For your amusement I give you the most popular Indian dance, the corruption dance. Based on numerous reports Gokarna feels at times to be in the midst of a corrupt police feeding frenzy. I give you a composite summary of these tales, with as much accuracy as a non-practising engineer can muster.
Cannabis is illegal in India, legal in India for religious uses, legal and sold by the government when called bhang, grows wild in India, and is of course strictly illegal. Generally speaking it's a crime for most people to possess, and you very much do not want to go to court. I have heard that you can expect 6 months imprisonment and a large fine. The police know this, the tourists know this, many tourists smoke charas (indian hash), many police are corrupt. Does this sound like a recipe for extortion?
Those elements of the society most prone to corrupt behaviour, known as the police force, have learned when tourists who are likely to be carrying drugs arrive into Gokarna and lie in wait. The rickshaws from the Goa train and the tourist bus are then intercepted, and the occupants searched. When some drugs are found, or a mime of finding some drugs is performed in the case of Israeli passport holders who will afterwards tell you they know it wasn't real because the drugs were in the other pocket, the extortion begins. The typical story is of an initial demand of Rs25,000 or Rs50,000, which is a vast sum of money. This is probably at least 2 months wages for any police officer, and 5 months wages for most Indians! Thankfully this is normally negotiated down to the much lower level of all the cash that the tourist is carrying. The distribution of sums I have heard of is Rs1000, Rs8000, Rs9000, Rs10000x3, Rs16,000. This is still a considerable sum of money (around 100 GBP).
The sites of searching and extortion are as you might imagine out of view of too many people who might know better. Even if the search is somewhere semi-public the negotiations are often described as slightly removed. The rickshaws are stopped between the station and town, and the tourist connecting bus from Ankola also at a convenient checkpoint. There have also been many reports of police, often non-uniformed except for the distinctive moustache, lurking in the forest paths between the beaches or sitting openly on Paradise beach. They have even ventured into the guest houses on Om Beach, a curiously public approach, where they sit in wait for a tourist who rolls a suspicious smoke. The smokers have already revealed themselves, but in other cases men and bags are searched carefully. Note that as to women, accusations of sexual harassment is something that even corrupt police don't want to touch with a barge-pole following India's sudden national recognition that this problem exists and has existed for a long time.
For me, I'm torn. The drugs are illegal, and these are the laws set by a democratic government of the country. Even if the policy on cannabis makes very little sense, it is as it is and the reason these police have not been challenged is that they stick to people who are breaking the law. On the other hand, this form of revenue collection is illegal and detrimental to tourism (a number of tourists feeling that the searches are a rather fascist action). While no tourist fancies time in jail it's not going to change fast.
Of course for a long time the alternative revenue collection force of India, with their fine bamboo canes, have had their finger in another Indian pie. Many of the businesses on the beach sell alcohol without a license, as the licensing laws of India are highly restrictive (places which sell alcohol are by law required to have a minimum level of seedy atmosphere). Not that I suggest otherwise, Goa has more liberal licensing and I can't say that the results are entirely pleasant. This is a problem for tourism in India, tourists want to drink, but the restaurants can't legally sell them beer.
The Engineer in India has the following thoughts, the corruption is facilitated by strict regulation and laws. Tourism is important to India, it's the third largest export, if you accept the arbitrary categories used by the source I used to research this, behind petroleum products and gems and minerals. While it shouldn't be a case of changing the customs of the country, small changes affecting foreigners remove some of the opportunities for corruption. For example, permitting the sale of beer to foreign passport holders (as in Gujurat), and replacing the custodial penalty for possession of charas with a fine and deportation.
But I can't see things changing too quickly. Corruption.
Cannabis is illegal in India, legal in India for religious uses, legal and sold by the government when called bhang, grows wild in India, and is of course strictly illegal. Generally speaking it's a crime for most people to possess, and you very much do not want to go to court. I have heard that you can expect 6 months imprisonment and a large fine. The police know this, the tourists know this, many tourists smoke charas (indian hash), many police are corrupt. Does this sound like a recipe for extortion?
Those elements of the society most prone to corrupt behaviour, known as the police force, have learned when tourists who are likely to be carrying drugs arrive into Gokarna and lie in wait. The rickshaws from the Goa train and the tourist bus are then intercepted, and the occupants searched. When some drugs are found, or a mime of finding some drugs is performed in the case of Israeli passport holders who will afterwards tell you they know it wasn't real because the drugs were in the other pocket, the extortion begins. The typical story is of an initial demand of Rs25,000 or Rs50,000, which is a vast sum of money. This is probably at least 2 months wages for any police officer, and 5 months wages for most Indians! Thankfully this is normally negotiated down to the much lower level of all the cash that the tourist is carrying. The distribution of sums I have heard of is Rs1000, Rs8000, Rs9000, Rs10000x3, Rs16,000. This is still a considerable sum of money (around 100 GBP).
The sites of searching and extortion are as you might imagine out of view of too many people who might know better. Even if the search is somewhere semi-public the negotiations are often described as slightly removed. The rickshaws are stopped between the station and town, and the tourist connecting bus from Ankola also at a convenient checkpoint. There have also been many reports of police, often non-uniformed except for the distinctive moustache, lurking in the forest paths between the beaches or sitting openly on Paradise beach. They have even ventured into the guest houses on Om Beach, a curiously public approach, where they sit in wait for a tourist who rolls a suspicious smoke. The smokers have already revealed themselves, but in other cases men and bags are searched carefully. Note that as to women, accusations of sexual harassment is something that even corrupt police don't want to touch with a barge-pole following India's sudden national recognition that this problem exists and has existed for a long time.
For me, I'm torn. The drugs are illegal, and these are the laws set by a democratic government of the country. Even if the policy on cannabis makes very little sense, it is as it is and the reason these police have not been challenged is that they stick to people who are breaking the law. On the other hand, this form of revenue collection is illegal and detrimental to tourism (a number of tourists feeling that the searches are a rather fascist action). While no tourist fancies time in jail it's not going to change fast.
Of course for a long time the alternative revenue collection force of India, with their fine bamboo canes, have had their finger in another Indian pie. Many of the businesses on the beach sell alcohol without a license, as the licensing laws of India are highly restrictive (places which sell alcohol are by law required to have a minimum level of seedy atmosphere). Not that I suggest otherwise, Goa has more liberal licensing and I can't say that the results are entirely pleasant. This is a problem for tourism in India, tourists want to drink, but the restaurants can't legally sell them beer.
The Engineer in India has the following thoughts, the corruption is facilitated by strict regulation and laws. Tourism is important to India, it's the third largest export, if you accept the arbitrary categories used by the source I used to research this, behind petroleum products and gems and minerals. While it shouldn't be a case of changing the customs of the country, small changes affecting foreigners remove some of the opportunities for corruption. For example, permitting the sale of beer to foreign passport holders (as in Gujurat), and replacing the custodial penalty for possession of charas with a fine and deportation.
But I can't see things changing too quickly. Corruption.
No comments:
Post a Comment