Goa refuses to dance to Russian tune
TEAM HERALD
CALANGUTE: Goa’s reputation as a destination for international performances received a major setback when the two-day International Music Festival 2014 was eventually cancelled at Baga, leaving local authorities and the Tourism Department red-faced.
The first day of the event had been cancelled on Friday and frantic efforts were made by the organisers to hold the second day’s event on Saturday.
Despite the intervention of the Russian Consulate officials, the organisers failed to get the green signal from the State government and were forced to call off the event.
Sources told Herald that Russian Consulate officials arrived in Goa on Saturday to persuade the government to go ahead with the mega music festival as thousands of Russians had come down to Goa for the event.
“However, the Russian officials failed to get the nod from the government due to strong objections and reservations from local MLA Michael Lobo,” the source added.
“It is really unfortunate that the music event had to be cancelled at the very last minute. However, we will try and have the event better planned and organised at a future date,” said the source closely linked to the organisers.
What had annoyed the Russian officials was the fact that the music event had been cleared by a Single Window System of the Tourism Department. But this clearance had outraged the local MLA as he was sidelined over the event in his constituency.
Confirming that he had raised objections to the event, Lobo said: “I had raised my objections to staging the event on two counts. First, it hurt the religious sentiments of the locals and there was a conflict of interest between the Russian reps and Tourist taxi owners.”
“If the event was allowed to take place, it could have hurt the sentiments of the Catholic community and Tourist taxi owners. The people of Calangute would have cursed my government for hurting the sentiments of the Catholics as the music event was happening in close vicinity of a Chapel.”
“The Novena was underway in the Chapel in preparations for the feast and how could I allow such an event close to a chapel? Besides, I was not consulted nor taken into confidence regarding the event. Though the local authority had consented to the event, residents of Calangute-Baga would have blamed the
local MLA for permitting the event,” said Lobo.
“I made it amply clear to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar that the music event cannot be held at this point of time, as it would hurt the religious sentiments of the people of Calangute. I also explained to the chief minister about reservations regarding the Russian festival by the tourist taxi owners, who are at loggerheads with the Russian reps over tourism-related business. The chief minister understood my objections and turned down the permission for the event,” he said.
Lobo claimed that Parrikar reprimanded the director of tourism for failing to take the local MLA into confidence.
“The chief minister has instructed the tourism director to seek the views of local MLAs before deciding on any event in the State,” said Lobo.
When asked if the cancellation of the event at the last minute would cause embarrassment to the government, Lobo replied in the negative: “The event was only cleared by the Single Window Steering Committee of the Tourism Department and it was not cleared by the State government.”
“The Tourism Department should have taken the local MLA into confidence before deciding on the event. The local MLAs are in a better position to finalise dates, etc. based on ground realities, especially regarding traffic management, etc. However, the cancellation will send a strong signal that any event cannot be forced on the locals,” said Lobo.
