DR. LUIS DIAS
Amid all the defeatism in Goa that the casino industry is “too big to fight”, that it is a “necessary evil,” and other pessimistic mindsets, it was a huge boost to the morale when the Bombay High Court ruled against gaming company behemoth Delta Corp Limited and in favour of the Union Territory (UT) administration of Daman and Diu last month.
A big salute to the UT administration of Daman and Diu for refusing to grant a license to Delta Corp Ltd for installing electronic amusement/slot machines at its five-star property, The Deltin. This is in stark contrast to the craven attitude of successive governments in Goa bending over backwards spinelessly to accede to every ludicrous demand of the casino industry here, without any consideration of the ecological, social, public health, and moral consequences to our tiny state.
I quote from the court proceedings: “The UT administration was not in favour of coming into force of the 1992 Goa Amendment Act as extended to UT of Daman and Diu as insertion of Section 13A in the Original Act would permit licensing of games of electronic amusement/slot machines (i.e. Casinos) in the five star hotel in the verdant UT of Daman and Diu and that the Administration was of the opinion that the Union Territory was a place blessed with nature and its culture would be irreparably damaged even if a single casino came into operation.”
Daman is literally Goa’s “little sibling”, a mere 72 square kilometres in area compared to our 3,702. Goa’s “honeymoon gone wrong” with the casino industry has become a cautionary tale, “a canary in the mine” for every other place the casino carpetbaggers try to sweet-talk their way into.
The Court noted: “The decision taken by the UT Administration not to grant license is a policy decision taken after consultation with all the stakeholders, Members of the Parliament and the local representatives.”
If only a similar brand of participatory democracy and governance had held sway in Goa, and in particular in Panaji, the casino menace might well have been prevented from gaining even its initial toehold all those sorry decades ago.
Panjimites should demand participatory governance in the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP). Our villages at the minimum have gram sabha meetings. We should insist that Panaji’s councillors make the city’s residents privy to all decisions that ultimately affect our own
well-being and health.
We have seen how Anjuna residents last month, during a gram sabha, officially resolved to oppose any casino in their village.
Coming back to the Court ruling in this case (Delta Corp and others, Petitioners vs the UT of Daman and Diu, through the Department of Tourism and others, Respondents): “It was within the domain of the Legislature and the Administrator to consider what is the policy that serves the best interest of the people in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu. It was their policy decision and in this case, the Court cannot interfere in the policy decision.”
“It was not in the best interest of the people in that locality to have the slot machines / electronic amusements used in a five-star hotel in the UT of Daman and Diu. Since the policy is issued in the public interest, writ of mandamus [Latin for “we command”, a judicial court order commanding a public official, government entity, or lower court to perform a specific, mandatory public duty they have neglected or refused to do] based on the doctrine of promissory estoppel [a legal doctrine allowing a promise to be enforced even without a formal contract, provided the promise reasonably relied on it to their detriment] or legitimate expectation [a public law doctrine ensuring fairness when government bodies break promises or change established practices, even if no formal legal contract exists] cannot be passed.”
Daman has nipped the casino menace in the bud. However, I am in no doubt that the casino juggernaut will attempt to storm their tiny citadel again. I pray Daman will continue to fend them off just as valiantly.
From the Goa experience, we see how it spreads like a cancer. The meaning of “offshore” is distorted to suit its convenience to cause a nuisance in the River Mandovi. One such vessel multiplies into six. A smaller vessel of a capacity of just 70 is sought to be “replaced” by a monster vessel of 2000-capacity, a number exceeding all the existing “offshore” vessels put together, all with no thought or consideration to the devastating damage to the fragile ecological balance of the river, and the livelihoods of the fishing and clam-gathering communities on its riverbanks, or to the social fabric or to public health.
The 2000-capacity vessel should never have been allowed into Goan waters. It should have been sent back where it came from. At the risk of mixing metaphors, it is now a Trojan horse, a ticking time-bomb. It should never ever be granted a casino license. We expect the sort of backbone from our government that the Union Territory administration of Daman and Diu has so bravely shown.
Why can’t Goa prioritise our own nature and culture that we have been blessed with so much more abundantly, and rid ourselves of the casino menace once and for all? Daman has seen what havoc casinos have wrought in Goa and sensibly, admirably, slammed the door on them. We should learn from Daman and banish casinos from Goa.
With all the focus on “offshore” casinos in Goa, the floating dens of sin, we should not let our attention be distracted from their land-based partners in crime. With more and more public land being “acquired” by the casino industry with the tacit connivance of our corrupt government and bureaucracy, and large swathes of private land being bought by casinos as well, there will soon be very little of heritage or aesthetic value, first in Panaji, and very soon in much of the rest of Goa.
This obsession with crass commercialism, capitalism and ‘profiting’ from every endeavour in the monetary sense of the word is
tragically myopic.
Don’t Panaji residents whose taxes for decades pay the salaries of those who decide the fates of the capital city’s beautiful heritage buildings (and that many of our families have intergenerational affiliations with – four generations of my family for example walked the corridors of the Escola Médica) have the right as citizens to have those buildings repurposed for our own needs, instead of being cravenly being forked over the greedy, never-satisfied casino lobby?
I am reminded of this quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
What we Panjimites get instead is ear-splitting noise instead of music or poetry, and retina-searing, blinding flashing neon lights (which could induce an epileptic fit in those predisposed) from the casino lobby particularly on our once-beautiful Mandovi riverfront. A far cry, as remote as possible, from any “sense of the beautiful.” Or any sense at all.
