Politicians, police and drug lords are all in the same game in Goa - By Nisser Dias

GOA LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

The slugfest between Goa and its counterparts in Hyderabad over non-cooperation and denial allegations in the investigation into the death of BJP leader Sonali Phogat case has exposed the defunct BJP government headed by ‘Outsider’ chief minister Pramod Sawant and his caged police force. Moreover, it has exposed the incapabilities, failures and inefficiency of Sawant who holds the Home portfolio. The Kolhapur ‘import’ should pack his bags and permanently leave Goa for his ‘Ganv’. The chief minister termed Phogat’s death as cardiac arrest. In stark contrast, the autopsy revealed that she died of an overdose of drugs combined with blunt force trauma. Pramod Sawant does not only expose himself as a clown but makes the police personnel look like a bunch of fools. BJP leader who is alleged to have overdosed on drugs is a grim reminder to the powers that be that narcotics and psychotropic substances are abundantly and freely available in this part of the paradise because of the patronage and tutelage of the police and the politicians. It has always been an open secret that politicians, police and drug kingpins and peddlers have woven a strong network and beneficiaries of the blood money or drug business. Have we forgotten that cabinet minister Ravi Naik’s son was probed for alleged drug links and was supposedly the kingpin along the north Goa coastal belt? Police officer Sunil Gudlar was arrested in 2011 upon the evidence of video recording selling narcotics to two foreign nationals. He was also linked to missing drugs from the police godown, supposedly consumed by rodents according to the police version without realizing that two-legged rodents are also part of Goa’s police force. Ruling politicians have always been in denial that drugs are freely available along the coastal belt of north Goa, not that it is not available in south Goa but to a much lesser level. After fatal incidents like Phogat, Scarlett and others, the government and the police get into the mode of public eye wash. They carry out raids and arrest the small fry. But after a fortnight it is business as usual.

GOA POLICE HEADQUARTERS

Be that as it may, that our police force lacks investigative skills is widely known. There is a concept known as circumstantial proof and direct evidence in any investigation. Goa police fail to understand this aspect and the result is a high percentage of acquittals in narcotic cases. Goa police investigation is to first arrest the suspects and gather all the evidence with their help. When a person or persons are arrested, the charge sheet has to be filed in the court of law within 90 days or the law allows default bail for suspects. Investigations can go for much longer period. Unfortunately, for the investigating agencies, their burden is to file a charge-sheet when the burden on them should be to seek a conviction. The police have to change their mode of investigation and arrest the person only after gathering circumstantial and direct evidence. The police are simply incapable of such investigations. In Sonali Phogat’s case, Inspector General of police (IGP) Omvir Singh is on record saying that the latter was forced to drink an obnoxious substance. This premise sounds hollow simply because it is very difficult to force any liquid into a person’s mouth without consent. The jaw has such strong muscles that it is impossible to pry it open unless the victim is either held captive and being tortured to drink or intoxicated or is a willing partner in the act. Late Sonali was at a social place hence ‘forcing her to drink’ obnoxious substance flies out of the window. She either had knowledge of what she was drinking or had complete trust in the person putting the bottle to her mouth.

NISSER DIAS

Police will have to coin a better phrase than ‘forced to drink’ otherwise they will play into the hands of defence lawyers. Interestingly BJP dictates what citizens should eat, drink or consume, say and wear, and the time when we go out or stay home. However, it seems the executive orders are for the general public and not for the members of the BJP party. Similarly if the ‘bhailo’ chief minister of Goa Pramod Sawant cannot protect the lives of his own BJP party colleague as Home minister, how can he possibly protect us? Resign, Pramod Sawant, resign. You are an utter misfit and a complete failure.

Unsupported school libraries and govt. patronized illegal bars? Is our ‘bhailo’ CM joking? -- By Nisser Dias

