What's Goa’s carrying capacity for performative outrage? -Soter

 Lead article published in oHerald on April 27, 2025

It is not that individuals suddenly abandon their values, but that the environment in which they act steadily reshapes what feels acceptable.

In recent months, Goa has been grabbing the national headlines for all the wrong reasons. Thanks to digital technology, there is no end to the streaming of hot and sensational news spewing from an overdose of Goa’s model governance and a culturally decaying society. The bubble of political genius leading to economic prosperity is bursting with sex scandals, deaths from drug overdose in educational institutions and at beachside night parties, hate campaigns, horrific road accidents, political defections, and even the hijacking of election processes. The government hides its embarrassment behind claims of a conspiracy to malign Goa’s image, and in some cases, even registration of an FIR by the cops to intimidate whistle-blowers. Nothing seems impossible; the sky is the limit in such a toxic social and political environment.

In recent years, Goa has witnessed a surge in protests over illegalities, immorality and crime. Conversations increasingly lament a perceived decline in morality, whether it is political corruption, lawlessness, substance abuse, casinos, reckless driving, religious polarisation, or the erosion of social responsibility. But beneath the cycle of outrage lies a denial, a more uncomfortable truth, one that fewer are willing to confront. The result is a civic culture that oscillates between spikes of anger and long bouts of resignation.

The question is whether Goa has the carrying capacity for such episodic, performative, and quickly dissipating mode of protests, and how much change such outrage can deliver.

The image of Goa as a permissive, “anything goes” destination reinforces patterns of abuse and violence that spill beyond tourist enclaves into local life. Alcohol-fuelled nightlife, drug-linked party circuits, and a growing tolerance for exploitative practices have, over time, been packaged as part of the “Goa experience.”  When local livelihoods depend on demand, and demand is driven by indulgence, there is an inherent incentive to promote, or at least overlook, misbehaviour and public nuisance. Activities that once might have been questioned are normalized as 'responsible' if they contribute to local income.

When economic gain is tied to practices that strain ecosystems and dilute cultural meaning, lines become harder to draw. Regulations are seen as obstacles rather than safeguards. Public spaces are treated as expendable, and accountability is diluted. It is not that individuals suddenly abandon their values, but that the environment in which they act steadily reshapes what feels acceptable.

While Goans decry the environmental degradation, unchecked development and influx of migrants, there is no drop noticed in the local mood and participation when it comes to booze, food and music festivals all around the year. Goans decry the nuisance caused by tourism-related activities, but at the same time participate in the noisy cultural festivals promoted by the tourism industry. They endorse the propaganda that Goa is about indulgence unlimited. This is definitely not consistent behaviour.

To express outrage at this immorality and crime while continuing to endorse their underlying drivers is to ignore cause and effect. It is about normalisation of hypocrisy - decrying overdevelopment while quietly benefiting from it, condemning corruption while navigating it as a necessity, celebrating culture in public while neglecting it in private life.

Goa is not merely being “lost” to external forces. It is, in many ways, the predictable outcome of a collective and cumulative contradiction, a society that wants to enjoy the benefits of rapid economic growth while preserving the illusion of an untouched paradise. It is being hollowed from within, through everyday compromises, selective denial, and a growing disconnect between public posturing and private reality. In simpler terms, it is about Goans wanting to eat the cake and keep it too.

In the given circumstances, protecting one’s “individual sanity” becomes crucial. It is not a retreat into apathy, as some might argue, but a refusal to participate in collective self-deception. It means recognising that not every slogan reflects substance, and not every public movement is rooted in integrity. It requires the courage to step back from the performative urgency of outrage and turn the focus inwards. It requires sustained introspection and action to ensure that our thinking, attitudes and actions do not enable the very situation we are politically engaged in battling.

Performative outrage thrives on visibility, not depth. It rewards the quickest take, the sharpest barb, the most shareable image. It does not reward the slow, unglamorous work of understanding how a problem is structured, who benefits from it, and what it would take to dismantle it. A society that avoids self-examination cannot sustain genuine reform; it can only recycle outrage in increasingly hollow forms.

Those in positions of power understand this rhythm all too well. They have learned that time is on their side. If they can withstand the initial surge of public anger, they can often outlast it. Each unfinished episode of outrage chips away at public trust. People begin to doubt whether speaking up makes any difference. Fatigue sets in, cynicism follows.

