Instead of that Wilfred Mesquita, the Vice President of the BJP comes out with a statement that alcohol is drunk at weddings in Goa and is thus part of its social culture. You cannot have a more famous or vacuous excuse.
Mesquita must know that drinking alcohol in excess is a vice, though I like my drink. But consider its impact on the lower strata of society who squander their money on liquor and the family is left in want and penury over time. Alcohol is also linked with health problems that arise out of excessive drinking which everyone is aware of. We also would not have Alcoholics Anonymous if the above two points were not true. So why is a vice being made a virtue by Wilfred Mesquita claiming alcohol is part of the Goan social culture?
He does not probably know that Kerala has not banned wine and beer. Thus wine at weddings is not banned and can be imbibed as much as you like. This kind of reaction is similar to the earlier comment about banning women in bikinis on Goa’s beaches and its feared impact on one of the main revenue earners for Goa that is tourism.
Why are we being hypocritical about all this? For bikinis, it is very rare to see a Goan woman in a bikini, even our beauty queens competing in national competitions say they would rather avoid the bikini segment.
In contrast Kerala is not worried, which blessed with similar nature’s bounty like Goa earns more in terms of tourist spends per capita and has tourists staying there for more days than in Goa. And it has the guts to declare that the alcohol ban will not affect its tourism. So what we have to conclude is that Goa lacks the ability to take a decision on such matters and would much rather let everything slide hoping that the problem will resolve itself or that someone else can come and take this decision. In fact if we ban bikinis and alcohol in Goa, tourism will not be affected and will in fact go up. The reason for this is that the half-hearted measures being taken up now to diversify tourism like in the hinterland, adventure tourism, specialized tourism like spice tourism, medical tourism will get the much needed boost and become major players with a greater share in the tourism pie. Thus it is time to catch the bull by the horns and clean up our act on tourism rather than be content with the existing, the ordinary and the mundane.
