WTF (WHAT THE FIRE) By Dr Oscar Rebello

😎 Fire breaks out at a completely illegal night club, Birch by Romeo Lane, consuming 25 innocents.

😎The shock and awe across Goa is palpable.

Every Goan worth his salt is fulminating on social media. Using cuss words against Sawant and Co. Pvt. Ltd. And demanding that heads roll.

This rage will be expected to last until the next outrage.

😎 If the unfortunate staff caught in the blaze happen to be poor, helpless Nepalis, Oriyas or Bhaile, the outrage will dim even faster.

😎Everytime our valiant bravehearts, Claude and Rohit Bras and Swapnesh and Rajendra Kerkar and Tahir and Sabina, and all the activists who, day in and day out, flag these violations and try to stop them, the political gangsters and their flunkies, as well as a large section of the Goan people, and importantly the media, dismiss them as anti-nationals, anti-development, kill-joys, flintskins, whining crackpots, until disasters like this prove them right.

😎Our venerable media will now gleefully dissect and debate, hand-wring and moan, and accuse and attack the wrong.

There will decibel-shattering anger in all TV studios: so much so that the very smoke emanating from the participants’ noses could trigger yet another fire out there.

But no media house will demand a single politician’s resignation by name, and make it a consistent, daily

drumbeat demand.

Because when you weigh 25 deaths against crores of government ad revenue, well WTF? Right?

😎Sure, candle-light vigils and opposition-led morchas will ensue, and grand sermons and grand columns like this one will float, like toxic smog, all over Goa for the next few days. 

😎 A few wretched club managers, who have nothing to do with the flagrant violations of permitting this sacrilege to operate, will conveniently be thrown under the bus.

The head honchos, with all their political connections, will down another shot of Glenfiddich, bluff their way through the Law, and probably fly off to Mount Etna to sit on the dormant volcano, as they wait for the heat and dust to die down. 

😎 The enterprising guys in the government bureaucracy will be working their cerebral cortex full throttle on how to make money off this tragedy.

After all, many of the “culprits” will want cases watered down against them. And that will cost a hefty buck, no?

😎 All of the above may or may not happen, my dear honest, thoughtful, loving, and morally upright Goans. 

But there is one full-fledged guarantee I can give you:  

Come Dec 22, the BJP will sweep the Zilla Panchayat polls.

Stay blessed and peace be with you this season. 

Whatever the outcome, we are only a month away from a Happy New Year!!

*OSCAR REBELLO, GOA*