The challenge is to resist the pull of immediate emotional reaction. Not every alarming post in social media reflects the full picture. Seeking out primary sources, local reporting, and diverse perspectives becomes essential in navigating a landscape where influence is often performed rather than practiced.

Such introspection and restraint is neither glamorous nor immediately rewarding. It does not produce viral moments or visible victories. But it is the foundation if any meaningful change is to come about. Saving Goa requires a shift from reaction to reflection. It must move from expression to strategy, from visibility to impact. Not every issue demands the same kind of response, and not every response should be immediate. There is value in pausing long enough to understand what, exactly, is at stake. Without this groundwork, even the loudest protest risks missing its mark and ends up compounding and complicating the problem. 

Symptoms attacked, system untouched in Goa's planning controversy - Soter

 Lead article published in oHeraldo on 23March 2026

What gets repeatedly brushed under the carpet is the inconsistency of the Goa TCP Act, 1975, with the provisions related to decentralised planning and development in Part IX and IXA of the Constitution.

The weeks gone by have been witnessing an unprecedented spike in protests against the destruction of hills, fields, forests, sand dunes, water bodies and other natural resources across this ecologically fragile State of Goa. Villages are being ravaged by mega commercial and housing projects beyond the carrying capacity of the existing basic infrastructure. The environmental impact and social consequences of the government’s unsustainable and chaotic development are increasingly becoming visible and felt across the State. This plunder is resulting in strain on the coastal ecosystems and basic infrastructure like roads, water and power supply, sewerage, garbage disposal, and health issues due to rising pollution levels, besides other related problems.

There is no doubt that the crisis arising from failure of governance in Goa is traumatic for the common man who is left clueless and helpless in the prevailing chaos. The public outrage against various development projects is very much justified, because ultimately it is the common man who is left to bear the brunt of such non-participatory, non-transparent bureaucratic paternalism in planning and development processes. The cost of such governance failure is the loss of precious lives in road fatalities, natural calamities and health hazards. What makes matters even worse is the offensive approach of the government towards citizens who rightfully come on the streets with their problems.

It is in such times of frustration, distress and desperation that political narratives about a threat to Goa’s ecology and identity tend to strike an instant emotional connection with the public. The emotional reaction to the situation from citizens tends to blind reason, thereby becoming a fertile ground for political manipulation. Any truth or attempt to reason gets outshouted by the propaganda machinery of the powerful political lobbies at play to keep the public constantly charged emotionally, giving no time to think.

Amidst such an environment, wherein opportunistic forces tend to exploit public emotions, observing the propaganda patterns adopted for the protests and movements and subjecting them to critical thinking becomes necessary. This could avoid political disillusionment setting in after repeated deception from illusions of change forwarded for selfish political and business gains. It is in this above context that citizens need to ask the question: Is the pattern of the current protests against the large scale conversion of land use in 2026 any different from the anti-RP2011 agitation which swept Goa in 2006? Is the narrative and control of what is claimed to be a ‘People’s Movement’ actually participatory, or, is it remotely driven by hidden political and real estate considerations?

The propaganda patterns of 2006 leading to the anti-RP 2011 agitation and the current hysteria around sections 39A and 17(2) of the TCP law are about attacking isolated aberrations, rather than questioning the deeper structural deficiencies in planning. Amplifying the noise about an ‘outsider’ threat from real estate, destruction of natural resources, the convenient scapegoating or villainizing of some or the other minister and bureaucrat as responsible for the sell-out of Goa, and the timing of protest one year before the Assembly election are all similar tactics which were employed in the anti-RP 2011 protests. The controversy around massive land zoning changes was central to the 2006 agitation, and now two decades later the same problem gets blamed on a couple of problematic provisions of the very same planning law.

Could it be that the episodic and recurring cycle of protests against land zoning changes is the result of toying with some or the other sections of the TCP law instead of questioning the system, more like treating the symptom instead of the underlying disease? Is it really the particular sections of the TCP law which are the cause of Goa’s destruction, or, a structurally flawed planning buoyed by an outdated law? The recent debate on section 39A which beat around the bush in the August House is perhaps enough of a clue about the political reservations to nail and tackle the root cause head on. This observation is in no way intended to give a clean chit to any minister in government when it comes to their abuse of powers.

