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| Fr. Victor Ferrao |
Can the poor parents make free choices for
their children? It appears that when it
comes to the medium of instructions, the poor may not have a choice because the
choice is sold for a price. In fact no one seems to have a choice since
it has become commodity that has a price tag written all over it. But this
eventual denial of free choice for the poor is viewed as a social good by the
leaders of BBSM and RSS combine.
By denying this vital freedom, these leaders
think that they are civilising the parents and their children much like the
colonizers who exhibited what has been called as the white men’s burden. Unfortunately,
the fact that this civilizing mission is mimicking the colonizer is not
disturbing them. The neo-mimic men of the colonizers seem to carry the baton of
the colonizers long after end of political colonization. Like the colonisers,
they too carry forward the burden of the parents and are out to save the
children from the folly of their parents. Hence, one might find a cord of
similarity with the way the British saw the abolition of ‘sati’ as a case of
white men saving the brown women from the tyranny of the brown men. This is why these masked men who seem to
image the colonizers have become clearly identifiable in our society.
The mask of nobility on the face of the
leaders of BBSM and RSS falls quickly when we look at the economic interest
that is written all over them.
Their discourse claims that there is nothing
in the Constitution to stop the free trading private schools that are amassing
wealth by promoting English. In their view, it is a right given to the free
traders of English by the Constitution.
While they guard the free choice of the sales men of English, some of
whom are in their ranks, they do not extend the same generosity to
parents.
The parents in their view seem to have to buy
their choice or live with no choice.
They seem to go all out to civilize the poor parents but surprisingly
they do not care about the de-civilizing influence of the private schools on
the children studying there. This
manifests their selective and discriminating approach. Unfortunately, they seem
to think that the poor/bahujans do not have the capacity to face the so called
de-civilizing and de-nationalizing that is occurring in the English medium . This capacity in their view
seem to automatically emerge/erupt among the parents who can buy their choice
from those who sell it in the private schools. Moreover, their economic
intoxication becomes visible in their choice of silence over privatization of
education and the choice of loud cry over the education driven by the grants of
the government. If the Government can
make a law to outlaw English as a medium of instruction in schools where poor
study, why can’t the same Government also outlaw private schools trading in
English? If liquor can be outlawed for
the good of society why not this free trade on English? Hence, it is clear which side is chosen by
those who pose as civilizing agents in our society.
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| BBSM stalwarts |
The issue concerning the capacity to exercise
a free choice as parents within our democratic society in Goa is of great
importance. It can open how poor parents have become objects of political
domination, economic exploitation and cultural erasure. If we enter the orbit
of the poor parents, we can discern how they are infantilized and reduced to a
status of children who are incapable of
making any decision concerning the education of their children. This entry into the orbit of the parents also
portrays those who deem them as not fit enough to exercise this freedom over
the life of their own children in poor light.
Denial of ability to decide for their children under the cover of
promotion of good education has to be viewed as a grave violation and
imposition of indignity to these parents. It is clearly a denial of
democracy. if this scenario takes roots,
the poor parents will have no voice and
would not even have a say regarding the future of their children. Besides,
under the imperialism of ‘devnagrized’ Konkani enforced by some mimic men of
the colonizers, they certainly feel a cultural erasure. In fact, the question
boils down to a position that asks, “can they speak Konkani? Does the Konkani
that they live with qualifies as Konkani? The parents besides feeling the
weight of economic exploitation also have the pain of feeling that their
Konkani stands de-konkanized and silenced. Thus, the infantalization and
voicelessness of the parents among the Bahujans in Goa has reaches its full
circle. Hence, it is urgent that we find ways to speak the truth to power.
The disabling of the freedom of choice of the
parents among the poor is clearly anti-democratic and is more unconstitutional
than the denial of the freedom of the free traders of English. The facts that
the leaders of BBSM grant freedom to trade and run private empires of English
primary schools while fail to recognize the freedom of the poor parents to
choose the same in government aided schools manifest which side they are on. If
the rich Parents who choose English and
the sales men of private education do not harm our language and culture then how the same choice made by the poor
parents is going to harm the same language and culture? Why should the basic
right for self determination, which is the soul of democracy, be denied to the
parents who are poor? Why is BBSM and RSS that actively promotes this denial of
self determination, swaraj to the parents is not anti-democratic and by that
token anti-national? For too long these
tall leaders who are becoming dwarfs day by day have traded on anti-national
slogans and silenced the parents among the bahujans. Now that their true
colours are becoming visible, the poor parents have gained a voice and are
seeking tenable explanation from these champions of denationalization. These
parents ask: “how one of our national
language, namely English, the language through which we run our parliament,
courts, legislature and administrative machinery and bring integration of our
country and people speaking different languages becomes denationalizing? That is why the denial of choice of English
in indeed a denial of democracy to the poor. Therefore, the lines of
intersections that we have drawn between the colonizers and their mimic men
today cannot be dismissed.
(The author is a Professor of Rachol Seminary)
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