The Campaign Against Goa

The Hypocrisy Of An Economically Illiterate People

Suddenly a sinister campaign has been launched against a beautiful, mesmerising, tourist destination of Bharat: Goa. The attacks take off from the tales of extortionist taxi drivers and then move to high hotel tariffs, poor hospitality services, etc.

Many claims have a grain of truth, but still neither tell the whole story, nor do the justice to Goa. Most stem from the failure of Indians to observe the world around them. Also, the Indian fondness for the cheap, if not outright free, has a role to play.

First the taxi unions. Yes, they exist. Yes, they fleece.

But in which part of India unions do not exist? Taxi unions, bus unions, truck unions, auto unions, labour unions…… All fleece, all use threat of violence or outright violence to get payments which the market won’t otherwise pay. There are truck unions which block development of Railways even in mining areas for the fear that the goods traffic will move to trains which are cheaper and faster. This creates inefficiency in the system and renders Indian industry uncompetitive on the world stage. Bus unions use coercion and bribes to kill state roadways corporations and then fleece the passengers. Taxi unions do not allow new, more efficient, service providers; and using strike force higher fares on the users.

Labour unions make sure that India doesn’t industrialise. They do not work and do not allow others to work. You can not fire unproductive union members in India.

And all these unions are either fronts for the politicians or are patronised by them. You have no recourse against these unions.

As for hotels, till 1990s, Goa hotels were the cheapest in India, and very clean, with great services. Then as India prospered, more and more tourists flocked to Goa, but Indian regulatory state made sure that hotel room supply doesn’t rise with the demand. Hotel business is so badly regulated in India that only politicians own most of the hotels. Nobody else can cut through the labyrinth of the rules and regulations.

And with the rising crowds of the tourists came all the bad habits that we have: littering, messing up the things around, insulting our fellow human beings, etc.

There is one more angle. The instagram generation goes to tourist places not to enjoy the vacations, but to click photos and post them on the social media to impress the friends and relatives. They have done Goa and most other tourist places in India and now need places in foreign countries to click some more photos. So, Goa has to be trashed.

Fact is, entire India has an economy that is controlled by the gangsters. Everywhere, all over India. The gangsters are in charge of the various unions. Indian State is also just another gangster on the scene and uses regulations to control economy and fleece the industrious. Singling out Goa, just another manifestation of a gangster-controlled economy, is unjust.

The gangster economy has come into existence and survives because of our unconscionable indifference to the world around us. Daily we deal with this gangster controlled economy and do nothing about it. We instead vote for the politicians who created and benefit from this gangster economy and protect it. Socialism enabled the politicians to criminalise Indian economy but we want more socialism.

Because we Indians are economic illiterates and refuse to study economics. That is why we are so poor and live in an economy controlled by the extortionists, both private and sarkari.