FROM Dump Trump to Trump Triumphs! But what has Donald Trump’s victory got to do with tiny Goa? For one thing, we can expect more US tourists after Trump’s triumph. Not that Kamala Harris would have reduced the tourist flow. On the contrary she may have allowed Indians to emigrate to the USA, whereas Trump will not.
The Tamilians are probably licking their wounds after they hoped that their very own Kamala Harris would become the first US woman president, with her roots in Tamil Nadu, to govern the most powerful nation in the world. Kamala managed 273 states but that really does not matter now.
Despite propaganda about Kamala Harris having Tamilian roots, she does not identify herself as an Indian or even an Asian. She identifies herself as a “black woman” which garnered her 92 per cent of the votes of black women, but that was not enough to get her past the winning post. If she had won, it would have been cause for jubilation for India and especially for Tamilians, although she has been asserting that she is a “black woman” because of her Jamaican father.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HEADACHE
WHAT we can hope after Trump’s victory is that the planeloads of illegal immigrants to the US will continue to be disgorged back at Palam airport in Delhi and elsewhere. Each country is worried about first taking care of its own citizens rather than frittering away money on illegal immigrants.
The USA has always been more soft towards India than Canada with Justin Trudeau unrelenting in his hardspeak in blaming India for routing information to criminal gangs like the Lawrence Bishnoi hit squad, which is allegedly bumped off Khalistani hardliner Nijjar. This in turn has provoked a backlash against Hindus visiting temples in Canada.
The USA has fed intelligence to Canada alleging that our men are active in that country as well. This is hard to believe because India is a peace-loving nation which believes in peaceful relations with all foreign countries. But when secessionists want to break up and fragment India as a nation, they have to think twice.
The hippie culture first originated in the USA with James Hadly Chase popularizing it in his thrillers such as “There’s A Hippie On the Highway.” These hippies or flower children as they were known made their way to Goa where they were popularized through the Dev Anand film “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” (of “Dum Maro Dum…” song fame) where Indian tourists are seen smoking a chillum of presumably marijuana or hash to relax. A self-proclaimed Christian with so-called Hindu roots even filed a public interest litigation case in the Bombay high court seeking a ban on the film, with the reasoning that it showed Goa in a bad light.
But leaving all these things aside, several Indians have come forward to allege that a “Goa taxi mafia” is responsible for a decline in foreign tourist traffic. Goa failed to reach pre-Covid safety levels and thus frightened off foreign tourists. The CEIC data report was shared by X user Ramanuj Mukherjee, who wrote: “Tourism in Goa is down in the dumps. Foreign tourists have abandoned the state already. Look at 2019 vs 2023 numbers. Russians and Brits who used to visit annually have opted for Sri Lanka instead.” Indians say taxi mafia and overpriced hotels are reasons why they don’t want to visit Goa anymore.

FOREIGN TOURISTS
ACCORDING to the CEIC, only 1.5 million foreign tourists visited Goa in 2023, compared to 8.5 million in 2019. CEIC, which stands for China Economic Information Center, did say that domestic tourism in Goa rose after the Covid dip, but Mukherjee predicted this too would soon see a decline.
“Indian tourists are still visiting, but are soon likely to ditch it as word spreads about exploitation of tourists, while there are so many cheaper comparable locations abroad,” he wrote on X, where his post has gone viral with over 2 million views.
A number of Indians themselves blamed the “Goa taxi mafia” for the decline in tourism, revealing how they had been threatened and abused by cab drivers for offering rides to foreigners. Overpriced hotels emerged as another pain point.
“Goa is doomed all thanks to the alliance of local taxi mafia and administration,” wrote X user Sagar. Goa’s taxi unions have opposed the entry of popular cab apps like Ola and Uber in the state. When Ola was launched in Goa in 2014, local taxi unions went on strike, forcing the government to ban Ola and Uber.
Foreign tourists say they prefer South East Asian countries instead of Goa. Vietnam and Thailand or Malaysia have zero restrictions which attracts foreign tourists there. It is true that Goa’s economy is fuelled by tourism, agriculture and mining, which gives rise to a lot of evils like prostitution and gambling. The casinos both onshore as well as offshore are products of tourism because foreign or domestic tourists think Goan women are easy and fun loving and ready to jump into bed with them. However, this has attracted women from Nepal and Bangladesh who solicit customers after sunset at beaches like Calangute and Baga.
Donald Trump’s victory may see a rise in foreign tourist traffic if Chief Minister Pramod Sawant emulates his Karnataka counterpart who has invited former US President Barack Obama for a visit to Karnataka to inaugurate Mahatma Gandhi’s Centenary celebration inauguration of a Congress session in 1924 at Belgavi (earlier Belgaum). Let us wait and see.