"Comprised of more than 400 hotels in 80 countries, Leading Hotels is one of the largest luxury hotel collections in the world. Rooted in the locations in which they are found, our members embody the very essence of their destination."
This is how the Leading Hotels brands itself. Hence, understandably, one would be justified in expecting certain standards of decency, ethics and morality from an international hotel consortium of this standing. So what happened on the night of May 15th, when the Leading Hotels gave itself a thoroughly disgraceful rebranding through its sneaky expedition to Terekhol in the dead of the night as it displayed its utter contempt for the status quo order of the National Green Tribunal and went ahead with its nefarious agenda of felling trees and pushing through a road in the disputed property. The heavy contingent of bouncers and musclemen were supposedly brought along to defend the demolition squad from “unruly behaviour of villagers” Since the state government as usual remains a silent and passive spectator to the breaching of law by the curious modus operandi of Leading Hotels in Goa, it is once again upto the community of Goans to demand and seek an explanation in this regard. The consortium needs to clarify if this is standard operating procedure in their organisation. Does Leading Hotels normally execute its controversial operations assisted by musclemen and bouncers rather than the legitimate police force of the state? And are all their operations done in the dark of the night? Or was this method necessitated by the lawlessness of the nature of the action contemplated by them? Are the Leading Hotels soliciting mafia and gangster guests? Because if this behaviour embodies what they feel is the "essence" of this destination, then that’s all that they will attract. If this lack of decent standards of ethics and behaviour is the culture of Leading Hotels, then that is the Company’s prerogative. But be sure that Goans will get together and fight this uncivilised culture that the Leading Hotels is seeking to impose on our state for their own self interest and economic considerations at the cost of Goa and Goans. Because despite what the behaviour of our government demonstrates, the community of Goans believe that the "essence" of Leading Hotels is certainly not the essence of Goa. – Diana Pinto
