IFFI: In conflict with ‘conflict of interest’

Yet another edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the fortieth overall and the sixth in Goa is on, this time with the red-carpet in full flow, yet the head-honchos and honchos at the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) just don’t seem to learn.

Everyone and sundry in the ESG are in complete conflict with ‘conflict of interest’. The head-honcho of the controversial hotel that’s won the hospitality contract is also a head-honcho at the ESG! Ditto with the eternal King Momo of Goan Carnival -- Francisco Martins -- who, in the last few years lost his monopoly over the state’s R-day tableau, but seems to be slowly and surely, building a monopoly over IFFI.

Less spoken the better of the smaller honchos at ESG like the self-proclaimed father of Goan Cinema, Rajendra Talak, and his associates, who as members of the Red Carpet Committee believe they own the Red Carpet. While anybody who is somebody is getting to walk the red carpet, these bunch of self-seekers managed to ensure that Goa’s ‘Man Beyond the Bridge’ stayed just there... beyond the bridge.

Laxmikant Shetgaonkar earned us laurels not just beyond the bridge but beyond a hundred bridges, rivers and seas... in far away Canada. Yet this home-bred lad, these honchos thought should be dealt a raw deal. But, all this back-biting has a reason. Not very long ago, at the Maquinez Palace itself, the maker of ‘Poltodcho Munis’ had the courage to stand up and tell Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat, that the ESG, packed as it is with self-seeking businessmen out to corner the loaves and fishes, the film culture won’t progress very far. Bravo indeed, but the businessmen in ESG don’t think so. Why should these businessmen show any courtesy to the award-winning film-maker? Why all this brouhaha in the media over Shetgaonkar’s Red Carpet fiasco?

Diggu rocks... now with fans!

Goa’s CM rocks again. Digambar Kamat seems to have taken IFFI this year both in letter and spirit. At the Ravindra Bhavan bliztkrieg on Day Two of the festival, he sang a line on stage and even did the jig. And Asha too joined him and broke into dance. Days after this, there was this huge political show, to celebrate his 10 years as minister in Margao, unfortunately on a day when the rest of the nation was sombrely remembering 26/11, its heroes, victims and all. But all said and done, the state’s first couple did rock at Ravindra Bhavan, and now Diggu also has an official ‘Fan Club’, whatever that means. On the political stage, however, Diggu seems to be ploughing a lone furrow at the IFFI. Except for Water Resources Minister, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, who also happens to be the vice-chairman of ESG, and Quepem MLA, Babu Kavlekar, whom he’s put in charge of the Red Carpet, not many politicos from the ruling side have kept him company at the film fest. Even Speaker Pratapsing Rane, who heads the Kala Academy where most of the action takes place and who’s towering presence was always felt at past IFFIs, has been pretty conspicuous by his absence!

Shacked

This can happen only in Goa!

Certain events, savoury and unsavoury, that have unfolded in the bitter factional feud among ‘shack owners’ (sic) has proved the impossible true. For instance, that the distance from Delhi is shorter than from Altinho for the tourism department at Patto. Now, that two factions of self-proclaimed ‘shack owners’ are engaged in a bitter battle over the government’s shack policy, is common knowledge. What’s not, however, are the many little sub-plots within the larger battle. For instance, one that reduced the distance between Delhi and Patto-Panjim to less than that between Altinho and Patto-Panjim.

It so happened that one of the factions, The Goa Traditional Shack Owners Association (TGTSOA), which is reportedly backed by PWD Minister, Churchill Alemao, approached the Bombay High Court at Goa. It accused the Tourism Department of hanky-panky in allotment of shacks this year. The court after hearing all the parties, including the state’s Advocate General on behalf of the tourism department, struck down the process and directed that shacks be allotted purely by lots, with 90 per-cent of the quota reserved for ‘experienced’ shack owners and the balance 10 per-cents for new-comers in the business.

But the tourism department did not implement this order of the Bombay High Court for almost five days, ostensibly because its director, Swapnil Naik, did not get a copy of the order. But in these five days that the Tourism director did not get the copy of the order, the other faction Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS), which is reportedly backed by Churchill’s new-found buddy, Tourism Minister, Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco, was busy in Delhi searching for the ‘best lawyer’ to secure a stay on this order from the Supreme Court of India. Finally, the Supreme Court granted SOWS the stay. But astonishingly, the order of the Supreme Court granting the stay on the order of the Bombay High Court at Goa, reached the desk of the Tourism Director in flat six hours!

So now, shack business has to stay up until December 4, when the Supreme Court will hear the petition filed by SOWS next.

Quite a slip between the cup and the lip!

FOOTNOTE: Inspite of the shack owning on the many Goan beaches for decades, I have been unable to come to terms with the term ‘shack owners’. If the so called ‘shack owners’ are indeed owners, what is it that these shack owners own, now that the tourism department is caught between the courts and hasn’t allotted any shacks on the beach? Thin air?