The seeds of decadence have grown into a full-fledged crop with farms of sleaze, drugs and prostitution erupting out of our fields past sunset, giving Goa a rainbow of opportunity to thrive and profit in the business of vice.

The death of two tourists , just two drops in the ocean of humanity that descended in Goa over the long independence day weekend, many of them here to be fully independent of all chains that bind them to a civilised societal framework, has surprisingly led to an outburst of anger, perhaps not witnessed before. This is not just phenomenal but perhaps gives up hope that the real Goa has decided to rip open the can of worms which is taking Goa down.

For too long the business of drugs and prostitution has been supported and justified backed by a section of the powerful nightclub and beach restaurant lobby. For too long, this illegitimate business has sought legitimacy on grounds of economy and tourism.

For too long. For too long. And for too long. It’s now the time for some plain speak and hard speak because enough is enough. The majority of stakeholders in the night-life industry will say, and to an extent claim correctly, that the spectre of drugs, raves and the abject hedonism leading to death that is associated with electronic trance parties, is an isolated other world. All that is acceptable, is that all stakeholders are not involved, or even a miniscule of them are. But the world of drugs, raves and associated crimes is surely not an isolated world. It co-exists with the world of the majority stakeholders. It’s in their face. They know it and bear it either willingly or out of fear.

They are the powerless majority against a very powerful minority. And it is here that the majority is irrelevant, and the miniscule completely dangerous.

For too long, have we held a touch me not torch, to say that this is not me. Rave parties isn’t me, synthetic drugs is not me, syringes lying in front of homes in the heart of the tourist belt is not me, young boys and girls, many under 18 getting thrown out of school and making a living peddling drugs and stealing from the neighbourhood is not me. Now hear the bad news. This is me, this is you, this is every stakeholder, citizen, government servant, police official, industrialist and journalist.

When we say “this is me”, we mean that this is our problem. This is robbing us of our peace but more importantly it’s robbing us of our basic dignity. The war against drugs and prostitution spreading in every corner of Goa is everyone’s war. This is an affront to any visions of goenkarponn and yet we say this is not me?

And yet this isn’t everyone’s war. While we blame the local police and all investigating authorities, the real battle lies with our very own. When we say that it is the system that promotes, propagates, permeates and procreates, there are stakeholders of the nightlife industry, who speak the voice of those people, including Goans, who are THE rotten system. There is a perverse justification of drugs and its accompanying vices to be in the system, on grounds of economy and employment, almost in the same manner as rampant mining loot and illegal mining transportation. Unless we battle this kind of a resistance, no police force on earth can rid Goa of drugs and deaths.

The opinion page(2) of this Sunday edition of Herald Review, which contains an article by a senior tourism and hospitality stakeholder titled “Will stopping night life really stop drugs”. We ran the piece because it brings to us with hard hitting reality how lopsided and skewed the arguments against cleaning Goa of drugs is and the lengths to which its existence is almost accepted if not justified. The points had to be brought on record, even as the writer’s own opinion, since it reflects a mindset. And it allows us to refute and act against this mindset.

We will do this in a spirit of mature but firm debate, by quoting excerpts from the article (which you can read in full in the Review section) and my response. So here goes.

Excerpt 1: Goa is a tourist destination, with a miniscule percentage of tourists who experiment with drugs, as is the case with almost every tourist destination or bustling metro in the world from Monte Carlo to Ibiza. People die of overdrinking, road-rage and other reasons including overdose of drugs.

Response 1: It is the miniscule which is killing Goa. The majority cannot watch silently as the miniscule is eating into the very depths of Goan society and making it rotten. Drugs are spreading in land and in the hinterland and there cannot be any, repeat any, justification which accepts this. We will not accept this. With regard to people dying of road rage, why don’t you extend it to dying of malaria, tuberculosis or in the olden days of scurvy? But none of these deaths are due to murder. The business and control of drugs which lead to overdosing and deaths is nothing short of murder. So sorry, they cannot be compared. Goa is not Monte Carlo or Ibiza or if it has to be Monte Carlo or Ibiza riding on drugs, then it rather not be.

Excerpt 2: Brash reactions like closing all nightlife in a destination could only be termed as silly and derived from lack of knowledge or any idea of the realities. Such unpleasant incidents occur all over the globe. We have more murders a week than drug mishaps in a year. An entire segment of high end domestic tourists cannot be deprived due to a couple of irresponsible youngsters.

Response 2. Every word and every sentence of the above excerpt deserves condemnation. Besides, the assumptions are factually incorrect. All nightlife in Goa hasn’t been closed nor is there a demand to close it permanently. But if it takes a full temporary closure to put the brakes on the drug trade (because we do not have a google map pointing out which establishments sell drugs), so be it. Saving Goa is more important than saving Goa’s nightlife. And deaths of young boys and girls are not “unpleasant”. They are a calamity. Ask their parents. And all that the “entire segment of high end tourists” will be deprived of, if we win this war on drugs, is drugs. That, we understand may worry some so called stakeholders of Goa’s tourism.

The very concept of high end tourism espoused by the writer can be demolished. Goa ranks 11 in the list of states in India in terms of tourist footfalls. Does this mean tourists go to the other ten states because of the same pleasures of raves, trance parties and the omni-present drugs? Where in India do we have these vices? Quality high spending tourists are staying away because of the drug laced morass and filth Goa has fallen into. Let’s face this. The multitudes, who throng to these drug filled raves, are also a part of the same so called “high end tourist segment” because those who pay Rs 8000 for a gram of coke, besides drugs, are surely high end. Goa is attracting these kinds of tourists and we don’t want them.

Excerpt 3: Drug trade is one of the most lucrative globally and has historically had entire government machineries involved in the success of this trade, so our government trumpeting that Goa will be made a drug free state, is a baseless comment and is not really possible in a democracy.

Response 3. The response to this is very short. Even if government machineries are involved in running this business in Goa, it will have to stop. This may be “baseless” to some but a matter of life and death to others. True Goans have no compulsion to make this trade more successful, unlike some others. And if quashing an illegality like the trade and open consumption of drugs is not possible in a democracy, where else is it?

There is yet another argument that needs immediate quashing. That the inability to create employment and entrepreneurship avenues leads to locals getting involved in the drug trade. There is perhaps a grain of genuineness in this argument but only that much. Look at the people who run and own the major clubs and party venues. They are either businessmen from outside Goa or locals who run shacks, hotels and other establishments and very influential rich and powerful. They form the fulcrum of the drug business. The locals function as the support system, as peddlers, runners and even informers. The business of drugs will not stop if you create infrastructure and jobs for locals. The drug trade has to be handled and tackled in absolute isolation and with a vigour and focus which seems beyond Goa’s capacities.

The road map for a clean drug free Goa can be executed. And that is a parallel, albeit equally important priority which we will surely address and campaign for. But for today, let us first eradicate the thought process and ambitions of those who claim to be benefactors and supporters of Goa’s tourism, who are cheerleaders for a system where drugs and prostitution should only be accepted, and nightlife not tampered with, altered or even temporarily closed for the system to reboot.