Is the fish ban only about the health of Goans? Wow! It took Health Minister Vishwajit Rane a good four months to realise that the health of lakhs of fish-eating Goans is at risk and cannot be compromised. And in a fit of rage he announced a ban on all imports of fish. Sounds weird, isn’t it? But that’s the way ‘fishy’ politics is playing out.
As a matter of fact, it took one jibe from Maulana Ibrahim, the president of Wholesale Fish Market Association to trigger heated exchanges and thud came a six-month ban. Imagine the power of one-upmanship and revengeful politics where everything else failed. Where thousands of Goan cries for ban fell on deaf ears and where even the lone formalin-positive test proved futile.
Is this the way government takes decisions? How can a minister unilaterally ban imports of fish on the premise of setting systems, without even factoring in its impact on livelihoods of thousands of Goans? Does the government have any data on the number of Goans who make a living on the fish trade? What about its impact on a fragile tourism sector? Agreed that the government is not duty bound to take instructions from any association, but stakeholders cannot be ignored over such an impactful decision.
There cannot be unilateral ban without factoring in the ground realities otherwise the fish story too will go the mining way. Remember the time when mining was banned in the guise of cleansing the system without estimating the impact it would have on the lakhs of dependents. That’s a story for another day.
Putting up measures to test fish is a right move, but abruptly throwing a huge section of stakeholders out of business is a serious cause for concern. The FDA team has failed miserably to establish that imported fish is indeed contaminated and the ban doesn’t have any logic. Moreover, fish imported from border areas like Malvan and Karwar, which are a few kilometers away, doesn’t require chemical treatment.
This ban, to any Goan, is basically a Vishwajit versus Ibrahim duel. Did the government realise 30 years later that Ibrahim was an outsider? And where’s the connection of being an outsider and formalin in fish? If Ibrahim’s is involved in wrong-doing and if traders are to be treated as criminals, why has the government not booked an FIR against Ibrahim? We are in no way giving anyone a clean chit, but actions should be backed by substance. The politics behind the import ban is as clear as daylight.
Vishwajit announces that his decision is in conformity with Fatorda MLA and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai, but the health minister who is known to credit Manohar Parrikar for any government initiatives hasn’t spoken a word about CM’s nod. And the fisheries minister is yet to open his mouth. Are we to believe that the administration is being a silent spectator here?
