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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Regulated Neglect

The Goa nightclub tragedy where 25 people were burnt alive was the predictable outcome of ignored safety norms, lax inspections, compromised access and a governance system that reacts only after bodies are counted. In a tourism capital that markets excess as lifestyle, death has now joined the itinerary. The Goa tragedy joins a long roll-call of preventable Indian catastrophes, ranging from bridge collapses and train derailments to hospital fires and flooded coaching centres. While the...

Regulated Neglect

The Goa nightclub tragedy where 25 people were burnt alive was the predictable outcome of ignored safety norms, lax inspections, compromised access and a governance system that reacts only after bodies are counted. In a tourism capital that markets excess as lifestyle, death has now joined the itinerary. The Goa tragedy joins a long roll-call of preventable Indian catastrophes, ranging from bridge collapses and train derailments to hospital fires and flooded coaching centres. While the political class has expressed grief and condolences, the public debate, too, has followed a depressing script following the fire. There has been talk of missing fire extinguishers, faulty wiring, overcrowding, blocked exits and poor management. Yet, this technocratic post-mortem carefully avoids the central fact that this was not an accident, but a governance failure. What failed was enforcement of regulations and behind that failure sits a culture that treats safety as a nuisance and compliance as ‘optional.’ The club’s remote backwater location, reachable only by a narrow approach road, forced fire engines to halt nearly 400 metres away. Precious minutes were lost manoeuvring hoses and personnel through terrain never designed for emergency response. A nightclub built for crowds, profits and spectacle was regrettably never built for escape. Goa, the country’s premier tourism state, has long marketed itself as India’s answer to Ibiza with its beaches, drinks, neon lights and permissiveness. But beneath the postcard image lies a darker ledger of crime in beach shacks, money laundering through casinos, drug deaths, taxi mafias and now mass death in a nightclub. Each scandal is treated as an aberration. This is what happens when a public economy built on tourism is left to the private logic of greed and the political logic of indifference. Tourism in Goa does not need more marketing campaigns or nightlife festivals. It needs rules that bite. and zoning laws that matter. It needs safety audits that are real and evacuation protocols rehearsed as drills rather than imagined in hindsight. It needs a government willing to antagonise powerful interests rather than mourn their victims later. The families of the dead will receive compensation. Some officials may even face temporary suspension. A few low-level arrests will signal resolve. But the deeper ecosystem of the unholy alliance of lax regulators, bribable inspectors, political patrons and profit-hungry businesses will remain intact. That is the real firetrap. It is this ecosystem that neutralises outrage, absorbs scandal and ensures that accountability evaporates before it reaches the powerful. In Goa, as in the rest of India, tragedy has become procedural. Immediately after the incident comes the horror, then the condolences and then compensation followed by an inquiry whose conclusions will politely indict ‘systems’ rather than names. But tourism will rebound, crowds will return, and the music will resume. Only the lesson will be lost. And when the next inferno breaks out the state will once again act surprised by a disaster it spent years painstakingly preparing.

Is Caste & Politics Driving a Takeover at Sir J. J. School of Art?

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

J. J. School

Caste and party politics have reared their ugly heads, and this time into the serene campus of Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai, one of the oldest art colleges in the country. According to the buzz amongst the campus faculty, the transfer of JJ’s Dean, Professor Vishwanath Sabale, to the Government College of Art and Design in Nagpur this month is the final nail in the coffin. As per reports, the art professor has been a victim of a hate campaign by a certain lobby within the campus ever since he took over the Dean position in 2011.


Sabale, who belongs to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category, first joined J.J. School of Art in 2001 and later, through the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC), was appointed to the position of professor in 2006. A few faculty members, while speaking on conditions of anonymity, commented on how Sabale has always been ‘treated differently’ since then. “Ever since Sabale Sir took over the reins of the college in 2011, both the old faculty members along with the alumni members have been running a hate campaign against him by degrading him and his work. Sabale Sir ignored all this and stuck on and continued to do his work. He was instrumental in reviving the many defunct departments of the Institute and ushering in new changes over the years,” he adds, continuing that apart from reviving the 100-year-old plus campus magazine RugaVed, he was also responsible for hosting the Korean Biennale twice on campus along with other prominent events that have elevated the status of JJ on several fronts. Added to that, Sabale was also instrumental in providing a fresh approach to the syllabus, mentoring the careers of many students over the years, as well as restoring many artworks of its illustrious alumni like V. S. Gaitonde, S. H. Raza, Prabhakar Barve, and many more owned by the college and showcasing them to the world.


The exit of Sabale has hit faculty members, mainly those belonging to the minority class who believe that this is nothing but a ploy by a section of former students and faculty belonging to a certain category to oust Sabale by taking the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).


“Some former students who may have graduated decades ago want to have access to the campus. They want to use the 10-acre space on the campus as their own studios and run it as their territory. It is a prestige issue for them. This is why they came together and campaigned hard to bring in the de-novo deemed university status to JJ, which the college received last year by collaborating with a few BJP ministers. They wanted to increase the fees too, a clause that Sabale was against. If this happens, then no poor student in the country can afford to study at JJ in the future.


As per the new de-novo policy, Sabale’s position has been wiped out, and all three colleges, namely the College of Applied Art, Architecture, and Fine Art, are under one umbrella. The alumni were pushing to appoint a BJP supporter in place of Sabale and even got many BJP ministers involved, but the present officials overruled the decision, citing a lack of teaching and art experience, and instead promoted the existing professors to heads of departments, transferring Sabale to Nagpur.”


Well, JJ’s huge loss is ultimately Nagpur’s gain, and we eagerly await to see what new miracles Sabale now creates in his new role.


(The author is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

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