28 Jan,2012

11pm restaurant deadline: Recipe for disaster
The Election Commission always knows best. Or at least they think they do. In its otherwise notable effort to clean up the election process, they have gone to absolutely foolish levels to cause chaos and mayhem to tourism in Goa.
Words and articulation fail the ordinary as they grasp to comprehend this extraordinary level of fool hardiness of shutting down not just bars but restaurants at 11pm to be soon pushed further ahead to 10 pm. Does anyone in their right senses do this, even in the name of free and fair elections? That itself is a joke since free and fair elections will not be ensured by denying a tourist his dinner and nor will the fairness get affected by keeping restaurants open.
We would like to stretch it to bars too because honestly speaking, the malpractice happens because some candidates and parties distribute bottles of alcohol in the houses of certain sections, especially in the slums. So let’s face this, you really don’t need to go to a bar and drink if supplies come home. However even if sustained arguments win the day in favour of closing down bars, the decision to shut restaurants, big and small is a cold blooded inhuman decision.
Look who it affects. The restaurant owner of course, the waiters who earn on tips, the tourist taxi driver who ferries tourists to restaurants, the entire live music industry which adds to the complete enjoyment package of eating out and above all, the tourist. For the moment, we are not even bringing locals into the picture though there is section of locals who make an evening and night out on weekends.
The decision, it is learnt was a cumulative one where the Election Commission, The excise department and the state government through its district magistrates were all a party to. Each one of them in their wisdom supported and agreed on closing restaurants and bars at 11 pm till February 6 and at 10 pm from then till the end of the election process. The only person who was not sitting on that table when this decision was made was a representative of the tourism industry or specifically the TTAG. As an important stakeholder to be affected the most by this decision, shouldn’t they have been taken into confidence? Also, there is still a government in place, of a party which is contesting the elections in order to be the next government in place. Didn’t this government realise that tourism is its most consistent revenue earner and along with mining, virtually runs the finances of this government? So without any adequate indication borne by hard facts that keeping restaurants open results in the tarnishing of the free poll process, did the Election Commission have the right to take the final call on this move? The answer, which should ring loud and clear, is a NO.
The government cannot wash its hands off this. Taking shelter behind the EC will not work because try as they might, the blame will be placed on its door since the average tourist or even the average restaurant owner will not go into the nuances of the EC’s role in this. This will be viewed as yet another attack on the earning potential of the common man during peak season. Moreover there will be a far greater collateral damage. Foreign and domestic tourists- and the danger is from the latter- will either get up and leave or not come at all. Already, people are checking out early and are likely to cancel trips to Goa next month once the seriousness of this foolhardiness sinks in. Who will bear the loss of a sudden slump in tourists, which will lead to an increase in the footprint of this disaster?
Let the Election Commission know this. The decision to ask restaurants to have their lights off, eventually at 10 pm has nothing to do with holding proper elections. It is unfortunate that restaurant owners do not have a strong united body to fight for its rights. An organised protest which should definite include litigation is needed very urgently. This high handedness has to be stopped and stopped now.
Meanwhile there is strange logic that the EC has been giving to defend its action. The logic is that this move is not new and this pressure is on only because of the tourist season. So does that make this furor less important? Taking this unnecessary decision at such a time is incorrect and that’s how it should be looked at.