Comment

This is the best of times to be in Goa, and the worst. The weather is at its most beguiling, the mood is celebratory and the streets are drunk with light. The world of terrorists and rapists and murderers, is as far away as possible; the only anxiety is centred around ‘Did you get an invitation for Vijay Mallya’s party?’ It is, in other words, the place to be during the Christmas-New Year’s eve week, where you live in a make-believe world with its own reality. Until real Reality intrudes, when for Goa it is the worst of times.

These best of times and worst of times coincide, because Goa’s busiest week, the week when the cash registers play jingle bells all the way, is also the week when there are so many people that the place simply breaks down. The lights go off, the generators come on, there’s more water in your whisky glass than in your bathroom tap. The traffic stops long enough for you to go the nearest bar for a drink or two.Yes, Goa has been truly integrated into India.

Ask around for a reason why and you will hear of Mr. Fifteen Percent. This gentleman is a politician, his identity known to everyone since his monetary demands to regularise/condone/get permission for illegal buildings are made openly. He is said to have made hundreds of crores, the bounty, no doubt shared with officials and other politicians. The results of this Open Palm policy are there for us to see: beaches swarming with stalls selling all manner of things, buildings squatting right by main roads.

This means that Goa’s main selling points of pristine beaches and uncrowded streets are in danger. But who cares? Not the men lining their pockets.

Their partners in loot have already ruined Ulhasnagar, Delhi, Mumbai and any other city in the country you care to name. The recent events in Ulhasnagar and Delhi show how difficult it is to reverse the damage, even when the judiciary steps in. Contemplate, if you want to be thoroughly depressed, a future when Mumbai and Delhi rise in the UN’s Most Populated Cities of the World chart by 2015. Mumbai will then move up from its present fifth position to third and Delhi from ninth to fifth. Imagine if you can that in 10 years time, Mumbai will have 22.6 million people and Delhi 20.9 million.

It’s not even funny to suggest that these figures will be underestimations because both cities will have come to such a standstill that the only thing people will be able to do is stay home and procreate.

Faced with a crisis of a magnitude they cannot comprehend, politicians have come up with their own unique solution: to invent catchy phrases which (they hope) if repeated over and over again, will give the illusion of mission accomplished. That’s why you now constantly hear of Mumbai Makeover. But we know words aren’t magic (otherwise all writers would be millionaires); so governments will end up doing nothing. We also know that the Misters Fifteen Percent who have got us into this mess, aren’t going to get us out of it.Who will?

The judiciary, for one. However overburdened it is, India’s legal system remains the one hope for redressal of past wrongs and prevention of future illegalities. Appeals to it will have to be pre-emptive rather than post-facto to be effective which means that citizens’ groups will have to be vigilant at all times. The second line of defence (or is it more appropriate to say attack?) is the media.

Much has been written, and said about recent sting operations. The latest offering is from the latest Information and Broadcasting minister. Priya Ranjan Munshi’s new year’s wish is simple: let 2006, he said, be a sting-free year. We should, in fact, wish for the exact opposite: a sting-full year.

The ethics of sting operations are often ambiguous. Quite often they intrude into rather muddied waters. But given the Enemy, who is all-pervasive and completely unethical, moral squeamishness has to be jettisoned. Incidentally, sting operations, for all their sensational disclosures, do not always work: the bribes-for-questions scandal is the one exception. On the other hand, what did the Tehelka expose achieve?

Defence minister George Fernandes and most army personnel remained unscathed ( in fact, the NDA government persecuted, and ruined Tehelka!) But sting operations, if they become widespread, will have one desirable effect: the corrupt will be less open in their corruption.

It’s foolish to have any illusions that corruption will disappear. You can only hope that the roadblocks that are put up on Corruption Road will slow down its traffic. That will buy a little more time for Delhi, a little more time for Mumbai, a little more time for Goa.

Happy New Year.