Scarlett's Tale

On February 18 2008, 15 year old Scarlett Eden Keeling was drugged, raped and murdered on Goa’s Anjuna beach.

What are Goa’s people saying? They are offering their condolences to Scarlett’s mother Fiona. Some are saying that this is what happens when “white girls in bikinis” don’t respect local culture and do as they please. Some are even saying that Scarlett was at fault for being provocative through her dressing and one can’t entirely blame the murderer for doing what he did.

Simply disgusting. There is absolutely no excuse in the world to justify such a crime.

What is the press saying? While offering condolences and blaming India’s government, they are also questioning Fiona’s parenting skills. A lot of people have demanded to know why Fiona left her fifteen year old daughter alone with people she barely knew herself. Fiona has faced uncomfortable questions from the media about her parenting in India as well.

The TV reporters will go to any length to get their thirty seconds of fame. Even if it means asking questions such as “How do you feel about being a bad parent? That your immaturity as a parent has resulted in your daughter’s death?”

A good parent or a good one, she’s just lost her daughter. Give her a break.

What is the police saying? They initially tried to cover up the whole incident, stating that it was a case of accidental drowning. The forensic reports have confirmed that Scarlett was indeed drugged and raped before bring murdered by forcible drowning. This brings to light another incident that is part of a plethora of examples of police incompetence. It is common knowledge that the police go hand-in-hand with the drug mafia in Goa.

What is the government saying? The home ministry is yet to even offer condolences and has threatened to lobby the central government not to extend Fiona’s visa. When quizzed by the media on its bungling of the case, the government, in defense of its actions, has issued various statements, such as:

1. Don’t blame only the government for the drugs. The people are buying them and are to blame as well.

2. The drug trade exists in the UK and other western nations as well.

3. The police in the UK was just as ineffective at solving the case of a Goan boy who was murdered in the UK. (That such a murder happened was not verified by any government agency in the UK or in India.)

4. Girls should not wear revealing clothes if they want to avoid being raped.

5. The Goan police are no worse than the police in other states in India.

6. Fiona should have been a good parent. Then this would have never happened.

This is what bugged me the most. Whenever these politicians are held accountable for their failures, they point fingers at others. Maybe police are corrupted in other countries as well. Maybe Fiona is a bad parent. Maybe girls’ clothes are too revealing. But that does not mean that the government and the police abdicate their responsibilities time and again. It does not mean that their incompetence is justified. It does not mean that corruption is okay.

I have a nasty feeling that this case will be buried somewhere in a file in a dusty cabinet in a government office in Panjim for years, like thousands of other cases. People will forget about it in a few months. The Government and the police will get away with another crime that is no less than the one committed by Scarlett’s murderer: the denial of justice to those who deserve it.