Amidst all the technical and legal jargon around Goa’s destructive planning, what gets repeatedly brushed under the carpet is the inconsistency of the Goa TCP Act, 1975, with the provisions related to decentralised planning and development in Part IX and IXA of the Constitution. It was the historic passage of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, in 1992, which fundamentally altered the architecture of democratic governance in the country. It was meant to transform governance by decentralising power and embedding democracy at the grassroots.

These amendments constitutionalized Panchayats and Municipalities, mandating participatory planning through local self-government institutions. The amendments envisioned District Planning Committees (DPCs) that would consolidate plans prepared by Panchayats and Municipalities into holistic district development blueprints. The spirit was unmistakably that development must be planned from the ground up, not imposed from above. But there is a strange silence from politicians and technocrats on the failure of the government to accommodate the District Development Planning under Article 243ZD of the Constitution into Goa’s planning laws.

Some or the other provision like 39A and 17(2) may continue to provoke debate and public anger every time elections are due. But the planning disaster in Goa did not begin with isolated provisions in the law, nor will they end if the provision is amended or scrapped. It is the planning system that remains vulnerable to discretionary, technocratic and bureaucratic hegemony, instead of a decentralised approach, that needs to be addressed. Beyond the technical arguments also lies a fundamental democratic truth, that the laws which govern society are inseparable from the choices made in the voting booth. If citizens wish to have laws and better policies which promote a decentralised and participatory governance, the first step in saving Goa is to vote in lawmakers who will not get drunk with power.

 

The Mirage of Good Governance, A quiet crisis in Goa

 oHeraldo Review, Sunday December 14, 2025 

https://www.heraldgoa.in/goa/the-mirage-of-good-governance-a-quiet-crisis-in-goa/457260/

The Politics and Profit in Selective Outrage Against Abuse and Violence -Soter

 Lead article published in oHeraldo on October 27, 2025

The public outcry against the deteriorating law and order situation suffers from contradictions.

The cowardly and brutal assault by goons on an activist in broad daylight last month had witnessed condemnation and street corner protests from a wide section of society. A month later, another incident of violence from a mob burning the car of an activist before the very eyes of the cops. Such criminality, irrespective of the cause for provocation, is deplorable and should not be tolerated. Abuse and violence to settle differences or silence opponents definitely cannot have a place in a civilised society. There is hardly any doubt that life in Goa is no longer safe, whether in the home or on the streets. However, the public outrage witnessed in the earlier incident was not visible in the recent incident, thereby exposing the opportunism for politics and profit in the selective outrage.

Sadly, any public response to such incidents remains nothing more than reactionary, with emotional outbursts serving a predetermined political and business script. Nowadays, it is challenging to distinguish where activism ends and political and business agendas begin. This is what contributes to several Goans remaining either sceptical or cautious to avoid getting sucked into such futile emotional drama. Perhaps, this is an appropriate response amidst a growing trend of politics and activism which often lacks accountability, transparency, public participation and civility in its processes.

There are enough signs that we are a dysfunctional society, and the anxiety of people from the present social, political and economic crisis has become a conducive climate for false prophets and messiahs to prosper. The dark manipulative tactics employed in politics are now being replicated in activism. With the absence of factual information and aggressive social media propaganda in the political entertainment of the pot and kettle calling each other black, who is genuine amidst such games cannot be judged by face value.

Such incidents of abuse and violence should have become occasions for objective introspection by the community, instead of indulging in political blame games and speculation about the masterminds behind such incidents. The selective outrage on single issues, depending on how it suits someone's political and economic interests, is no effective solution for tackling abuse and violence in society. When truth and reason get lost amidst herding, blaming and scapegoating in any crisis, it is far from what could be considered a constructive response, more so in incidents of abuse and violence. Does abuse and violence need to be only about physical harm to a certain class of citizens for it to be considered unacceptable and denounced? Are other prevailing issues of mental violence, cultural violence and structural violence not serious enough to be exposed with candlelight street shows?

