Goa: Paradise Lost By Rahul Singh
Think of a place with beautiful pristine beaches, clear blue waters, swaying coconut palm trees and the friendliest, easiest-going people on earth - and you think of Goa. Think again of a place full of corrupt cops and politicians, a land full of crime, drugs and alcohol - and you also think of Goa.
Paradoxical, yet true. These two contrasting images of Goa have come to the fore with the recent rape and murder of a 15-year-old English girl, Scarlett. Her bruised body was found at Anjuna, one of Goa's most popular and scenic beaches, where foreigners like to hang out. It was later found that she had been high on a lethal cocktail of cocaine and booze. Whether she was deliberately murdered after being raped, or drowned while in a stupour, is still a matter of police investigation.
Scarlett's mother, 44-year-old Fiona MacKowan, a mother, believe it or not, of nine children through four men, none of whom she married, landed in India immediately after she learnt of her daughter's death and went on the offensive against the Goa administration.
She accused the state's Home Minister (law and order comes under him), no less, and the police chief of being in cahoots with the drug trade, leaving the administration red-faced and spluttering. The trouble is that a lot of people believe her.
Both men of course hotly denied the charge and, instead, pointed an accusing finger at Fiona. How could she be so callous as to leave a 15-year-old girl alone without protection? they asked.
Their question, however, skirted the main issue: how has Goa, a much sought-after destination for tourists, both Indian and foreign, bringing in valuable foreign exchange, turned into something of a nightmare?
I first came to Goa in the early 1964, on my first major assignment as a reporter for the "Times of India". Three years earlier, over three centuries of Portuguese rule over the territory had come to an end, with the Indian army marching into Goa.
India's then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, his popularity waning, needed something to boost his party's electoral prospects. A forced takeover of Goa was his answer. There was little resistance from the few Portuguese troops based there and the Indian army had a cakewalk. But India's show of military might saddened many who were proud of the country's tradition of non-violence and peaceful coexistence.
After Goa's "liberation", an Opinion Poll took place, with Goans being asked whether they wanted to merge into the adjoining Maharashtra state, with whom they had strong cultural links, or be on their own. To the surprise of most Indians, they preferred being separate.
I went to Goa several times after that, enchanted by the beauty of the place and the friendly, liberal nature of its people, forty percent of whom were Roman Catholic and the rest Hindu and Muslim. This combination of natural splendour and cultural mix is what attracted hordes of tourists - close to 400,000 foreigners a year - but it was also the undoing of Goa.
Alcohol was always easily and cheaply available in the countless Goan bars and taverns that dot the state and are part of its charm and ethos. Feni is the local brew, made either from the cashew fruit or the sap of the coconut palm. A thriving cottage industry revolves around feni.
But with alcohol came drugs - hashish, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and, most lethal of all, pure heroin. The drugs were openly sold and it is no secret that politicians and officials were deeply involved in the trade, as were some foreign tourists, particularly from Israel and Russia. Indeed, the Russians now monopolise Morjim, one of the beaches in north Goa and there is considerable talk of the clout of "the Russian mafia" in the state.
With a population of only a little more than one million over a large stretch of territory, land was relatively cheap in Goa. I bought a small one-bedroom, 600 sq.ft. studio apartment, near Colva beach in southern Goa for the equivalent of $10,000 a decade ago. It was a steal and has appreciated several times since then. Many other non-Goans did the same, as did quite a few foreigners.
The result? Real estate prices in Goa have gone through the ceiling. Worse, developers, in league with corrupt local politicians, have grabbed land illegally, flouting environmental and local regulations, levelling coconut and cashew plantations and constructing ugly apartments and townships, totally out of character with Goan architecture, a charming and unique blend of Latin and Indian styles.
Little wonder that Goans are outraged, as they see their state pillaged and vulgarized and their way of life threatened as never before.
Remo Fernandes, acclaimed singer and composer who has adapted traditional Goan music to modern influences, creating a style entirely his own, is a thoroughly disillusioned man. Asked who was responsible for the mess that Goa now founds itself in, he answered: "Everyone in power, because everyone in power in India is corrupt, especially in places where there's money to be made from every square inch of land."
What is his solution? "The ideal would be a Goa declared an ecologically protected state, where no person from out of the state would be allowed to buy or build, where Goans would build just enough accommodation for visitors who would come on holiday and then go home," he responds. "If we urbanise and destroy our protected places, where will we go on holiday? To Pakistan?"
Utopian? Perhaps, since the Indian constitution allows Indians to move to wherever they want in the country and to buy property. Nevertheless, after Scarlett's brutal death, one wonders what went wrong with the Eden that once was Goa and how it can be restored. (ENDS)
The writer is a former Editor of Reader's Digest and Indian Express. The above appeared in a recent issue of Dawn, Pakistan's leading newspaper
