately in Goa L & T was forced to sub-contract the work to Venkaiah Rao, a close relative of former Vice-President of India Venkaiah Naidu.
The concept was brilliant. The many arms of the Atal Sethu would enable commuters to travel to Margao, Ponda and Mapusa without having to enter Panaji. It was intended to be a central clearing house for traffic from the north, east, west, south. But one by one all the links started collapsing. Ever since it was launched, one wing or another of the Atal Sethu has been shut down.
The Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai is supposed to be supervising repairs and restoration of the Atal Sethu bridge. Under pressure from Chief Minister Pramod Sawant the contractors tried to do it in parts so that one half would be available for traffic movement while repairs continued on the other half. This only added to the confusion.
The government now seems to have decided that it will not open the Atal Sethu for traffic till all the wings and the main route itself is properly repaired. The government has ordered closure of the wings of Atal Sethu once and all lanes leading to the bridge are closed with immediate effect for all categories of vehicles, till all work is complete. The Porvorim-Merces lane of the Atal Sethu is expected to open earlier but this may remain closed too as the supervisory team is not satisfied.

VELINGKAR’S RSS
SHUBHASH Velingkar, the former chief of the Rashtraya Seva Sangh (RSS) has just released his book on the RSS versus Manohar Parrikar. On the eve of the 2012 election Manohar Parrikar had a major problem. He was in the Opposition and had made an informal promise to the then Archbishop of Goa Filipe Neri Ferrao (now Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao) that if the BJP was elected to power grants would be resumed for English medium primary schools.
Shubhash Velingkar with RSS ally Shashikala Kakodkar who had barred grants to English-medium schools, and Aravind Bhatikar, had formed an organisation asking people to reject the BJP if Parrikar broke his promise. A large number of the MLAs to whom tickets had been given to the 2012 elections were Catholics. The Church put pressure on them to ensure that Parrikar fulfilled his promise. There were even sermons in church attacking Manohar Parrikar.
Unexpectedly, the BJP got the majority of the seats and formed the government. In anticipation of grants being resumed to English medium primary school, the Diocesan Society had already started drawing grants with the approval of Parrikar. It was the language controversy which split the BJP or rather the RSS.
Shubhash Velingkar was amongst the senior-most leaders of the RSS. He was the one who groomed and promoted Manohar Parrikar for chief ministership. He was bitterly disappointed and broke away from both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the RSS.
Historically, it was the RSS which was calling the shots. The BJP had to dance to RSS tunes. Now, according to Subhash Velingkar, the RSS is dancing to BJP tunes, the logic being that the party which has money can rule and call the shots even with the RSS.

`HERALD’ HELPS PARRIKAR
AND a few stray thoughts on the English newspaper and particularly the Herald coming to the help of the late Manohar Parrikar. The regional press had turned against the BJP, as it was opposed to extending grants to English medium primary schools. Since the English media, particularly editors like Rajan Narayan despite being a Konkani Mogi, strongly supported grants for all, played a major role in compelling Parrikar to accept the demand for restoring grants. I recall Manohar Parrikar coming to my residence and asking me what the consequences would be if he refused the demand for grants for all. I pointed out to him that it did not matter in electoral terms in the north though there was always the MGP waiting in the wings.
Parrikar by integrating the minority community with the BJP had already granted tickets to Catholic MLA aspirants, he had committed to it. It is the Catholic who now form the majority of the BJP MLAs. Parrikar had no choice but to give in to the demand for grants for all English-medium schools.

DAYANAND BANDODKAR
AND a few stray thoughts on the sharp decline in the demand of education in Marathi and Konkani at primary level education. When Dayanand Bandodkar, Goa’s first chief minister, started Marathi schools, in a year’s time there were 600 of them. Over the years the number of Marathi-medium schools increased to more than 1,500.
Unfortunately, with the turn of the new millennium, enrolment in Marathi- medium primary schools dropped. A large number of the schools had to shut down. The majority of the Marathi-speaking families in the north of Goa were switching over to the English-medium school. So ironically neither Konkani nor Marathi seems to attract students or parents any longer.

SPORTS MAFIA ZINDABAD!
AND a last stray thought on the government’s inability to put away the sports mafia. For decades now the state government has not been able to persuade tourist taxi drivers to follow the rules. Even directives from Supreme Court have not succeeded. Digital meters were installed but are under wraps or only for show.
As in the case of taxis, the government tried to take over control over the water sports operators. The regulation of water sports was entrusted to Goa Electronic Ltd which created a digital queue for the use of water sports. Unfortunately, Tourism Minister for Water Sports Rohan Khaunte did not want GEL.
This is because if there is a third party charges may be imposed for the various water sports. At present, as in the case of taxis, water sports operators can charge as much as they want. There are also no safety measures in place for water sports activities. The most dangerous is parasailing which claims many victims.