GOA’S Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte declared that he believes that one of his colleagues is behind a toolkit in social media to defame or discredit Goa’s tourism industry – as Tourism Goa is not providing adequate infrastructure to attract tourists to this beach state. Tourism, mining and agriculture are the three economic pillars of the tiny state of Goa, without which the state would find it difficult to generate funds.
But the Opposition led by the Congress MLA, Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira, alleged Khaunte’s claim is absurd and a ruse to divert attention from the government’s failures. “There is no toolkit but a foolkit,“ claims Alvares.
In the normal turn of events, Khaunte’s claim would have been dismissed as a typical case of trying to pass the buck, by avoiding accountability. And floating a non-existent conspiracy for negative publicity that Goa is creating for its tourism infrastructure and the alleged taxi mafia, which makes foreign tourists fork out big money and prevents them from hiring local persons.
In August 2024, several videos began circulating on WhatsApp groups alleging “scams” in Goa worth hundreds of crore rupees. It appears that the correspondents of the national dailies were approached to file stories about the lack of infrastructure in the tourism sector!
The Goa Police, inefficient and corrupt though they may be, started investigating who was behind this campaign which allegedly tried to target the chief minister. It was alleged that a cabinet minister was the brain behind these shenanigans. Predictably, nothing came of it and these so-called vilification campaigns continued unchecked.

A CONSPIRACY?
SO, is the current campaign a conspiracy at the behest of a sitting cabinet minister to get back at his “rivals” in the cabinet? The well-orchestrated campaign was not ham-handed. Those behind the campaign if indeed there were such people, got together figures showing the rates charged by the private taxi operators.
Rohan Khaunte did not name who the cabinet minister was although it appeared there was an earlier campaign as well. The Goa Tourism department ordered the government’s impanelled influencers to put out positive stories about Goa’s tourism sector and its tourist spots.
As a spin-off, we had the Goa Police launching a crackdown on shacks operating late hours with teams physically visiting shacks and ordering them to down shutters by 11pm and put off lights by midnight. They said this was to avoid violent altercations over ordering food beyond closing hours, a fact which contributed to the murder of a tourist from Andhra Pradesh.
Despite the Goa Police trying to whitewash their image, it is well known that some of the shack owners continue to play loud music beyond closing hours, and after a phone call from a certain minister, the police refused to force these shack owners to stop playing loud music — which was why some naturally aggrieved residents approach the Goa high court.
The Goa Police have been telling couples sitting on the beach past midnight and foreign and domestic tourists, to head home (or back to their hotel). Still, the loud music continues despite protests along some beaches on the coastal belt.

GOA BEACHES OPEN 24 HOURS
WHAT is interesting is that Goa’s beaches do not have official closing times, and as such, there is no one to “monitor” those who hang around on the beach all night till the dawn or morning. This is why and how lack of monitoring exploited rampant prostitution along Calangute and Baga beach stretches with vested interest pushers (some of them criminals) forcing call girls to solicit tourists past midnight.
The lifeguards have fixed hours to watch swimmers and after 6 pm they go off duty. A swimmer who wants to venture for a midnight swim and gets carried away by the currents, will not be able to save himself or herself and nor will anybody come to the rescue.
Compare this with the casinos where lakhs of rupees are splurged on a single roll of a dice. I have come across young boys from Punjab and Delhi who have been enticed to these casinos and decided to “roll the dice” so to speak, with the result that they did not have enough fare even to return to their home.
One such person was from Mumbai who borrowed lakhs of rupees from his neighbours and friends to splurge in the casinos. He ran a taxi business and defaulted in paying his creditors, so he began drinking to avoid them. He got cirrhosis of the liver and died two months back in Bangalore, leaving his creditors high and dry to whistle for their money.
This man, who ran a taxi business in Mumbai and even cheated a Goan girl into marrying him, is now beyond his creditors. If casino operators are allowed to operate without impunity, there is no reason why shack owners cannot be prevented from doing so.
Just wondering about all this happening in the new Goa of today!