Bommai’s ‘Kannada Bhavan’ in Goa request faces severe resistance

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s request to his Goan counterpart Pramod Sawant for a parcel of land to set up a Kannada Bhavan has met with severe opposition in the latter state.

Days after Bommai wrote to Sawant asking for about two acres of land, sections of the Opposition as well as civil society groups in Goa have vehemently opposed it.

“They are attacking the identity of Goa by promoting Kannada and Kannada culture,” Manoj Parab, convenor of the regional political party Revolutionary Goans said.

Also Read — Karnataka CM Bommai seeks land for 'Kannada Bhavan' in Goa; writes to Sawant

Earlier this week, Bommai had announced about the Karnataka government’s written request to Goa Chief Minister seeking property in Goa for the Kannada Bhavan. Bommai, in his last budget, had allotted Rs 10 crore to build the structure in Goa. Bommai, in his letter, had also reminded Sawant that the Karnataka government had allocated Rs 3 crore for a Konkani Bhavan in Mangaluru.

The resistance from Goa’s nativist political parties and social organisations, reportedly stemmed from the rampant immigration into Goa from parts of north Karnataka to cater to the state’s workforce.

Out-of-state workers coming into Goa, and native Goans immigrating to Europe and the Middle East have alarmed the nativists and raised the issue of the dilution of the state’s unique identity—a topic that has even been discussed on several occasions in the state assembly.

Bharatiya Janata Party lawmakers, however, supported Bommai’s overture, with Krishna Salkar, an MLA from the Vasco assembly constituency, which has a large number of Kannada-speaking voters, rooting for Kannada Bhavan.

“We should stop calling them Kannadigas and start calling them Goans. They are Goans as they have been living here since Portuguese time,” Salkar recently said.

Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who joined the BJP from the Congress earlier this month, also supported the construction of a Kannada Bhavan in Goa.

On the other hand, Progressive Front of Goa, a non-governmental organisation, opposed the Bhavan, linking the issue to the ongoing dispute between Karnataka and Goa over the waters of the Mahadayi river.

“We will strongly oppose the Kannada Bhavan in Goa until Karnataka withdraws its claim on the waters of the Mahadayi river,” the organisation’s convenor Hrudaynath Shirodkar said.

The Goa government had petitioned the Supreme Court over the award of the Mahadayi Inter State Water Dispute Tribunal, which allocated 13.4 TMC water to Karnataka from the basin of the inter-state river.