"Not a toolkit, but a foolkit..."
Is a cabinet minister behind 'conspiracy' to run Goa down online? Will a beach 'shutdown' help secure Goa? and a Goan flavour to a a global conspiracy, this and more in this week's edition
Hi folks,
It’s been yet another engrossing week on the news front here in Goa, mainly because the state continues to have to deal with the fallout of the ongoing debate surrounding tourism—its impacts, pitfalls, and more. As such, we have much to discuss.
But before I begin, I must acknowledge the reaction that last week’s piece received. The piece resonated with a lot of people, many of whom commented, shared, and offered their own thoughts on the issue at hand.
If this is your first time here, a warm welcome, and thank you for signing up. This is a Goa-focused newsletter via which I offer a roundup of the most important happenings of the week, with a bit of context, background, the news behind the news, and deep dives into issues concerning the state.
I took the plunge with this newsletter around six months back, and as it turns out, there has been a lot to discuss, from politics, the environment, travel, and tourism, to, of course, interesting tidbits, books, and events to attend that I have highlighted here. There have, of course, been a few mundane weeks in between, so hopefully you will stick around.
That said, let’s dive straight in.
The fallout
I’d like to start with this story from the Times of India, which revealed that during a cabinet meeting held this week, Goa’s tourism minister Rohan Khaunte ‘announced’—for’ the benefit of his colleagues—that he believes that one among them has been betraying the state and is behind a ‘toolkit’ social media campaign to discredit the state’s tourism industry on social media.
“Not a toolkit, but a foolkit,” screamed opposition Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira, who said that Khaunte’s claim was absurd and was a ruse to divert attention from the government’s failures.
Normally, I’d have dismissed Khaunte’s claim as a typical case of trying to avoid accountability, pass the buck, and smell a conspiracy for the beating brand Goa is taking.
However, as I’ve discussed on these pages before, there’s a bit of history to this. Back in August last year, a series of videos began circulating online and on WhatsApp groups talking about ‘scams’ in Goa worth hundreds of crores of rupees. Editors of various national media outlets were approached to carry stories like this targeting the Chief Minister. Back then, too, the talk in the corridors of power was that someone within the cabinet was behind the social media campaign against the chief minister. The Goa Police even launched a probe to get to the bottom of it.
So, is the current campaign a conspiracy at the behest of a sitting cabinet minister to get back at his ‘rivals’ in the cabinet? I hardly think so. For one, the current ‘campaign’ doesn’t appear to be ‘artificial,’ and even though I don’t agree with the reasoning of most ‘influencers’ on this subject, the campaign appears organic and not ham-handed like the earlier one. In fact, in all probability you may not even have heard of the previous one. [I haven’t named the minister in question (neither has Khaunte) in this piece, but if you read my earlier pieces (linked above), it will be obvious who the minister in question is].
Notwithstanding the above, the Goa tourism department has sent out a missive to the government’s own empaneled influencers asking them to put out positive stories on Goa and the state’s tourism sector.
Instead the government would do well to improve infrastructure and services (both for locals and tourists) and let the work done speak for itself.
Instead, what we have is this…
The Shack Shutdown
The Goa Police have launched a crackdown on shacks operating at late hours with teams physically visiting shacks ordering them to shut operations by 11 pm and have the lights out by midnight.
This is to avoid situations like the one that led to the murder of an Andhra Pradesh tourist at a shack in Calangute following a violent altercation over ordering food beyond closing hours, questions about the bill, etc. The shack owners aren’t too happy, but it is what it is.
But if you see the videos, the cops haven’t stopped at that. They have been going to tourists sitting on the beach past midnight and asking them to head home (or to the hotel).
Sure, that’s one way to ensure that there’s no late-night trouble along the beaches, but it also takes some of the fun away.
Goa’s beaches, unlike public parks in other cities, don’t have closing times, and as such, there was no one to ‘monitor’ those who stayed late or even until morning. Sure, the lack of monitoring was taken advantage of, but it was part of what made Goa, Goa.
Like Bengaluru-based CEO Deepak Shenoy recently said on Twitter, that in Goa “the lifeguard whistling is a pain.” Which is true. For a confident open water swimmer, who wants to stretch his/her arms far from shore, the lifeguards will have none of it, which, to be frank, is no fun, but you can’t blame them either.
Should the state err on the side of caution at the cost of the fun experience that the tourist comes for? Or tell them to pack it in, in the interest of safety. I’m frankly conflicted about this.
There’s a saying in Konkani: Dukor posunk vhelear roddtta, ani marunkui vhelear roddtta, which literally means “a pig squeals whether you take it for feeding or for slaughter,” or in other words, some people are never satisfied whether things are going their way or not.
Porvorim chaos
As you may be aware, travelling between Mapusa and Panjim or any other destination that involves crossing the Porvorim stretch of the national highway is currently a pain thanks to the work on the flyover.
In a bid to address the hazards and inconvenience currently faced, it was suggested to the High Court that there be a WhatsApp number/group through which residents and other inconvenienced commuters could highlight grievances they face.
As things turned out, the PWD engineer Jude Carvalho, a well-meaning chap, made the mistake of sharing his personal number as the official number to be contacted to complain about deficiencies, only to find himself inundated with hundreds of calls and messages ranging from gibberish to people enquiring about plots for sale in Porvorim, quite literally giving him sleepless nights.
Another one bites the dust (and sludge)?
An odd Goa connection
In late December you will have read (or heard about) this article in The Washington Post, which claimed that India was behind a secretive plot to impeach newly elected Maldivian president Mohammed Muizzu, reaching out to opposition and ruling members of parliament.
The paper, quoting an unnamed adviser to the Muizzu family, claimed that “a senior RAW intelligence officer at New Delhi’s embassy in Washington explored a plan to overthrow the president with two Indian intermediaries who had political and business contacts in the Maldives.”
So what’s the Goa connection? According to the paper, “one intermediary was Shirish Thorat, a former Indian police officer who has worked as a private military contractor and who advised Mohamed Nasheed when he was the Maldivian president on how to curb Islamist radicalisation.”
The other was Savio Rodrigues, a publisher based in the Indian state of Goa who previously served as a spokesman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Savio Rodrigues, as some of you know, the editor of a Goa-based news portal, goachronicle.com, contested the 2022 Goa Assembly elections from Velim on a BJP ticket, but beyond that was someone who would pop up in odd places filing cases against those opposing the now-abandoned golf course project in Tiracol and seeking a ban on the 2011 Bollywood film Dum Maaro Dum for allegedly defaming Goa that was ultimately dismissed.
But what’s Thorat’s Goa connection? Thorat, whose family hailed from Pune (if I’m not mistaken), was the son of M. G. Thorat, Airport Director of Goa’s Dabolim airport in its early days after the bombed airport was brought back to life, went on to join the Goa Police and served up to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police when he took voluntary retirement in 2003 to do greater things. He has since authored “The Scout,” a comprehensive account of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the role of David Headley, who is said to have recceed the locations of the attacks.
For its part, the Indian government has rubbished the report, but, as with these things, we were hardly expecting them to confirm it. A head scratcher, this one, isn’t it?
That’s all I have for you this week. Make sure you comment or write in, should you have something, anything to say.
You are also welcome to write in with leads and tip-offs or anything that you think might be interesting enough to include here.
As always, please share and help spread the word.
Until next week, then. Tchau!
The social media toolkit ....
What a joke, coming from the pioneering party of fake narratives on social media.
Loved your previous article. Hoping to see you write more opinions and views about Goa. The weekly summary is nice but it’s fun and interesting to read another Goans point of view of major things like last weeks topic.