Tourist deaths stab destination Goa

Two tourist deaths in Goa on New Year is definitely not the best beginning. It’s not bad just for tourism but bad for all when – though all are born to die – we try to give death a crude definition.

Sadly, one death was reported on the southernmost tip of the coastal belt and the other in the northernmost and the police at both points grappled to unravel the cause of death.

The police in Goa appear or at least pretend to be unable to get to the truth and, in both instances, the first reaction was to term them as unnatural when circumstances proved otherwise.

A lady from UK was found dead near a church in Agonda and a young lad from Kerala was found floating dead somewhere near Pernem. This is neither the first time a lady has been found dead in mysterious circumstances in South Goa nor the first time a youth has been found dead in North Goa.

People in North Goa have been crying hoarse about parties and its ill effects and the ills of loud music that leaves them with no sleep. If the sound of loud music can be heard from the police station, imagine what happens to inhabitants living next to the party spots.

Complaints to the North Goa police, from SP to PI, have fallen on deaf ears leaving all to believe that the jingle of money is louder than the sound of music thus sadly justifying the role of the law protectors.

The connivance of the police leads all fingers pointing to the connivance of the government and this is the sad truth. The truth hurts. Otherwise, how can one explain the lackadaisical attitude of the police – loud music, every day, beyond 10 pm; loud music without permission from any authority; loud music in residential areas?    

Only a police force can justify how such things are allowed despite numerous complaints from citizens. When the illegal parties start, the police phones are not answered and when parties end, promises that such parties will not be allowed flow from the police, and the SP in particular.

In both cases, the police tried to draw a different picture but the true picture of the death of the youth from Kerala emerged after news reports from Kerala – based on the Goa Medical College (GMC) post mortem report – that indicated a dirty picture of not just Goa but of our police force.

In the case of the Britisher in Agonda, the police were trying to wrap up the matter with the word ‘accidental’ whilst in Pernem, the word ‘drowning’ was used when more than what meets the eye was evident in both.

Goa has got the worst start to 2024 as far as policing is concerned. If we have to start the New Year in fear of our security what can one expect in the remaining days?

“I am one of those,” wrote Kahlil Gibran in Before the Throne of Death, “who believe that spiritual progress is a rule of human life, but the approach to perfection is slow and painful.” “If a woman elevates herself in one respect and is retarded in another, it is because the rough trail that leads to the mountain peak is not free of ambushes of thieves and lairs of wolves.”

The death of two tourists on New Year day is definitely the worst publicity for the state and the more the government tries to cover up, the dirtier will the picture emerge.

It will be good if the government introspects and instead of trying to find faults, find ways of getting back on the right track because it is never too late.

Finding excuses, in this age of Information Technology (IT), is useless. It will only help spill more beans and that is something tourism in Goa can ill afford. By now the government should realise that to err is human but to err constantly is not divine.