Temple trample spells doom
Why blaming the devotees for the Shirgao stampede is wrong, TCP dept's head suspended, the curious success of RG's protest and a blast from the past in this week's edition
Welcome to yet another edition of Gerard’s Gazette, a weekly newsletter in which I attempt to break down the events of the week gone by and offer a bit of context, as well as a dose of news you may have missed and news behind the news.
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Temple trample spells doom
On Saturday morning I woke up to the terrible news that six people had perished in a stampede that took place at Shirgao (officially Sirigao) a village in Bicholim taluka that is known primarily for the annual pilgrimage festival (zatra) and also, more recently, earned a reputation for fighting back against iron ore mining that takes place on the hills that surround the village.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, at around 3 am to be precise, the crowd got out of control, and in the melee, six people, including a 16-year-old and two young men in their early 30s, besides others, lost their lives.
It would be easy to frame this tragedy and define it by the headline statistics i.e., the number of people killed and injured. But what these statistics hide is also the fact that the lives will never be the same, not only for the families of those who died but also for those who are injured as well as those who lost someone they knew and loved at the festival. Besides those injured, five are said to be critically injured and are intubated and on the ventilator. They are said to have suffered hypoxia; that is when the body tissues, and importantly the brain, do not receive enough oxygen, a common occurrence during stampedes. This means that even if they do survive, they will be left likely needing lifelong care.
It is these patients, more than anyone, who will be in need of financial assistance (not that others are less deserving) but will likely receive pittance since they are quite literally stuck in limbo—not dead enough to receive the higher compensation that the families of the dead will get and not in the category of having received ‘minor’ injuries so as to not be needing the compensation.
But then bureaucracies do not work that way and seemingly will behave like a computer does when you input a wrong command when tasked with ensuring everyone is given equitable compensation.
That’s, however, just one part of the problem going forward. The discourse going forward is going to focus disproportionately on what exactly caused or triggered the stampede. The administration is going to go after the men who were responsible for the scuffle that is said to have triggered the stampede – those who tried to merge into the queue, angering those who were already in the queue. There will (and should) be questions asked of the panchayat for allowing stalls to be set up along an already narrow stretch that gets crowded every year, and the dhonds – the devotees who fast for five days ahead of the ritualistic bathing in the temple pond and later walk on live coals on the final day of the zatra – will be blamed for being unruly, not maintaining queues, etc.
But such a blame game misses an obvious point -- that the arrangements at the scene and crowd control measures were sorely lacking to a point that sooner or later such a tragedy would occur.
You know how inhabitants of a residential colony fight with each other over who is using more water and who should pay for the tanker when the real problem is the failure of the government to provide an adequate supply of drinking water? What played out at Shirgao on Saturday was something similar. Two groups (possibly more) fighting over a limited resource -- the resource in this case being the time available until one gets to enter the temple and the homkund (fire pit) when in reality both groups should have been coming together to fight against the government for failing to ensure there was enough time (and space) for everyone to go around.
Multiple people I’ve spoken to have told me that poor crowd management was the root cause of the problem -- from a lack of coordination between the police and the temple committee, which meant the cops on site didn’t know who would be entering from which direction and heading out towards which direction. In addition, the presence of curious onlookers occupying crucial bottleneck points like doorways to ‘observe’ what is going on only added to the problem.
One mustn’t forget that the state government had sought to declare the Shirgao zatra as a state festival and also has been promoting it as a tourist attraction -- something that draws even more crowds down the narrow lanes of the village. And who in their right mind thought it was OK to have the same route both for entry and exit from the temple complex? Even the most basic crowd managers -- those village handymen who take it upon themselves to direct people to and from a village cemetery at a funeral -- know that crowds move much faster when there’s a separate entrance and a separate exit.
How is it that for a festival in which lakhs of people attend, such a crowd flow plan was approved? Don’t expect that you will find answers to these questions, much less accountability from an administration that until Friday was celebrating the deployment of policemen and the arrangements they had made.
Hopefully lessons will be learnt; if not by the government, then at least by the people who should by now know, that they only have to look after themselves and that no one -- least of all those in government can be trusted to have their back.