Probably, the larger issues of abuse and violence confronting Goa are not populist and profitable enough to be denounced from pulpits and podiums. Should society not be screaming against abuse and violence against citizens due to deadly road conditions and reckless driving leading to disabling injuries and deaths of vulnerable road users? Is the absence of footpaths and pedestrian crossings in residential localities not a serious threat to the lives of citizens that warrants widespread protests? Is the choking of people's lungs with dust and carbon emissions from industries and construction projects not a brutal enough reason for public agitation? Is the abuse and violence, off-camera, in homes and religious institutions, not threatening enough to be condemned? Is the sound terrorism from nightclubs and fireworks during festivities, which mentally and physically harms residents, not violence that needs to be stopped? 

It was the Persian Poet Shams Tabrizi who said, “All of us are selective sinners. We choose the sins we are comfortable with, and judge others that commit the ones we’re not comfortable with.” A look inwards and beyond the populist drama will reveal that the goons and their masterminds are actually by-products of this very economy and decaying society in which mental health and morality have gone for a toss. Goans need to feel ashamed that such an anti-social climate prevails in a State having one of the highest literacy rates in the country and boasting about its unique culture and heritage. Where does all that education, religiosity and unique culture vanish when it comes to civic discipline and the rule of law?

The public outcry against the deteriorating law and order situation suffers from contradictions. Goa has embraced an economy that is historically known to attract anti-social activity and contribute to the perversion of society. With alcohol and drugs flowing in the State, how can Goans expect intoxicated people to behave decently? How can rampant gambling and thriving prostitution manage without antisocial elements and addictions? Goans cannot expect to enjoy the dirty economic profits and wish away the ugly consequences.

The prevailing violence is a much more complex issue than some or the other activist getting mercilessly thrashed, or the rising cases of burglaries and kidnappings. Research shows a strong association of children with histories of abuse being more likely to indulge in crimes as adolescents and young adults. Such individuals get exploited in greedy political and economic systems, with alcohol and drug culture playing a big role in contributing to unhealthy social environments. Visiting prisoners in jails may be fashionable and profitable for the charity industry. What gets conveniently ignored are prevention programs targeting young individuals at risk of getting in conflict with the law due to addictions, broken homes, and hostile family and community environments. What is required is a multi-faceted approach involving early intervention, community-wide programs, and strategic environmental design that targets risk factors and strengthens positive social norms and relationships across different settings. This will be far more effective in ensuring societal peace than reformation in jails, externments, and candlelight heroics.

Faith and Fragmentation for Power and Profit -Soter

 Lead Article in Oheraldo published on September 22, 2025

This is definitely not the Goa which we Goans have grown up in, and neither anywhere near to the progressive future we had ever dreamt of or expected. The dark politics aside, this traditional Goan community after liberation was predominantly about respect for the laws, modesty, honesty, tolerance and trust in social dealings. Added to this was the tendency to extend hospitality even to strangers in good faith. The corruption, pathetic road conditions and the hostile environments we now encounter, that is after 1970 when power and road infrastructure made their way into villages, was usually heard about in news from States beyond the border. Like it or not, probably the past which we Goans enjoyed was an aberration to be blamed on some 4 centuries of foreign rule, the hated western culture by the 'desi parivar'. If not, how does one explain such deterioration and lawlessness in a paradise within just 6 decades after so claimed liberation?

Sadly, beneath this sharp cultural contrast in regards to the rest of the country, which tourism sells as its signature brand, there is the curse of that common ugly side of a toxic mind-set draped in caste and religious entitlement which is silently destroying this unique identity. Apart from the hypocrisy of mingling in each other's religious festivals, post liberation politics has periodically witnessed sharp polarisations in Goan society every time it came to electoral choices, legislations and policies of government. The almost 3 decades of MGP and UGP tussle for power was nothing more than weaponising of caste and religion for politics. The communal dragon haunts Goa every time any political demand for justice emerges and finds favour with the minority community. Even the official language and script has not been spared from bitter differences, the justice for which is till this day being denied to the traditional script used by the minority community.

