It's not for nothing that that they say the 'five Ps' -- politician, policeman, preacher (priest), pleader (lawyer) and pressman -- should not be trusted. Here in Goa, we had this police-press-drug peddlars drama playing out over the last week-and-a-half which proves why at least two of the Ps -- policeman and pressman -- cannot be trusted. The two main actors in this drama ironically both Israelis, David alias Dudu and one Atala, have spilled the beans.
It's another story that it's yet to be proved that their beans are real or fake but Atala's story of police-drugs nexus has already claimed the scalp of five policemen who have been promptly suspended by the government. What's disturbing, however, is why's Dudu's story of police-pressmen-drugs nexus not claiming the victims it should. Dudu, who's been painted by our Police (again one of the Ps that cannot be trusted) as 'Alexandre the Great' of Goa Tourism's narcotic underbelly, has told officers interrogating him that he had cops and pressmen as well 'covering' for him for much of the twelve years he's done business in Goa. The police and the government, however, haven't displayed the same enthusiasm to act on Dudu's disclosures as they did with Atala's, who's video-clip on YouTube incidentally is yet to be authenticated beyond reasonable doubt.
Dudu besides naming a Police Inspector-ranked official has also reportedly disclosed that three journalists, including one former editor, played footsie with him. These disclosures have been widely reported in the local media albeit without naming names, perhaps because no sufficiently ranked officer, not even the DGP, is willing to come on record with the names.
Surprise of surprise is that there's no reaction whatsoever from Goa's sole professional media body -- the Goa Union of Journalists on this real life drama. For god's sake, it's put a huge blot on journalists working here in Goa. The damage is done. Let's control it, if it cannot be undone, by identifying the black sheep and weeding them out. The DGP's 'We will act on Dudu's disclosures when the time is right' is no good. The time is right Mr DGP now. And, in the backdrop of the cops-journos clash over the former's visit to a floating casino that went the journos' way, what better opportunity to get back than this?
Man v/s Woman?
Yesterday was International Women's Day and our newsroom was flooded with press releases from this women's organisation and that women's organisation from across the state describing to the minute detail, functions organised by them to commemorate the day. One that caught my eye, and perhaps exemplifies the intra-party squabbles within the Congress party, was the one sent in by the media-saavy GPCC General Secretary, Vijai Sardessai, about a 'Pre-Women's Day' programme organised in Fatorda.
"Only Congress Party will deliver on its promises to the women of the country," began the press note quoting GPCC president Subhash Shirodkar. It also quotes a plethora of other Congress functionaries praising their own tail over women's empowerment and welfare, including how Sonia Gandhi has ensured that two important Constitutional positions in the country -- President and Speaker of Lok Sabha -- are held by women.
Then there's this bit of information in it: "Goa Pradesh Youth Congress vice-president Adv Pratima Coutinho commended Vijai Sardessai for supporting women's causes in Fatorda and urged him to serve the people by initiating development," that betrayed the very purpose of the programme -- to further the political objectives of one Congressman at the cost of another. Because at the function, organised by the Fatorda Women Welfare Association, there was no place for the respectable Congresswoman Monica Dias, who incidentally is also from Fatorda!
As Madam Sonia so often says and more recently the Congress' Crown Prince Rahul said: 'Congress does not need an Opposition to defeat it. The Congress itself defeats the Congress'. How true!
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