A shocking but equally realistic statement made by Law Minister Aleixo Sequeira on Independence Day should be an eye opener as it is rather a lightning bolt that has struck the government very hard. It can also be said that Sequeira’s statement is in a way an exposé of the affairs of the Home Department.
After the flag hoisting ceremony at the South Goa Collectorate in Margao, when reporters asked Sequeira about the opposition to Sunburn due to the drug menace, he questioned if Sunburn is necessary to spread drugs in Goa.
Sequeira said drugs were today available in every village of Goa. “Are they not available in your village and mine,” he hit back at the scribes. “Don’t you know how much drugs are used in the three-day festival held at Colva every year,” he asked and wondered why no one was talking about that. Are some of these ministers of today not getting Sunburn passes? But whom to complain to? The fight against drugs is not that easy. We must decide and report drugs when we see them.
We all have to decide within ourselves first. When a senior Minister in the government and that too from the Law Department makes such a statement, one gets an idea of how out of hand the situation has gone. On one hand, speaking at the official flag hoisting programme in Panjim, the Chief Minister said that the government has decided to make Goa a drug-free State, while on the other hand the Law Minister in Margao says that drugs are today available in every village of the State and that there is no need for events like Sunburn.
If drugs are easily available in every village of the State today as Sequeira claims, the Chief Minister should first talk to Sequeira and call a meeting of the senior officials on this issue. However, the State president of BJP should not immediately take Sequeira to task, like he did with Michael Lobo who claimed that there is no coordination within the government. This matter is serious. Of course, the policy of combating drugs at the government level is not a new one. Plans were made to make Goa drug-free even when Manohar Parrikar was the Chief Minister. And a resolution was passed in the assembly.
Activities like celebrating a drug-free month were carried out. Of course, nothing significant has happened. How will that be possible? Because as Sequeira says, if the ministers in the government are silent, then how will the situation change? Sequeira hails from South Goa. And the anti-Sunburn voices in South Goa do not want their district to become like North Goa. The entire North Goa is in the grip of drugs. According to Sequeira, drugs must have reached every village in South Goa - if not all, at least half of the villages. This means that either the ministers of South Goa themselves have exposed the lack of knowledge of the anti-Sunburn movement in South Goa, or the protesters may not know that their villages are already in the grip of drugs. Sequeira said that it is true that there is no need for Sunburn to bring drugs into Goa. But this does not mean that Sunburn does not cause any harm. Not just drugs, but Sunburn also brings many other vices. Along with large scale noise pollution, Sunburn has adverse effects on surrounding businesses during the event. Traffic congestion is another consequence of the event. Therefore, Sunburn cannot be supported. But the government needs to think more seriously about Aleixo Sequeira’s statement on drugs because a few months ago, after the investigation of the habitual drug peddlers arrested by the Hyderabad police in Goa, it was announced at a press conference in Hyderabad that the drug network in South India is run from the Colvale jail in Goa.
Of course, the government immediately denied this, but can the government deny the actions taken by the Hyderabad police after coming to Goa? So it can be said that what Sequeira mentioned is a fact. And this was mentioned by a senior Minister in the government and that too on Independence Day. So it has a special significance, in a sense it is a vindication. Opposition leader Yuri Alemao also spoke about it after a flag hoisting programme in Panjim. He said that the Goa police have become self-sufficient in the matter of drugs. Therefore, senior police officers were forced to issue a note within the department and warn that action will be taken against such ‘high’ policemen.
As Sequeira claims, the nexus that has been making a huge turnover in a very short period of time had spread to every village, and it is highly impossible that someone would casually come forward to oppose it. And if that is true, our beautiful sobit bhangarachem Goem will not be bhangarachem anymore in a few years. Hence, the Chief Minister who is on action mode needs to use the hammer while the iron is hot.