The silence of the Goan majority community, by and large, when it comes to discriminatory laws and policies of the government which target the minorities is self-explanatory. The so-called 'Persons of Goan Origin' POGO, who now beat their breasts in pride and target migrants, could not come to a consensus in 1967 on whether Goa should be merged with Maharashtra or not, thereby inviting a bitterly fought Opinion Poll. Though the anti-merger choice prevailed, it amply demonstrated the split down the middle on caste and religious lines which exists to this day. This farce of communal harmony has exposed itself even in this 21st century when it came to the choice of the medium of instruction in minority schools. Goans have not been able to arrive at a specific definition of ‘Goychi Asmitai’ which does justice to all communities. But is this ugly communal politics really about protection of religion and caste, or, are these only vehicles of a manipulative few for control of political power and economic monopoly?

The threat to Goa’s unique identity is not from external forces, it is very much from within. It’s historically well-known who invited the Portuguese to Goa and economically prospered during colonial rule, only to sing a nationalist tune and claim victimhood after liberation. This is more like what a Konkani proverb says, "Ghorcho bhedhi, bhailo chor", which means the thief is an outsider but his accomplice is an insider. The same hide and seek continues to this day. In 2009, a friend had mentioned to me how some individuals from his community were dissuading him from supporting a movement against mega housing projects in Salcete. A whisper campaign was launched that ‘the agitation was engineered by the Church to protect its political monopoly which was being threatened by the influx of the other religious community into those gated complexes’. Such double faced Goykars lead secular processions in daylight but wine and dine at communal banquets after dark.

The issues of political corruption, communalism and environmental destruction are only symptoms resulting from dark personality traits in leadership, which ride on the chariots of caste and religion to emotionally manipulate the masses and further selfish designs. These narratives of a threat to Goan identity or an ‘all is well’ propaganda are employed depending on whose political clout and business prospects are threatened or safe. Buying into this craftily scripted and choreographed drama of victimhood and external threat to distract from the ground reality only prevents Goans from arriving at any meaningful interventions to stem the rot. It is important to understand who the ultimate beneficiaries of Goa’s sell out are, often none other than fair weather Goykars who cry wolf.

It’s unfortunate that deceptive political power and economic games get reinforced by beating around the bush and brushing the dirt under the carpet with inter-religious dialogues and prayer meetings. The political polarisation, at least in Goa, has little to do with lack of understanding among Goans about each other’s faiths. The divisions we witness on various political issues are manufactured by feudal minded individuals, who weaponise caste and religion to protect their monopoly over political power and control over the economic resources. This manipulation for control of political power and business monopoly by weaponising caste and religion is far more complex and sophisticated to be remedied by PILs, inter-religious dialogues and replacing politicians. 

In such a toxic climate the dysfunctionality is both ways, the leadership and the citizens. The reactions in a predictable fashion to certain emotional triggers generated by the dark leadership only defeats the people’s control over the politics and economy. Citizens need to develop the skills to recognise the dark triad tactics of political, corporate and religious ringleaders. Emotional detachment, deep observation and critical thinking with rational responses are the antidote to this psychological disease in leadership.

From Pulpit to Podium: Holy Lies, Unholy Ties Are Defeating Democracy (Soter)

 Published as Lead Article in oHeraldo, August 25, 2025

Over the years, Goa’s politics has shown the way for the mockery of democracy. By successfully engineering defections, promoting illegalities to create vote banks, protecting such vote banks, to now, a couple of decades later, regularising these illegalities to pamper vote banks. With the recent amendments to some laws, the precedent for circumventing court verdicts against illegalities has been set. What’s even more disgracing is that all such abuse of power gets justified as the duty of law makers to draft laws that safeguard citizens and protect them from court verdicts against illegalities. The noise for relaxing the sound ban timings has now gotten louder and the public can only expect more of such nuisance to be endorsed if such political abuse is tolerated.

When illegalities get legitimised and destructive projects become part and parcel of investment promotion in governance, these are enough signs of a chronic social and political crisis. If citizens have to go to court in order to overturn the bad policies and checkmate destructive projects permitted by the very government they elect for their security and welfare, only for laws to get tweaked later to neutralise the court's directions, these are no signs of social progress but regression. Brute numbers and popularity cannot become the criteria for deciding what is ethically and morally healthy in democratic governance.

Several years ago, when a seasoned and popular politician heading the government was questioned by me in a casual conversation on his patronage to illegalities and dropping of corruption charges or reinstating of corrupt bureaucrats, which he had exposed while in the opposition, the response was, “this is compulsion of politics”. This was an honest admission which required guts.

