In the Goa Hamam All Are Without Clothes

The fire at a Goan nightclub Birch that killed 25 persons - including three sisters and a fourth sister's husband and 14 staff members – has created ripples that have placed the spotlights on corruption in this coastal tourist destination. The two Luthra brothers who ran this club have been arrested from Thailand where they fled aboard an Indigo flight (despite the crisis hitting this particular airline) as has been another person Ajay Gupta who is reported to have funded this enterprise.

Birch was running from within one of Goa’s vanishing salt pans, a 3500 years old tradition of reclaiming saline wetlands. Birch that was running now for three years without any permissions whatsoever had got this prime land in north Goa with not a single rule in place. The tragic fire that was covered internationally has raised a hue and cry over the fast spread of such restaurants and night clubs all across Goa, with most known to be working in defiance of all norms and regulations.

The local newspapers have carried reports of how High Court orders have been violated, and 117 of 175 identified illegal units are still running. Local politicians have gone on the record about official palms being greased and bribes being paid by these so called enterprises to keep afloat. It is no secret, as is being pointed out, that the mushrooming of such nightclubs and ‘destinations’ in Goa has come with clearances from the local administration - from the top to the lower levels as some legislators have said.

Goa has strong activist organisations that have been agitating against government decisions to award coastal and forest land to builders and such, with several such cases having gone to the courts for adjudication. As the activists have said, it is a tough and often a losing battle as land is being identified and sold even as they complete the paper work for previous sales. In the process the environment and ecology of Goa — its beaches where there is constant violation even on areas reserved for the almost extinct Olive Turtles nesting – is being destroyed with the state becoming more a centre for money laundering and less for the preservation of the coastal ethos.

People have taken to the streets on these issues often enough, but they have not been able to force a comprehensive cohesive overhaul of the post Covid land protocol that has converted Goa into an illegal construction site, particularly in the north. Every now and again the courts stop construction at a particular site, but the ‘sale’ as the local media puts it continues unchecked.

It is imperative now to turn the tragic disaster into an opportunity to restore Goa to its pristine status, where construction follows the laws, and where protected land is not sold to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, instead of questioning the government the people till now had become participants of a finger pointing battle, with the locals vs outsiders positioning creating an ugly polarisation. At the level of corruption the locals and outsiders actually mix, with money and bribes working for both to further their vested interests. But the people below are slugging it out, with the anger against outsiders reaching new levels of intolerance.

The Birch fire has, however, brought out the corruption and exposed the nexus with the more vocal legislators not hesitating to point this out. The government must enforce all rules, cancel all illegal establishments, and demolish the structures regardless of the ownerships. Accountability must be pinned regardless of the hierarchy and action taken. But then this is easier said than done as the opposition political parties in Goa are in a state of flux. As a television anchor said recently while reporting the fire, “in this hamam we are all without clothes.”