Old wine in the new year
Here we are again after a week of more of the same, despite it being a brand new year. Even the weather is the same.
So it shouldn't come as any surprise that yet another casino is opening shop in Goa, those politicians who earlier protested against the BJP's U-turns on casinos are silent on the issue and the people of Goa are so numbed by the sheer audacity of it all that nothing fazes them anymore.
Oh and before the BJP attempts to tell you that the casino is getting its permissions because of the high court, let it be known that the court only accepted a statement of the government that a jetty will be allocated to the Maharaja casino and had issued no specific directions.
While all this happens, the parties in power will tell you that shifting them to a special zone on land is a "solution" when there wasn't a problem in the first place.
Clearly, if the BJP hadn't protested casinos when they were in the opposition they wouldn't have been forced to eat their words, but then there wouldn't be any fun in that, now would there?
‘It's just a boat' moment
On the lines of the casino issue, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had yet another of his "It's just a boat" moment earlier this week.
If you don't know what we are talking about, it's Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's defence when he was asked by journalists on each of the two occasions an additional casino vessel entered the River Mandovi during his tenure. "It's only a boat, not a casino! " Parrikar said on more than one occasion invoking a technicality that they were vessels until they secure a casino licence, even though it was no secret why the boats were arriving in the waters.
This week Parrikar used a different version of the same argument when he was confronted over the seeming disparity between his assurances that there will be no question of expansion of coal and the central government's processing of the environmental clearance granted for JSW's capacity expansion at its berths at MPT.
"It is expansion of the berth. We are opposing coal expansion. If they use the berth for some other reason (cargo), I have no problem. But we have an objection to coal expansion," Parrikar said. What Parrikar tried to convey was that he would have no problem if they had the capacity to handle more if they didn't actually handle more or if they handled something else.
What we know for certain is that just as the casino vessels didn't come for fishing, the berth expansion isn't being done to handle Santa's goodies.
Where's my beef?
When we raised the issue of the Goa Meat Complex not conducting any slaughter, we had warned and predictably on account of harassment by so called activists Goa is without beef. Sometimes saying: "I told you so!" just doesn't convey enough.
But the question here is the absolute inability of the police in Goa to stand up to the animal rights activists. If there is an illegality, the procedure must be followed and the procedure definitely isn't pouring phenol on beef. The question obviously is, where is the right to a fair trial or even a hearing offered to the traders? Where is the sampling to prove that the meat is ‘illegal'?
Are the police just mute spectators and allow the NGOs who clearly have a vested and perhaps even communal agenda to be the judge jury and executioner?
The less said about the inability of the opposition to articulate these issues the better.
A clash of ideologies?
There are many curious contradictions about this government, as we and others have pointed out on several occasions.
But here's another. Earlier this week the Goa Forward Party, which is seeking to claim the legacy of the opinion poll and Dr Jack de Sequeira, whether they can rightfully claim it is another matter altogether, which we will perhaps leave for another day.
Nonetheless, the Goa Forward's demand (We also wonder why a party in power should be making demands when they can go ahead and fulfill them. It's not like they are in the opposition) puts it in the collision course with the other coalition partner the MGP whose entire raison d'etre was incompatible with "Goenkarponn".
We're gonna sit back and watch this one pan out, as Goa celebrates opinion poll day. (Although we're pretty sure that, given the uninterrupted run at power the MGP has had, the Dhavalikars are secretly pretty happy that Goa is a separate state).
Can the Goa Forward get a statue of Dr Jack de Sequeira in the assembly complex when the demand by the BJP's own Michael Lobo is yet to be fulfilled? After all the Goa Forward needs to prove that it's claim to Goenkarponn isn't just empty talk. Time will tell.
Here we are again after a week of more of the same, despite it being a brand new year. Even the weather is the same.
So it shouldn't come as any surprise that yet another casino is opening shop in Goa, those politicians who earlier protested against the BJP's U-turns on casinos are silent on the issue and the people of Goa are so numbed by the sheer audacity of it all that nothing fazes them anymore.
Oh and before the BJP attempts to tell you that the casino is getting its permissions because of the high court, let it be known that the court only accepted a statement of the government that a jetty will be allocated to the Maharaja casino and had issued no specific directions.
While all this happens, the parties in power will tell you that shifting them to a special zone on land is a "solution" when there wasn't a problem in the first place.
Clearly, if the BJP hadn't protested casinos when they were in the opposition they wouldn't have been forced to eat their words, but then there wouldn't be any fun in that, now would there?
‘It's just a boat' moment
On the lines of the casino issue, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had yet another of his "It's just a boat" moment earlier this week.
If you don't know what we are talking about, it's Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's defence when he was asked by journalists on each of the two occasions an additional casino vessel entered the River Mandovi during his tenure. "It's only a boat, not a casino! " Parrikar said on more than one occasion invoking a technicality that they were vessels until they secure a casino licence, even though it was no secret why the boats were arriving in the waters.
This week Parrikar used a different version of the same argument when he was confronted over the seeming disparity between his assurances that there will be no question of expansion of coal and the central government's processing of the environmental clearance granted for JSW's capacity expansion at its berths at MPT.
"It is expansion of the berth. We are opposing coal expansion. If they use the berth for some other reason (cargo), I have no problem. But we have an objection to coal expansion," Parrikar said. What Parrikar tried to convey was that he would have no problem if they had the capacity to handle more if they didn't actually handle more or if they handled something else.
What we know for certain is that just as the casino vessels didn't come for fishing, the berth expansion isn't being done to handle Santa's goodies.
Where's my beef?
When we raised the issue of the Goa Meat Complex not conducting any slaughter, we had warned and predictably on account of harassment by so called activists Goa is without beef. Sometimes saying: "I told you so!" just doesn't convey enough.
But the question here is the absolute inability of the police in Goa to stand up to the animal rights activists. If there is an illegality, the procedure must be followed and the procedure definitely isn't pouring phenol on beef. The question obviously is, where is the right to a fair trial or even a hearing offered to the traders? Where is the sampling to prove that the meat is ‘illegal'?
Are the police just mute spectators and allow the NGOs who clearly have a vested and perhaps even communal agenda to be the judge jury and executioner?
The less said about the inability of the opposition to articulate these issues the better.
A clash of ideologies?
There are many curious contradictions about this government, as we and others have pointed out on several occasions.
But here's another. Earlier this week the Goa Forward Party, which is seeking to claim the legacy of the opinion poll and Dr Jack de Sequeira, whether they can rightfully claim it is another matter altogether, which we will perhaps leave for another day.
Nonetheless, the Goa Forward's demand (We also wonder why a party in power should be making demands when they can go ahead and fulfill them. It's not like they are in the opposition) puts it in the collision course with the other coalition partner the MGP whose entire raison d'etre was incompatible with "Goenkarponn".
We're gonna sit back and watch this one pan out, as Goa celebrates opinion poll day. (Although we're pretty sure that, given the uninterrupted run at power the MGP has had, the Dhavalikars are secretly pretty happy that Goa is a separate state).
Can the Goa Forward get a statue of Dr Jack de Sequeira in the assembly complex when the demand by the BJP's own Michael Lobo is yet to be fulfilled? After all the Goa Forward needs to prove that it's claim to Goenkarponn isn't just empty talk. Time will tell.