A brief stint in active politics has shown me that survival in Goa’s politics hinges around satisfying the political financiers and pampering a significant number of unscrupulous citizens among the electorate who seek their selfish interests; this rot runs down to the gram sabha. Even some religious leaders who appear to condemn political corruption in public may have no qualms of conscience to demand undue favours from politicians in private. It’s the citizens’ misplaced expectations from the elected representatives to perform what is not their constitutional duty that sets unhealthy precedents in politics. This has only gotten more chronic over time. In this 21st century Goa, politicians with healthy principles and ethics stand no chance in elections, no matter how innocent the society may pretend to be in this current mess.

The current crisis, which Goans are faced with, is nothing but the logical consequence of throwing the baby out with the bath water, dumping a bird in hand for two in the bush and jumping from the frying pan into the fire, all under illusions and delusions of furthering political change and eradicating corruption. The misconception within the minority community, more than a decade ago, that communalism was restricted to a fringe group and a scare created by the Congress party to protect its vote bank has blown in the face. The citizens of this highly literate State, conditioned by centuries of a ‘sosegado’ culture, have been content putting God to the test by persisting in political ignorance and recklessness over the years and expecting divine wrath to strike at evil doers.

When public memory is short and coupled with an absence of a culture for critical thinking there can be no lessons learnt to prevent the repeat of past blunders. The minority community which overestimates its political nuisance value keeps consuming old wine in new bottles, now with 'desi' brands getting replaced by ‘global’ labels for the forthcoming Assembly elections in 2027. Perhaps it is the consumer fascination with Indian made foreign liquor brands which is now being replicated in the political market. Given the outcomes in the past, one can well guess the political fallout from issues like Romi script, Minority Commission and anti-conversion law being raked up before elections.

The manipulative tool of ‘Saam, Daam Dand, Bhed’ (persuasion, reward, punishment and division) employed by an authoritative regime has been effective in distracting and disrupting the political focus in the community. Further, the dysfunctional mechanism of herding, reactivity, blame displacement, victimhood and quick-fix mentality which drives people’s activism has blinded reason and aided self-destruction. With the complacency of citizens when it comes to political responsibility and their preoccupation with religious devotions and cultural entertainment 365 days of the year, where is the space and scope left for serious social and political reflection and community strategy?

The random and arbitrary street parades masterminded by self-publicity craving middlemen to protest against selective injustices and atrocities will not bring peace. Such predictive reactions fuel further polarisation and give the desired publicity for the fanatical groups to keep themselves at the centre of the public debate. The victimhood injected in the hate targeted communities makes them vulnerable to exploitation by fake messiahs who take their followers round in circles to enjoy power and money.

It was Pope Francis in his encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’ (brothers and sisters all) while appealing for ‘a better kind of politics’ who said, “global society is suffering from grave structural deficiencies that cannot be resolved by piece meal solutions and quick fixes. Much needs to change, through fundamental reform and major renewal…” Earlier in his apostolic exhortation ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ (the joy of the Gospel), the Pope had emphasised that ‘change is a process which matures in time and space, and not isolated events’.

As long as citizens remain trapped in the dysfunctional political dynamics, only to be controlled by manipulative political and religious leadership, the chances for any political renewal remains bleak. The cycle of control by such manipulative leadership will need to be dismantled by citizens for a different politics and leadership to emerge.

(The author has worked with community initiatives related to Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention, HIV/AIDs Prevention, Panchayati Raj, Anti-Corruption, Environment Protection and Social Justice.)

Lives lost, Lessons ignored: Goa's public places are turning deadly - Soter

 Lead article published in oHeraldo on May 26, 2025

Goa woke up earlier this month to the shocking and sad news of a horrific stampede, a first-time-ever occurrence at a religious event, in which six precious lives were lost and several devotees injured. The myth that such incidents could only occur in other States but not in ‘sosegado Goem’ was shattered. For many, this incident brought back the memory of the deadly Mahakumbh tragedy some months ago in Uttar Pradesh.