Farewell suspended
This was also a week in which many across the state were looking forward to the long-awaited retirement of Chief Town Planner (Planning) Rajesh Naik -- the same guy against whom a large protest was held in August last year demanding his removal.
It was, however, not to be. On April 30, barely hours before he would leave his office for the final time, and with a farewell party at the Novotel Resort at Patto all planned, the government of Goa Vigilance Department issued an order placing him under suspension.
There are various orders of the Supreme Court and other courts that it is now a “well settled position of law that an employee shall not be suspended at the verge of his retirement and that the disciplinary proceedings, if any to be initiated and completed on a war-footing basis, if an irregularity or lapse came to the notice of the Department within three months prior to retirement, the impugned orders are liable to be set aside.”
What this means in Naik’s case remains to be seen. But as per the official order, his suspension was on account of “disciplinary proceedings” being “contemplated” against him.
While it is not clear what these disciplinary proceedings are, recent hearings in the High Court might help throw some light on it.
Social activist Swapnesh Sherlekar had filed a petition in the High Court alleging that Naik, as head of the department, oversaw the undervaluing of conversion charges demanded from those who applied for conversions under section 17(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act, thereby causing loss to the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 8-crore or thereabouts.
The petition had also challenged the Vigilance Department’s no objection certificate that was granted at the time he was granted a one-year extension by the state government.
All in all, Naik wasn’t allowed to retire in peace, but the question that is asked is whether this is a result of the rivalry between Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who controls the Vigilance Department and Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane under whom Naik received has signed off on conversions of 26.5 lakh square metres of land under section 17(2), not counting those being granted under section 39(A).
Or is this a move just to tell the High Court that they have indeed taken the irregularities pointed out in the petition seriously?
Future hearings in the High Court might have some answers.
What’s RG’s secret to success?
On a related subject, the Revolutionary Goans Party, led by its San André MLA Viresh Borkar, who had been leading a protest against permissions granted to Worldwide Resorts and Entertainment for an eight-floor hotel at Bambolim in his constituency, found a degree of success.
Earlier this week, the Town and Country Planning Department issued a stop work order against the project after the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), a body that is supposed to grant environmental clearances for projects large enough to need them, but not so large that they need an environmental clearance from the Central authority, had issued its own stop work order.
The Revolutionary Goans Party and Viresh Borkar also found success in the other project he was protesting against -- the project to build a reinforced wall at the Bambolim beach by the Grand Hyatt Hotel . That project too was stopped by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority after it was found that permission was issued for the project by claiming it was discussed in a meeting of the GCZMA, when the minutes of the meeting reflect that no such discussion ever took place.
It’s not often that those protesting against decisions of the Town and Country Planning department achieve success. For instance, permissions issued to the Bhutani project in Sancoale are yet to be revoked, it is a similar story for the project in Siolim that allegedly threatens the Oxel spring. Across the state protests against decisions of the Town and Country Planning Department seemed to have had very little effect. So why did Viresh Borkar’s and the Revolutionary Goans protest work?
It’s hard to say really. On one hand it might seem like an open invitation to other MLAs and opposition political parties to take on the mega projects in their own constituencies with the right degree of earnestness and not only might they find success but they could also endear themselves to their constituency in the process.
The opposition to the rampant urbanisation of Goa is led mostly by civil society activists and only reluctantly, if at all, by members of the opposition barring a few exceptions, take part. If anything Viresh Borkar has shown the way to the rest on how to take on the government and find success provided you have the gumption to get down to doing it.
On the other hand, however, there’s the issue raised by state AAP president Amit Palekar, who questioned why the RG party was raising issues only about the Town and Country Planning Department?
An easy answer to that question (assuming it was not a rhetorical one) is because the TCP department has been the most egregious of all the departments in the state and deserves all the hate it can get. But what was Palekar really trying to say in asking that question?
You see, the RG party carries with it the (not unfounded) stigma of being a party set up by BJP insiders to split the opposition vote. There are several attestations that are used to make the said point. And one of them is the decision of the party’s head honcho Manoj Parab to stand against Vishwajit Rane in the 2022 assembly elections. The theory goes that if Manoj Parab, who styled himself as the fledgling party’s chief ministerial candidate ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, was serious about taking on the BJP leadership why wasn’t he contesting against the sitting Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and instead threw his hat in the ring against Vishwajit Rane, his rival?
