Bob Marley’s lyrics “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time” (“Get up, stand up”) come to mind after spending three nights in Vagator and witnessing the farce that law enforcers – the police in this case – make of the law when it comes to noise pollution.
For three nights, noise reached its crescendo, and despite the judgment of the Goa bench of the High Court of Bombay in Goa, the police inspector of the Anjuna Police Station was either in denial or thought “the judges be damned”.
From August 12 to August 14, Vagator not just saw the return of thousands of Indian tourists, but with them, the return of noise pollution with parties all night long with no control over the decibels.
Those were three days of mayhem that signified the start of tourism that thrives on noise, drugs and prostitution. Unfortunately, there were few who were alarmed.
Parties, many say, and some of them are people who are part of the ruling dispensation, are good for tourism on which many on the coastal belt survive, especially in North Goa.
When tourists first came to Goa, they came for the peace, the quiet and to enjoy the solitude that Goa and its people offered. Things did change, but the changes were organic.
But, the many who champion the cause of loud music on the northern coastal belt are unaware that noise over limits kills social fabric, kills the innocence of youth, kills families.
When tourists first came to Goa, they came for the peace, the quiet and to enjoy the solitude that Goa and its people offered. Things did change, but the changes were organic.
The music was mellow, the drugs (read hash and marijuana) were organic and the shift in sound and music followed with the shift in drugs to LSD, mushrooms and slowly Ecstasy.
Today, the drugs are clearly a commercial enterprise with ambulances needed around places where parties are held and fatalities are common, though unreported, occurrences.
The air smelt of hashish when one entered a party in the 80s with hundreds of foreign tourists found sitting and sharing chillums and a few Goans gathered around. No doubt, parties wound up in the morning, but the sound never reached noisy levels. Therefore, there was no need for laws to control noise then.
Today, the drugs are clearly a commercial enterprise with ambulances needed around places where parties are held and fatalities are common, though unreported, occurrences.
Goa has seen a time when Indian tourists would enter parties to see foreign tourists dancing.
Now it is seeing a time when only Indians are dancing with just a few foreign tourists opting to appear, to see where it all went wrong.
Despite the high court strictures, the three days before India’s independence saw the law being binned by the police, who despite being in the vicinity, preferred to look the other way and let the aggrieved fend for themselves.
The few who tried to raise an alarm were ignored or at times intimidated with the law enforcers adopting everything within their power to discourage people from complaining or encouraging them not to complain.
Police were seen controlling traffic in places where loud music was being played, way after the prescribed time. And mind you, they were humility personified.
Loud music – definitely beyond the permissible the decibel limit set by the high court – could be heard well after 10 pm until dawn. Music in some places was stopped for ten minutes and started again after members of the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) disappeared.
This was a mockery of the system perpetrated by people paid to maintain law and order.
Police were seen controlling traffic in places where loud music was being played, way after the prescribed time. And mind you, they were humility personified.
If not a deterrent to the police, the Bombay High Court strictures seem to have deterred the pubs flouting the rules as most bouncers of clubs had their eyes on who was video filming and who was not.
Obviously, they knew that a video clip of a party to the high court could send them all scurrying.
Interestingly the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court had in PIL WP No 876 of 2022(f) stated: “……This means that even if the beat staff or the staff of the police station hears the loud music, they think it is not their duty to take any action. It is for the DGP to disabuse the police officials in these police stations of this incorrect impression.”
As we celebrate our 77th Independence Day, many will wonder quo vadis? Where did it all go wrong? What led to this state of affairs where the police couldn’t care less for the women and men they are supposed to protect?
The three days before Independence Day were clear indicators that money comes first. True freedom can wait.