Ishan Joshi
A few days ago, this writer was at a dinner with a senior lawyer, a ranking diplomat and a leading businessman of Goa at a restaurant in the Parra area. We left early, because we were distinctly uncomfortable with the ambience ~ not the food, which was excellent; nor the music, which was 1980s rock and some reggae favorites; but the crowd.
We suspected money and drugs were changing hands right outside the restaurant and what troubled us was the brazenness with which the mix of African-origin and local “guests” accompanied by a few Caucasian patrons were coming in and going out of the establishment. There was nothing surreptitious about them whatsoever ~ they obviously had nothing to fear. To our regret, we decided there was nothing to prove that our suspicions had any evidential basis and we left albeit without eating dinner.
Watching the riot unfold in Porvorim yesterday with deepening dismay, and it needs to be underlined that a riot was exactly what it was and not a “public nuisance” as some would have it, what struck home was that the time for squeamishness about profiling suspects, if a zero tolerance approach towards the drugs-crime nexus in Goa is to be more than mere words, is over. While that should not in any way be construed as a license for racist attitudes towards tourists and/or students of African-origin by police, immigration authorities or common folk, there is no point closing our eyes to the fact that the drug (especially cocaine) trade in Goa is indeed controlled largely by Nigerian and Kenyan nationals as “war-zone” Calangute MLA Michael Lobo has been at pains to emphasize.
The social cost of this problem is being felt across the Bardez beach belt in particular and vigilante groups in villages and towns are on the rise. In this context, while being a liberal is an excellent aspiration and part of our Indic civilizational heritage, the truth is that being a muscular liberal is vital.
Let me put it like this: How would the Nigerian authorities react if the following sequence of events took place in its capital Abuja? An Indian national is murdered and his co-citizens suspect local involvement; the police despite its limitations and often corrupt and compromised ways acts entirely within the law and sends the body for a post-mortem to a government medical institute in a police hearse; close to a 100 co-citizens of the victim armed with sticks and other improvised weapons chase the hearse riding wildly as a motorcycle gang, catch up with it a stone’s throw away from the seat of government on a national highway, and block the hearse with their bikes; the gang of thugs then proceeds to trash the vehicle and drag the body of the victim out before dumping it in the middle of the highway; and finally, the gang takes on police and local residents at the scene shoving, jostling and threatening them while proudly yelling into television cameras ~ “we take our own action”.
One suspects that Indians would have become persona non grata in Nigeria pretty quickly if something like the above had gone down in Abuja.
What happened in Goa yesterday could perhaps have happened only in Goa, and that is the tragedy. Especially, as the police stood around doing nothing initially and watched the takeover of our streets impotently till the Chief Minister, and Manohar Parrikar must be appreciated for his courage and sense of duty, reached the spot in person and ordered them to take action against the criminals who took over the heart of Goa for nearly a full day.
Now, he must take the next logical step and get tough on both crime and the causes of crime. He could begin the process by doing what it takes to stiffen the resolve of Goa’s police force which did not cover itself in glory on Thursday, with constables telling our reporters laconically when asked what was preventing them from swinging into action: Morpakk ailam? (You think we’re here to get killed?)
