The Silly Souls Café and Bar at Assagao in Goa has found itself in the eye of a storm not merely because it is operating under a dubious licence, but because it is allegedly being operated by the family of Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.
The question now is not whether the licence was obtained through fraudulent means -- that appears to be well established if one goes by the documents that have been produced on record so far -- but rather whether the bar and restaurant is indeed being owned and run by the Irani family, and in particular by her daughter.
It is this tenuous link that Irani chose to highlight during her counter-press conference held in Delhi on Saturday after Congress alleged that laws were bent to favour the Irani family owing to her political connections. Crucially in her response via a lawyer, Zoish Irani has claimed that she is a young eighteen-year-old student and a budding chef who has worked in various restaurants to learn culinary arts and sought to distance herself from the Silly Souls Café and Bar.
However, despite Irani’s denials, there is ‘evidence’ to link the Iranis to the Silly Souls Café. Zoish’s father Zubin Irani has in his Instagram profile claimed he is the co-founder of Silly Souls Café. Similarly, in a video by noted food critic Kunal Vijayakar, Zoish Irani is introduced as an entrepreneur and the Silly Souls Café is introduced as “her” venture. Similarly, the Union Minister herself said she was “so proud” of the positive feedback Zoish was receiving for “her” restaurant.
Clearly, there is more than what meets the eye even if “on paper” the Iranis might be able to distance themselves from the bar and restaurant now that it has become the centre of a controversy. Two questions arise -- will the social media evidence of the ownership of the bar and restaurant hold up in court? And secondly, is the issue a problem only because the owners are allegedly the Iranis, and therefore influential? And will the allegation of using that influence to open a licence fraudulently hold up?
Liquor licences in Goa are handed out quite casually -- after a police clearance -- and one doesn’t need a high degree of influence to secure one even if the applicants do not ordinarily qualify for one. There is no suggestion that the Iranis pulled rank to get their way when it came to the liquor licence. What the Congress party has done here is target Smriti Irani which is just as well because this is something the BJP too has been doing and more. Perhaps one can expect to be targeted in public life.
The issue also brought to light the seeming hypocrisy that we have now come to expect from our political class -- they don’t practise what they preach. One set of ideals for the masses and another in their private lives and personal ventures. With regards to any actual action against the restaurant and the actual people who made false representations -- that was never the point of this brouhaha.
