Over the past few years, Goa has been witnessing a rising crime graph with many offences involving migrants, tourists or labourers as culprits. Non-submission of verification forms to the police by landlords, contractors and hotel owners makes things doubly difficult for the police to trace criminals. Looking at the dangerous times we live in, it is imperative that house owners carry out due diligence before keeping tenants in their properties and submit verification forms to the police establishment having jurisdiction over their areas. This not only enhances security but also helps in solving heinous crimes. Goa being a tourist state there is every possibility that antisocial elements, habitual offenders and absconders would seek shelter here most often by disguising their true identity. Ours being a maritime state, there is also an acute threat of terrorists coming in by using the sea route and taking shelter in rental places in coastal villages. The law-enforcing resources of our tiny state are already stretched at the seams, so we can do our little bit towards easing matters by remaining cautious about strangers or new people in our vicinity.
Vilifying the judiciary
Pent up frustration over judges being systematically targeted for their judgements especially the ones which go contrary to the ruling dispensation’s position boiled over, with the CJI remarking that even the governments have joined others in maligning judges. Judiciary bashing seems to have become the favourite pastime of activists, liberals and a vast spectrum of aggrieved society but the most inimical observations come from the sarkar which goes hammer and tongs in case of adverse comments or orders. The counsels and the solicitor general representing the government are borderline insolent and exercise the least deference to the highest court in the land and its judges when arguing cases. As with all organs of the governing apparatus like the executive and the legislature, the judiciary has also been acutely undermined, dismantled and I dare say demolished; it has now been reduced to being a cheerleader of the saffron sarkar for the most part (remember a recent HC judge’s order, “statements made with a smile do not constitute criminal intent”). We have been witness to judges who are not on the same page with the government meeting a gory end on morning walks. An independent judiciary which was the last remaining bastion of our emasculated democracy has been neutered and consigned to the dustbin of history by a barrage of constant vociferous, malafide criticism and mafia measures by the sarkar, cry my beloved country.
