A violent altercation in the village
of Mercês between a busload of tourists from Maharashtra and about four
residents of the village caused a stir across Goa.
There were a number of reasons why
this incident garnered the attention it did. First was that the incident
involved the use not merely of brute force, but of weapons including a sword,
chopper and a club. Then there was the scale of the violence. The bus utilized
by the tourists was also set upon by this group resulting in smashed windows
and the like. And finally, as reported by the press, was the fact that it was
not just men who were attacked but women and children as well.
What is interesting is that the site
of the incident was considered a significant detail in the debates within Goa.
As was obvious in discussions on social media, the residents of Mercês and the
surrounding villages are said to be known for their violent behavior and their
“goondaism”. In other words, the location was a confirmation of the guilt of
the accused and the innocence of the tourists. Initial reports suggested that
the four residents attacked the group of tourists over a petty incident. As it
turns out, however, the tourists may not have been particularly innocent given
that CCTV footage
from the restaurant suggest that it was the tourists who began
the altercation.
The focus on the residential
identity of the perpetrators of this crime, and the manner in which the
tourists were presented as innocent, demonstrates the processes of political
injustice in our state. The people of Mercês and surrounding villages, just as
the people of Salcete, are routinely held up as examples of rowdy and violent
political behavior. Echoing the arguments of Vivek Dhareshwar and R. Srivatsan
in their essay on the
‘rowdy-sheeter’, I would like to point out that the identification of the residents of
these areas as rowdy elements is not innocent. Rather, it is deeply rooted in
their caste, class, and religious identity. The residents of these villages
tend to Catholics, not from brahmanised Catholic caste groups, former tenants
of large landlords, and members of the working class. The tension in Goan
politics since at least the ‘80s has been to harness the energy of these groups
and make them serve the agendas of the elites, as in the case of the pro-Nagari
Konkani language movement. The moment they disagree with elite opinions and
seek to assert themselves, they are branded as rowdy.
The systematic and persistent denial
of a voice in the formal institutions of democracy, and by extension a
denigration of the rule of law ensures a rise in violent forms of protest and
vigilante justice. Indeed, the incident in Mercês also assumes significance
because vigilante (in)justice has come to dominate the Indian political scene.
Whether it is lynching persons who are presumed to be transporting cows for
slaughter, or persons who are innocent bystanders, vigilante actions seem to be
a rising trend in the country.
Whether in the case of the incident
in Mercês, or instances across India, vigilante actions can be traced to the
fact that there is in fact a systematic destruction of institutions of law and
order in the country. While the silence of the Prime Minister, and the active
choices that the BJP seems to be making in nominating leaders definitely seems
to have opened the flood gates of unlawful violence, it needs to be emphasized
that the undermining of the institutions of justice delivery has been ongoing
for decades. For example, had there been a firm commitment to the rule of law
in our state, the initial altercation begun by the tourists would have been
reported to the police. The locals would not have been toughs, and nor would
they have taken the law into their own hands. People are encouraged to take the
law into their own hands primarily because they see the organs of the state as
unreliable in resolving violence, or complicit in violence.
My argument is buttressed by the
fact that our Chief Minister has himself pointed to the possibility of a police-goonda
nexus in the
Mercês incident, only underlining the fact that the police are seen as an
ineffective organ of justice delivery.Left unarticulated, however, is that the
intervention of elected representatives in the functioning of the police systemis
another one of the reasons for this perceived ineffectiveness. In addition to
the possible police-goonda nexus, one also has the police-politician
nexus, as
suspected in so many cases, not least that of the rape and murder of Scarlett
Keeling.
But it is not just politicians who
are to blame; as many have remarked Goan society suffers from a profound lack
of morality. Thus, whether politicians are the cause or the effect, the fact is
that Goan society shamelessly indulges in immorality. Take, for example, the
fact that a response of many Goans to the incident was that this incident would
give a “further beating” to “Goa’s reputation as a tourist-friendly State”. If
on the one hand the tourist in Goa is seen as an object to be used for the
generation of money alone; on the other hand, under the guise of ensuring law
and order the tourist is also often used as a way to destroy the guarantee of
legal rights. Take, for instance, the way in which rather than address the
larger issue with regard to public transport in the state, civil society groups
seek to crush the taxi driver unions using the tired argument of the damage to
the tourist trade. One is not concerned about rights, neither of the local, nor
of the tourist. At the end of the day this cynical use of tourism only serves to
further hollow out societal morality.
In various interventions in the
press I have consistently pointed out that rather than being merely one way
through which Goans earn money, tourism has become the raison d’etre of our existence. It is as if we
exist, and Goa exists, merely to service tourists. Rather than addressing the
question of rights, the issue becomes one of the impact on tourism. Even the
issue of beef ban evokes responses that claim that the tourism industry will be
affected. Rarely are the rights of locals to choose their diet, mentioned when
criticizing the ban. The incident in Mercês should concern us not because the
victims in this case were tourists, but because this incident is a
demonstration of a breakdown of law and order, where both state and society
systematically ignore the question of rights and justice, and people believe it
is acceptable to take law into their own hands.
(A version of this post was first published in the O Heraldo on 27 June 2017)
