About four years ago, Justice Katju asserted that 90% of Indians are ‘idiots’. When I reflect on this I do understand why and thus am tempted to suggest further that almost all those who live in Panjim, including yours truly, are ‘idiots’.
Strangely, a few days ago I read an article headlined, “In the gamble over casinos, Panaji could lose a fortune”, which prompted me to read this sad discourse and justification as to why the casinos should remain in Panjim. Surely, the casino owners have played their cards well to ensure that casinos remain in Panjim. They have the BJP government to support them in their mission. Even if the Parsekar government pretends to want to shift the casinos out of the Mandovi River, the casino owners lobby in league with the seemingly hypocritical government, would enter into a ‘fake encounter’ with the casinos lobby in the court, to ensure that the case goes against the interest of Panjimites. The justice system, in Goa particularly, is blind to the interests of the common man, and thus is malleable to suit the interests of the casinos owners and their political partners, to deceive Goans into accepting all evils of the casino business in the name of ‘good’; for economy and health of Goa.
Panjim could lose a fortune is not only declared in the headline of the article but suggests that Panjimites are dependent on a casino-based economy. As a senior citizen, living in the heart of the city opposite the jetty where these casinos operate, I have firsthand information and experience of the casino menace to Panjim and Panjimites.
Almost all who work on casinos are ‘not Panjim residents’. The majority are not Goans, many from the North East or North India. The gamblers from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat choke the roads and by lanes of Panjim. It is impossible for me to get out of my house from 7.00 pm to 8.00 pm especially every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Being a senior citizen should I need an ambulance, it could never reach my doorstep, even though my house is situated in a ‘No Parking Zone’.
Also, most of the drivers of these vehicles, be it local taxi drivers or outstation visitors, spend the night in their cars as there are no parking fees. These drivers of such gamblers who visit casinos, bring food, drinks and other amenities from their place of residence or hotels and eat in their car and leave the pavements, streets and by-lanes full of garbage, food wastes, plastics water and glass alcohol bottles, beer cans and butts of cigarettes and drugs.
There are two heritage buildings in the vicinity – the Customs Museum and the Sales Tax department which includes the Excise Commissioner – which are adversely affected. It is no exaggeration that people ease themselves on the walls of the two buildings. Are we are in a Swach Bharat mode?
Both Congress and BJP are two sides of the same coin and specialize in profiting from the casino malaise at the cost of the residents of Panjim, who suffer. The casino owners and our crooked political masters are orchestrating a drama of shifting the casinos to other rivers. It is the casino lobby, as well as the ruling dispensation, that is drumming up the fake revolt in the name of locals and villages of Goa. It is the casino lobby that is totally opposed to shifting of casinos from Panjim. They all know that Panjim alone is the goose laying the golden eggs of the gambling industry with the support from the government. In the name of opposition from villages in Goa, across Chapora, Zuari and Sal, the casinos are sought to get a blind nod from the courts. As long as Panjimites remain idiots and are blind to the realities of their exploitation and suffering, Panjim will reel and continue to suffer in the name of manipulated justice and pseudo development.
Panjimites, please wake up to ensure casinos move out of Panjim or else this capital city will suffer perennially due to your callousness, ensuring that this capital city never grows into being a ‘smart city’.
(The writer is a retired Goa University professor and environment activist.)
