The sixth Global Konkani Music Awards, instituted by Mandd Sobhan, is accused of ‘favoring a few artists without being transparent in the selection of the awardees’. This has created discontent among Konkani music fans which became apparent soon after the award ceremony, when they expressed their views on social media platforms.

Among the many criticisms against the award process, Vanil Veigas said that the award ceremony should have been named as ‘Family Konkani Music Awards’ rather than ‘Global Konkani Music Award’ – apparently suggesting the choice of winners was based on connections to the inner circle of Mandd Sobhann.

Oscar Newton Luvis, another Konkani music lover too felt the same. He said, “Artists should be like Aamir Khan. Just do your work and let your audience reward your work.. That’s the reason he has stayed miles away from these sponsored and pre fixed award events…” One of Konkani’s popular singers, preferred to call it ‘Golmal’ Konkani Music Awards rather than Global Konkani music awards.

Many were not happy as the award was limited to one album. Apart from Shilpa Tejaswini Cutinho for Kasulya Kolyar (Album- Asha) and Irene D’Souza for Mogak aslli pakam (Album- Ganv mhojo),  who bagged two of the six awards, the remaining four  went to the less popular ‘Chandare’ Konkani music album of Lloyd Rego, Taccode and Roshan D’Souza, Anjelore.

Prajoth D’sa said that he had lot of expectations that his debut Konkani album ‘Udi Udi’ would win the best album, but was disappointed.

On the other hand, accepting the award, Lloyd Rego admitted at the award ceremony,  that the album was not popular and the public did not receive it well in terms of sales. “… but, I’m happy that Mandd Sobhann has again recognized us and awarded us. This encourages me to work for Konkani music.”

Sources indicate that the winners’  names were informally doing the rounds even before the juries had finalized their recommendations. It is learnt, that the results were pre-determined by the organizing committee, and the juries subsequently just endorsed them. 

H.M Pernal, eminent Konkani writer said, “it was the duty of the organizers to have one jury member to speak on behalf of his team,  on the choice of winners. It was not done, which in itself raises questions on the fairness of the awards process”.

He also said that when the applications are called for from outside, the jury has to consider all aspects and speak up. Earlier, they organized events and presented awards to their own music album, he said giving the example of the Konkani album ‘Vazra Mothiya’.
        
Another popular Konkani writer said Mandd Sobhan, is not fulfilling its role in letter and spirit. “They promote a few people, and collect funds in the name of promoting Konkani, while they actually promote themselves and their own businesses”.

Declining these allegations, Mandd Sobhan gurkar Eric Ozario said that the winners were kept confidential until the announcement. “Although I was a jury member, I was not told about the tallied marks and the winners. Only the president of Mandd Sobhan has the right to know about it”, he said adding there were two sets of judges as there were over 100 entries. “Mandd Sobhan is not catering to a limited audience. We have promoted the event and the dates. The entry was open to all and free”, Mr. Ozerio added.