Trust it on our imported Chief Minister of Goa to utter cheap solutions to issues plaguing our state. Be it crimes, accidents and even history he has warped and distorted theories which makes him a laughing stock. He then goes and advises us to have libraries at home instead of a bar, when his thoughts are always under influence but need not be under alcohol or substance. After the fateful motor vehicular accident on the Zuari bridge were four individuals travelling in a car lost their lives after toppling into the river, ‘bhailo’ CM said that people should have libraries instead of a bar at home. A year back when young girls were raped on Benaulim beach when they were with their friends, this same man who the Goans are ashamed to call their chief minister said that the parents should not allow their daughters to stay out so late. In 2021 commenting on Goa’s 60th Liberation Day, he blamed then Prime Minister late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for the delay in freeing Goa from Portuguese rule without realizing the entire exercise that went behind Goa’s Liberation. And this man, a non-Goan chief minister of Goa is recommending to have a library at our homes justifying it with his wife maintaining a library at his home. Goans have become so used to the inarticulate brainless chief minister running his motor mouth without giving sufficient time for his brain to process his thoughts has embarrassed Goans nationally. It is not important to have a library at home but what is important is to understand and construe what one reads from the author’s point of view, that of the period or era when it was written and the conditions prevailing then. But given the imported chief minister Pramod Sawant’s perspective, his background, and his convoluted mindset, he reads and interprets through the lens of his ideology thereby distorting all facts and figures. Hence for such a person to advise us to have a library at home is a travesty. Books are written in various forms. It is either fiction or non-fiction, scientific and otherwise, history and doctored history it can go on. What the BJP is interested in is doctored history. They will go to any length to misinterpret history to their point of view in their agenda to indoctrinate the masses. That is the type of library the chief minister wants us to set-up in our homes. Since the non-Goan Pramod Sawant was promoted as Chief Minister of Goa as part of the late Manohar Parrikar’s legacy, the former also holds the Education portfolio. Sawant’s only contribution to school and state libraries has been to continuously reduce budget allocation for libraries. In fact, he has stopped funding school libraries and drastically slashed expenditure on state libraries. In the recently concluded Assembly Session Fatorda MLA Vijay Sardessai called his bluff. While exposing the imported chief minister of Goa, Sardessai said that capital expenditure for libraries was Rs. 2 crores in 2021 but has been reduced to mere Rs. 10 lakhs this year. Former deputy chief minister in Sawant cabinet went on to strip down the chief minister stating that Rs. 50 lakhs were allocated in 2021-2022 to purchase books for school libraries but for 2022-2023 no budget provision has been made. The duplicity and two-facedness of the chief minister of Goa are that while he stops budgetary allocation for libraries in schools, he promotes bars to be run by his party colleagues and workers without proper licenses.

For MLA Venzy Viegas, politics is about ratings and catching eye-balls -- By Nisser Dias

An old saying goes, ‘A frog in the well knows nothing about the ocean’, but the frog is being proved wrong by a man of the ocean as thinks from the confines of a well. It is none other than Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas. In just six months of the 2022 elections, constituents who exercised their franchise in favour of an educated seafarer over the other, have started feeling that they have plunged Benaulim constituency into further depravation. ‘A known devil is better than an unknown angel’ stands true in the thought process of Venzy Viegas. Opposition to Ola and Uber cab services, moving of private members bill in support of cruel, blood-letting ‘dhirio’ (bullfights) is nothing but taking the constituency and Goa to lawless-age. But he has a sinister plan behind all this. He is laying the foundation to be in the political arena for the next five years also. Viegas could not garner much support from a majority of tourist taxi operators and their families during his campaign and elections, now he is pandering to them or rather dangling a lollipop for them to join his camp. Tourist taxi operators have not only been fleecing the tourists, they have been terrorizing other stakeholders in the hotel industry. Even family members are threatened by these goons while picking up their loved ones from the hotels. MLA Viegas who generates his ratings through social media posts should first study Ola and Uber concepts in other states in depth before letting out his verbal diarrhoea. To his knowledge, the general public travelling to the office on two-wheelers in other states of India are registered with the taxi services and earn money from it. So also is the case with the bullfights. Fighting bull owners, enthusiasts of this bloody and gory dhirios (which also includes seafarers) were also sceptic about Venzy and his support for it. To now woo and win them over to his side as future vote-bank, he has moved the bill. In fact Venzy is simply behaving like a ‘bull in a China shop’. It doesn’t seem he has thoroughly studied the matter or the Supreme Court judgment banning gruesome ‘dhirio’ but is in a frenzy to increase his popularity and win the next election. During the summer Benaulim MLA organized a mock cyclone drill. Fishermen were made to pull a canoe as a part of the exercise, which they did, all this, while the gullible television media and social media enthusiasts were recording it. The funny part is fishing vessels and canoes are banned from venturing into the sea during cyclonic days in monsoons. Again, it was for cheap publicity. This very week, Venzy called the disaster management team to inspect inundated and flooding at Khareband. He resorted to petty gimmicks like venturing into the catchment area in a dinghy only to capture eye balls. His predecessor Churchill Alemao always claims that decades back he dived into the same catchment and surfaced with a dead body that the divers could not locate. In that era, there were no mobile phones or social media to capture ex-MLA’s achievement.

The agitation against western bypass passing through the same catchment area had started way back while Viegas was busy canvassing for himself, he never once bothered to study the matter or even lend support. But after being elected he tried to hijack the agitation just for publicity. In May this year, he called for inspection of a canal built for Colva creek. At the time of the inspection, four labourers were physically in the filthy waters removing the plastics bottles. The water in the creek is highly polluted according to Water Resources Department and not fit for humans to wade in it. But Benaulim MLA Viegas did not even have the gumption or the human touch to enquire who engaged them at the risk of their lives. For Venzy Viegas it is all about being in the public eye, blow hot gas for TV cameras and mobile phones to post it on social media. All this exercise to pull wool over the constituents to show that he is serving them so as to get elected again and make politics his career.