No Bikinis or skirts: Is Goa becoming the moral policing hub?

Panaji: Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and his department have been unable to solve Goa’s burgeoning water woes this extended summer. But judging from the events which have unfolded this week, Dhavalikar clearly appears to have other priorities, specifically women in bikinis and short skirts, who he wants banned from Goa’s beaches and night clubs, which see over three million tourists every year. After Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik’s open and extra constitutional challenge to stop “drugs, wine and nudity” in Goa, the BJP’s open endorsement of Muthalik’s ideology (a top party spokesperson claimed they had an issue only with Muthalik’s violent methods) and now Dhavalikar’s call to ban revealing clothes, is Goa becoming a prime ground for the moral police? It appears so. “Young girls wearing short skirts in nightclubs are a threat to the Goan culture. This habit of young girls wearing short dresses everywhere does not fit the Goan culture. What will happen to it if this continues? We should not allow this. It should be stopped,” he said, adding that women should stop drinking too “because it is not good for their health”. Dhavalikar, a minister of the cabinet rank, also said that women wearing revealing clothes to night clubs and beaches often led to crimes in society. When asked about Muthalik’s threat to start a Sene branch in Goa by September, the cabinet minister said he had no problem if the Muthalik furthered his agenda here. “Muthalik is against pub culture and he is right in opposing it… Sri Ram Sene is like Shiv Sena of yesteryears which was doing similar things. Look at where Shiv Sena is now!" he argued. The comments have sparked outrage amongst civil society outfits, women’s rights organisations and the Opposition across the country, but the vehement manner in which he has defended his moral diatribe even after nationwide criticism and no censure yet from the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar begs answers. [caption id=“attachment_1599431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Tourists are seen on Goa’s Candolim beach. AFP[/caption] In response, the Congress in Goa on Tuesday sent Dhavalikar a pink skirt, a spin on the pink underwear campaign directed at Muthalik which was spontaneously launched by civil society after his Mangalore pub attack in 2009. But that hasn’t ruffled the minister much. Dhavalikar is a member of a regional party called the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party which has three legislators in the 40-member Goa legislative assembly. His brother Deepak is also a minister in the Goa cabinet. What is of note is that Dhavalikar’s wife Jyoti has been a volunteer for years for the Sanatan Sanstha, a right-wing organisation which was one of the hosts for the all-India Hindu convention in Goa last week, where Muthalik was one of the invitees. In the past, Dhavalikar has vehemently defended the Sanatan Sanstha, two of whose members died in an accidental explosion, while ferrying improvised explosive devices for the purpose of detonating them at a crowded Diwali function in Margao. “Sanatan Sanstha is doing constructive work to protect Hindu religion, like any other Christian or Muslim organisation works,” Dhavalikar said of the Sanstha, whose satellite organisations like the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have been indulging in varying forms of moral policing for several years in Goa, which includes anti-Valentine’s day campaigns, protesting against ‘controversial’ art and cinema here. With the summer prolonged and the monsoon nowhere around the horizon, parched throats in Goa need some relief, certainly not Dhavalikar’s sermon on revealing micro-minis.