Goa is one of my favorite destinations in India. It is one of the rare places in India where you can just BE, if you know what I mean. There is a sense of freedom in Goa that I am yet to experience anywhere else in India, except maybe in Bombay.
But the recent cases of rape & murder have sullied Goa's idyllic reputation, revealing the sordid politics and drug dealing that seem to chase all good things in India. This recent article in the press makes me ashamed of Goa and of my country.
The mother of the German minor, who was allegedly raped by Goa Education Minister Atanasio Monserratte's son Rohit, has withdrawn the charges against him. The German woman has written a letter to police, saying 'the whole system has failed her'.
On November 5, Rohit was remanded to three days police custody by a Goa court in connection with the rape case. Rohit had surrendered before the Goa police. He was booked by Goa police on October 14 for allegedly raping the German girl and had gone missing after that.He appeared before the police on November 1 to give his statement, a few hours before the 14-year-old German girl deposed before a magistrate after initial reluctance.
Too many of us exult over India's GDP growth and the growing number of Indians in the world's richest list. We live in the dangerous delusion that India is finally being recognized as a developed country. I find this ridiculous, for true development is indicated by how well a country's policies & systems treat its 'less advantaged' citizens -the poor & marginalized, women and children, amongst others. And if people, both from within and outside the country, repeatedly experience systemic failure, we should abandon all pretense of democratic development. Hell, this is not even civilized behavior, forget about development.
2 comments:
this is absolutely true. First, there were fingers raised on hippy lifestyle of Scarlett's mother but how do same people explain goa police's behavior in this case. Something similar happend in the case when son of Orrisa's DGP was charged with rape in Rajasthan.
So I feel it's just not Goa. Goa had long history of Russian druglord and land mafias. We indians are nowhere safe. We have become callous to the fact that it's state's responsibility to protect us. Our indifference and callousness is seen as 'brave' spirit by media which I am sure is gonna be headline a week from now, when Mumbai attack's fade from memory.
yep, that's the scary part - our memories are too short, and the political system is frozen in ennui.
but we cannot leave everything to the government too. so what difference can educated ppl like us make (apart from talking abt it :-))
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