Moral policing on rise in Goa: Minister demands end to bikinis, 'pub tourism'

The next time you plan on spending the weekend at a Goan pub looking to unwind, beware of Goa PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar.

Dhavalikar fired his first salvo on Monday night at the sidelines of an event at a resort in Goa, where he told journalists,  “Scantily dressed girls visiting pubs project the wrong culture and this should be stopped. It does not fit in our culture. What will happen to our Goan culture if we allow this? "

He then reportedly pointed to a girl wearing a short skirt, seeking to emphasise his point, much to the objection of the girl’s mother.

The media firestorm inevitably ensued, leading to the inevitable ‘clarification’. Asked about his reported remarks, the minister, in an interview to CNN-IBN, doubled down on his initial error. He insisted women should not be allowed to consume alcohol and that he would “tell his sisters not to drink as alcohol is bad for their health… After 12 am, if women go to pubs and drink and dance I will object to it… I will see that these pubs are closed.”

He told NDTV, “Women should not wear bikinis on public beaches for their own safety,” adding that Goa is a city of churches and temples, saying it didn’t need “pub tourism.”

“Our daughters and sisters are getting spoilt. We must stop this,” he said.

Dhavalikar further stood by Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, whose men attacked women at a pub in Mangalore back in 2009, saying, “Whatever Muthalik is saying is not wrong. He is not speaking against any religion. Everyone has a right to speak about his own religion.”

His comments come at a time when Muthalik has repeatedly expressed his desire to set up office in Goa. The reason: He wants to stop women from wearing short skirts and oppose the “culture of drugs, sex and nudity” while preserving the “Indian culture”.

While Parrikar has said he will not tolerate anyone creating a law and order problem in the state, Muthalik expressed confidence that he will convince Parrikar. “I will meet Parrikar in a couple of months and clear all the misunderstandings. We both belong to the same background of RSS. We have same ideology,” he said.

The Chief Minister has not yet reacted to his minister’s remarks, but a confident Dhavalikar suggested that Parrikar was on the same page citing a notification by the government to shut down pubs along the highways in the state.

It is unclear how Parrikar will deal with this latest fracas – having recently landed himself in hot water with women’s rights groups over a ‘comment in lighter vein’ where, in an analogy comparing the situation of a rapist to that of setting up industry in Goa, he recalled what an IIM professor had said to him quoting one of his students. “If I rape, I face only one inspector, if I start small scale industry, there are 26 inspectors.”

Parrikar, viewed as one of the more moderate faces of the BJP, stormed to power in 2012 after winning the support of the Catholic church. Expecting a chief minister who would be able to govern a diversely cultured Goa, the Church tacitly backed the Parrikar-led BJP in the 2012 polls, asking people to vote against the corrupt, a tag associated with the Congress party.

After virtually decimating the Congress party in the state in the 2012 state elections, Parrikar took a strong line against Muthalik at the time. “I have kept a watch… I want to know who has invited Pramod Muthalik to Goa. Let me come to know and I will take action against them… They will be arrested,” he told the state assembly.

But in just two years, during which the BJP swept both the Lok Sabha seats in the state, Parrikar has changed his stance. When asked whether he would ban Muthalik recently, Parrikar would only say, “Who does it (commits violence) is not important, neither the name (of the person) is. We will not tolerate anyone creating law and order problem in the state.”

Other state party leaders have taken a far more tolerant line. “We will not ban Sri Ram Sene from entering the state,” state BJP leader Wilfred Misquita said, adding that there was ’no problem with Muthalik’s ideology’.

Dhavalikar’s remarks appear to be one more sign of the  softening stance of the ruling government toward the rightwing fringe

The state Congress has taken a strong line against Dhavalikar in comments made to Firstpost. Cautioning against moral policing in the state, Goa Congress President John Fernandes said no violence should be permitted. “There are laws against vulgarism in Goa… as long as those laws are not violated, we have no problem.. but nobody must take law into their own hands,” he told Firstpost.

Party spokesperson Durgadas Kamat went further and slammed the BJP-led government, saying “An individual has the right to decide what they want to wear and whether they want to drink, as long as no law is violated who is Dhavalikar to decide? They are trying to disturb the peaceful culture that Goa has had for years_."_ Kamat plans on sending the minister a pack of mini-skirts.

Sabina Martins, convener of Bailancho Saad, a women’s organisation in Goa, says it was a problem of mindsets. “Tribal women don’t wear blouses, are they going to object to that also? When young girls are on the field playing football, they wear shorts much above their knees, will they object to that? Why is it only when women are going to pubs?” she asks.

“They talk about empowering women in the country but this is dis-empowerment of women.”

Gender rights aside, such a traditional values agenda sits ill with Goa’s economic realities, as Kamat points out:  “Such comments on alcohol and pub life could impact the tourism industry. Mining is no longer operational, how will Parrikar revive our economy?”

While Dhavalikar has said he is opposed to the consumption of alcohol in the state, his own government has acted otherwise. In May this year, the government extended bar timings from 11 pm to 4 am, and has allowed casinos to provide alcohol beverages all through the day and night. Given this policymaking trend, it is unlikely that anyone will be barring women from Goan bars any time soon. But that Goa now has a political climate where it is okay to demand moral policing remains a cause for concern.

Editor’s note: Goa CM Manohar Parrikar had been erroneously quoted by a news agency based on which this report had been filed. The quote has since been corrected.