In asking why the RG is taking on the TCP Department Paleka ris indicating that what he sees unfolding is the BJP insiders using their ‘B-team’ to dent the Chief Minister’s political rival.
Something to think about.
24 years on ‘Costão’ is under Churchill’s skin again
This week also saw the OTT release of Hindi-language film Costao. But what made news was Churchill Alemão’s failed attempt to stop the release of the film on grounds (not Fatorda) that the film is based on “an incomplete narrative of the facts of the particular incident and is in the nature of defaming [Churchill] and his family members, harming his reputation, his public image and his political status.”
The High Court at Goa would have none of it.
The film that was released on Zee 5, according to the producers is a work of fiction in which “any resemblance to persons, past or present is purely incidental,” and does not purport to be a true story or the retelling of any real life incident.
But as the name itself suggests, the film claims to be a biopic based on the life of Costão Fernandes, an Intelligence Officer attached to the Rummaging and Intelligence Wing of the Customs House at Mormugao, who famously intercepted a Contessa car being driven by Alvernaz Alemão, the brother of former Chief Minister Churchill Alemão. In the ensuing scuffle a knife was drawn and Alvernaz was fatally wounded.
Now, I personally have little interest in this film and from what I’ve heard so far, Goans have been typically stereotyped in their depiction. The reviews haven’t been great either. But it is an opportunity, nonetheless to tell the story that unfolded on that warm summer afternoon in May 1991, a story that enthralled us when we were back in school. Even the teachers were eager to discuss it among themselves. And so, very briefly, here’s what is alleged to have happened.
Costão Fernandes, an Intelligence Officer attached to the Rummaging and Intelligence Wing of the Customs House at Mormugao, allegedly received credible information that the Alemão brothers, including Churchill, and their associates were likely to smuggle into the country a huge quantity of gold.
Fernandes’ information was that this contraband would likely be unloaded at Varca Beach, the village that the Alemãoes hail from, at some time in the month of May 1991. The Superintendent of Customs (R&I) directed Fernandes to track developments. The actual date of this anticipated smuggling was unknown. Fernandes maintained a nightly vigil at Fatrade beach near the construction site of the Varca Holiday Beach Resort, a project being undertaken by the Alemãos.
At noon on May 15 he saw Ciabro Alemão and two ‘canoes’ with outboard motors approaching Carmona Beach from the high seas. Heavy boxes from these canoes were brought ashore from the canoes and put in a Contessa car driven by Alvernaz Alemao.
He chased the car on his motorcycle and was knocked down. After he single-handedly intercepted the car, a knife-fight broke out between the two in which Alvernaz was fatally wounded. Fernades then opened the car’s boot, pulled out a gold biscuit, displayed it to the crowd that gathered, dumped it back in the boot, locked it, punctured the car’s tyres and left with the key fearing reprisal from the Alemão brothers.
The allegedly smuggled gold was never recovered as when a customs team reached the site, the boot was yanked open and the gold missing and Alvernaz was dead.
A legend was born.
It’s another matter that the Alemao’s were never convicted of smuggling and even the customs case against them was closed by the High Court for lack of evidence.
That’s all I have for you this week. Make sure you comment or write in, should you have something, anything to say.
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Until next week, then. Tchau!
It saddens me to hear of avoidable deaths happening at so many public events. This is a malaise that affects not just Goa but the whole country. I have always maintained that event organisers do not pay sufficient attention to public health & safety, perhaps because of difficulties in making safe arrangements or due to costs or improper allocation of responsibilities. I was in Rome to attend the Pope's funeral attended by 400,000 people and saw how effective measures keep the public safe. The area was divided into sections and a predetermined number of people were allowed into each section. This resulted in one large party of visitors, consisting mainly of school children, being separated and having to remain in two adjoining sections. There were no reports of dead or wounded visitors following the funeral. Yes, health and safety measures take a lot of time and effort and costs to implement, but even if one life is saved, it is worth doing.
It’s fascinating to observe the reaction of people to these stampedes across the country. Goa was the last place I expected this to happen.