By Dr Olav Albuquerque
INDIA’S 78th Independence Day has come and gone but the Sunburn Festival, which is reputed to be a festival of dance and music, which attracts tourists looking for a good time, will go on forever. That is so long as this festival like others of its ilk contribute to the GDP of Goa and also to the unaccounted money pocketed by some ministers who promote such festivals on the specious reasoning that the youth want it.
Opposition MLAs from Goa objected to the popular electronic dance music festival because the organizers of Sunburn had planned to stage it in south Goa which is comparatively freer of drugs compared to the northern coastal beach belt of Calangute-Anjuna-Morjim and other beaches.
Since its inception 2007 Sunburn has become popular among the tourists of the coastal beach belt of north Goa. For the last several years Sunburn has been happening at Vagator beach.
TWITTER/X POSTINGS
THE organizers of the festival had posted on X (formerly Twitter) which said: “Welcome to the next chapter of Sunburn Festival to be held in Goa. This year, immerse yourself into the ultimate blend of music and a surreal underwater experience in our stunning new south Goa home. Let the currents of music and magic take you on an unforgettable adventure.”
The organizers shared a link for registration on Instagram. But Goa state Tourism department claims that it has yet to receive any proposal for a change in Sunburn’s venue. An official from the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) which is the nodal body founded by the Goa government to handle entertainment policy, confirmed it has received such a proposal.
“This has yet to be examined. A high-powered committee which debates such proposals has already been set up. No decision has been taken so far,” say the organizers.
The Sunburn electronic dance music festival which is scheduled to be held between December 28 and 30 in 2024 in south Goa will attract those who consume and peddle drugs from all over the country. Earlier, Shailesh Shetty, a notorious drug peddler was arrested by the Porvorim police for peddling drugs. He was also arrested for planning the murder of Vilas Methar, who is an RTI activist who submitted several RTI applications to the village panchayat of Salvador do Mundo to expose a builder.
Three persons waylaid him and poured petrol on him to burn him to death. He was alive when taken to hospital but breathed his last when at the time of admission. After investigation, the Porvorim Police arrested Shailesh Shetty, who had allegedly sold his car to those who had burnt Vilas Methar to death on October 15, 2020 at Salvador do Mundo in Goa.
SUNBURN, A PET PROJECT
BE that as it may, Sunburn is seen as the pet project of a former tourism minister close to Shailesh Shetty. “Shailesh Shetty is my friend, was my friend and will be my friend,” this minister, who is the local MLA of Porvorim, was recorded saying when he was questioned by a local reporter.
This minister’s name is also uploaded on Wikipedia as being the “employer of Zenito Crodozo,” a known gangster who launched his career as a politician, recently. Be that as it may, we have to accept that drugs and Goa have become inseparable because it is drugs which sustain a large part of the underground economy along with casinos, where Goans are presumably banned from entering.
Some decades ago the dead body of British teenager Scarlett Keeling was found floating in the shallow waters of Anjuna beach on February 18, 2008. The investigating officer who was called in from the Goa Police submitted a report saying it was an accidental death when in fact, she was overdosed on drugs and raped before being dumped on the beach.
The notoriety of the Goa Police may be seen from the fact that this IO of the Goa Police was first suspended and then re-instated. Two of those who had murdered Scarlett were acquitted by the Children’s Court on hyper technicalities of law. The mother of Scarlett Keeling, Fiona MacKeown was devastated by the macabre killing of her daughter and alleged that the son of a former Goa chief minister was involved in the drug-and-rape case of a young tourist in Goa.
GOAN MEDIA
THE Goan media took a cavalier view of this episode on the ground that the young British teenager was a “gypsy” who used to move from place to place and that her mother should never have allowed her 15-year-old daughter to go off on her own.
Be that as it may, the Goa Police, the corrupt politicians, including ministers and bureaucrats, do absolutely nothing to bring to book those who rape and murder innocent young tourists from abroad or India.
From Morjim, when loud trance music is played late at night, a particular minister was alleged to have phoned the constables of the Goa Police, to instruct them not to register any FIRs or take any action of threats of them being suspended. This is the kind of hold that this minister has on the Goa Police who are under his thumb.
Be that as it may, when crores of rupees roll in, the Goa Police are instructed to look the other way so that drugs may be freely sold at secluded places while the Sunburn EDM festival is on. Perhaps this is what gives Goa a bad reputation now as a tourist spot where women to have fun with are available for the asking, drugs too freely available, and several crore rupees may exchange hands in a casino in a single night.
What more can those who come from north India or from abroad want? They see themselves as James Bonds in the making.
