Selfish politics
Words like “ultimatum”, “apology”, and “G7” dominate
the front-pages of our newspapers these days. Sometimes,
the language of cricket might be best suited to
describe the games being played on the pitch of Goan politics.
We know the 1976-formed G7 grouping of the world’s richest
countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom,
United States — that bullies the rest of the planet, and
dictates how global powers of balance tilt. Likewise, Goa’s very
own G7 is a group of over-ambitious, politically-aggressive
politicians who know how to seize the rudder from their colleagues
in power for their own ends.
For two decades now, since March 1990 to be precise, Goa
became India’s very own post-War Italy, known for its unstable
governments and assembly coups. Instability peaked in the
first decade, but after the BJP torpedoed their own allies in late
2000 things somehow became more stable. Once political
parties in New Delhi (first the BJP, then the Congress) tightened
their own hold on power there, their local counterparts could
stave off coups in Panjim and Porvorim too. But just because
we’ve not have successful topplings here does not mean the
business of dissidence has declined.
When dissenting legislators want to justify their action, they
claim that their “supporters” are in favour of it. How this “support”
is measured remains a mystery. At other times, they make varied
allegations against those in power (including their own allies
and colleagues). But, nobody needs a political microscope to
detect the selfishness behind every act of rebellion.
To be fair, yesterday’s rebel is today’s chief minister. But as
far as the citizen goes, there’s a strong case to question such
dissidence. It’s not that the current dispensation is an exemplary
government, or the Digambar team is a model of good governance.
Far from it. But each time the hidden hand of some
lobby coughs up the crores needed to topple a government, it
extracts a huge price in return. Goa pays. Each one of us. Our
State takes a battering.
It is time that the commonman gets a say, rather thanpolitics
being decided by stealth, behind closed doors of luxury hotels,
and through the power of the suitcase.
Foreigners’ deaths
Goa has been repeatedly placed on the back-foot over the
death of foreigners in the State. Sixteen-year-old Scarlette
Keeling’s case was the first mega-case of its kind, though
there have been scores of foreigner deaths earlier. Once the
British tabloid (and other) media made this their cause celebre,
it got life of its own. Two years on, it still makes it to the news
and almost every angle of that story seems to have been milked
dry for all the publicity its worth.
But that’s not all. Whether it’s a 33-year-old Russian woman
travelling alone found dead in a resort in Arpora, or a 52-yearold
Briton traced dead in his apartment in Colva, such issues
continue to make news.
With a few lakh foreign tourists visiting Goa each year, the
probability exists of deaths happening here. What is unacceptable
is the way tardy investigations allow controversy to creep in, and
how the foreign tourist-sending countries are quick to rake up a row.
Likewise, the blind eye to narcotics — the cops-drugs links
are still dramatically emerging — only fuels this trend. Each
year, some 40-50 foreign tourists have been dying in the peak
tourist months, largely between November and February.
Goa obviously has a lot to do in investigating such cases
promptly and efficiently. The lack of lab testing facilities, to
analyse the viscera and remains of the dead foreigners, only
complicates matters. In this situation, deaths are simply blamed
on pulmonary oedema (fluid accumulation in thelungs) or some
such cause, while the real truth remains buried behind the long
delays before tests come in from Hyderabad, Pune or wherever.
The situation is unacceptable.
