Chaos ensued at the Anjuna gram sabha held on Sunday after villagers, who have been protesting against noise pollution led by Dr Inacio Fernandes, were assaulted after he attempted to move a resolution against loud parties and noise pollution that the village has been facing not just over the last few years but for more than a decade at least.
The assault was primarily done by a person with strong political affiliations besides being a former member of the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha. But more importantly, the assault was not just a case of emotions boiling over as can happen during a village gram sabha especially in a sensitive village like Anjuna but appears to be a planned assault orchestrated by the restaurant and party venue groupings who have decided to attempt to divide or silence the villagers protesting against the loud music.
For starters the police need to stop pretending that this is a case of both sides being at fault given the complaints and counter-complaints, but act on the basis of what actually happened, in the full view of the rolling cameras. The police cannot be taking sides or even seen to be taking a side to the detriment of the villagers, irrespective of the political or numerical superiority of the business owners and their ancillary units. None of this is new.
For more than a few decades, venues like Curlies’, Shiva Valley, UV Bar, Janet and John, Lilliput, etc earned notoriety for late night parties and ‘raves’ that were tolerated by the people of Anjuna back then because it was only for a few days in the year that these parties would go late into the night. Since then, the businesses got used to having their way and despite sporadic protests the parties would resume after the kerfuffle died down.
This time, however, with the High Court seized of the matter, and the Goa State Pollution Control Board shutting down restaurants that do not install real-time noise monitoring equipment on the premises and the people of Anjuna coming together to register complaints on the police helpline against the violating restaurants, the activism has begun to bite. While one understands the concerns of the local businesses, choosing to react with violence will earn them few sympathisers. That they did so in full police presence only points to the kind of political patronage they enjoy.
At the centre of it is a clash of conflicting interests. The people of Anjuna, residents of the village, want peace and quiet. The business owners want to make money -- even if doing so means stretching the law in more ways than one. There appears to be very little middle ground for the two to meet on. It has been an age-old problem ever since sound restrictions have been put in place and the issue has been debated at length including in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
The establishments that manage to continue with music well into the night without any complaints have done so via negotiating with their neighbours and those who live in the vicinity. In Anjuna that’s scarcely possible given the number of party places as well as the number of residents. At the same time they cannot be allowed to wilfully violate the law in the name of tourism or livelihood. If there is a law, it needs to be followed.
Violence may threaten to subdue a growing people’s movement but it will not change the law or bring relief either to the business establishments or the people of Anjuna -- it will only serve to alienate the people of Goa in their own state.