It was lately in the month of March that the Sree Lairai Devi zatra at Shirgao, Bicholim, which draws thousands of devotees and tourists every year, was declared a State festival by the Government of Goa. Just a day before this unfortunate tragedy, it was widely publicised that the government has enhanced security arrangements for this year’s zatra with a record number of police personnel deployed with drones, riot control vehicles and plain clothes police officers for effective crowd management, to ensure a safe and smooth passage for the devotees.

This popular religious festival has been organised for decades and has always drawn huge crowds but never witnessed such a disaster. Besides some minor incidents which were heard of in the past, wherein some or the other devotee suffered from minor burn or other injuries in the melee, there has never been an incident of such magnitude leading to loss of lives. Some are now alleging that there have been a couple of deaths in the past which went unreported. Whether such deaths were related to lack of safety or health issues is uncertain.

Amidst all the allegations and counter allegations flying around was a mischievous accusation about the government ensuring safety and security for church events at Old Goa, and ignoring the same when it comes to temple festivals. Are we to believe that there are no more popular temples in Goa which conduct their religious events in an orderly manner with or without government assistance? The orderliness one witnesses at Old Goa’s religious events is not the result of the government intervention, it has a lot to do with the culture of devotees in their places of worship.

So, is this tragedy a failure of the organisers and government machinery? Or, could it be a consequence of the commercialisation of religious festivals coupled with a deteriorating civic culture witnessed in Goa?

As usual, it only takes the loss of lives for the government and citizens to wake up and take notice. Such tragedies are converted into occasions for either deriving political mileage or for settling political scores. It follows the usual pattern of denial, blaming, scapegoating, and projection to muddy the waters and dodge the truth, only to be forgotten no sooner another sensational issue surfaces. If the incident is politically embarrassing, then a fact-finding team is constituted and soft targets picked up for a dressing down with no conclusive outcomes.

The unfortunate incident at Shirgao should not be seen in isolation from the government’s utter disregard for public security and safety in several other areas of governance. It was just one among the many tragedies waiting to happen sometime or the other, a build up from years of safety precautions being ignored by overconfident organisersand devotees. The Government’s safety and security measures are more about reducing deaths on paper, and ignores the serious disabilities for life of victims who survive and the medical costs incurredby the State and their family for the treatment.

The confusion leading to a stampede is nothing different from the chaos we see in public spaces caused by overcrowding and illegal encroachments due to failures in planning and implementation. The linesmen losing their lives due to electrocution while discharging their duty is about disregard for prescribed safety standards by those in authority. The recent Verna bus accident which claimed two lives is the horrific reality of Goa’s pathetic public transport system. There are fatalities on our roads practically every single day due to vehicular accidents, but all we see is the farce of road safety weeks. The recent raids by FDA on eateries and quality of food items in our markets exposes the lack of health safeguards. It is all about a moral crisis with absolutely no consideration for public health and safety when it comes to making a quick buck.

Can a selfish and irresponsible mentality prevailing in society be expected to behave any differently when it comes to discipline in places of worship?

With civic discipline on the decline, consideration for one's own safety and that of others is terribly lacking all around. For jingoism mistaken as nationalism the concepts like ‘Empathy’, 'Safe distance' and ' Right of way' are too colonial, giving rise to a jungle raj. The public has enough time to condemn religious terrorism but refuses to denounce the terrorism unleashed in their immediate locality by the absence of basic public health and safety standards for the government’s infrastructural projects. Citizens silently surrender to all sorts of compromises and failures of the government and organizers of events when it comes to public safety standards.

When citizens themselves submit to unsafe conditions, whether in religious places, on roads or in other situations, who should be considered the villains and victims in such fatal incidents? Increasing police presence cannot be a substitute for the lack of civic discipline and responsibility. With unpredictable weather conditions due to climate change, the rampant hill cutting, excavations, land filling and other activities undertaken by bypassing basic planning, engineering and safety codes are inviting fatal disasters. Many more precious lives could be lost with the growing abuse in community spaces resulting from a toxic politics and governance which is spinning out of control.

(The author has worked with community initiatives related to Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention, HIV/AIDs Prevention, Panchayati Raj, Anti- Corruption, Environment Protection and Social Justice.)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/edit/lives-lost-lessons-ignored-goas-public-spaces-are-turning-deadly/423194