As the remarks of Sudin Dhavlikar got played over and over again on television on a tumultuous Tuesday and reiterated and repeated ad infinitum to anyone who chose to ask him for an encore, his words and the impact of it was very surreal, because they couldn’t be real.
But we will leave the emotions for later, to allow the full impact of his words eat into our very pores and insides to deliver the shock and horror they were meant to.
For now, it’s vital to take apart his every word like a lawyer, because the mind must do its job to interpret the Dhavlikar project and not be clouded by the heart as any sane Goans heart would be. But wait, there’s work to do.
Every word was uttered to shock, every word was a lie of insurmountable proportions, mouthed deliberately for affect, far more hard hitting than Pramod Muthalik’s threats. Muthalik is only a chief of an outfit called Sri Ram Sene. Dhavlikar is a senior Minister in the Goa government with ambitions of becoming Chief Minister. And during his after hours, gets his recreation from the spirit of the sanathan sanstha, which is known to be a hotbed of right wing militant activity, in the garb of spreading learning and awareness.
As Dhavlikar wants to impose his sanathan sanstha by attacking the “pub-sanstha” (pub culture) read his lips how carefully he unleashes the project. He says “I appeal to all women in Goa not to drink. It is not good for health also. We will crack down against pubs. Women wear short dresses and go to pubs, they go and drink. This is not good”.
So what really is Dhavlikar’s issue? Is it that men can drink and get drunk and beat up women at home? Is that good for health? Oh really.
His next gem: “Women from outside Goa come and visit pubs. Visiting pubs and drinking is against Goan culture”. This needs no explanation, just an exclamation. While ‘culture’ is too broad based, it is indeed a subset of a way of life. And it is this way of life that has made Goa different. And yet this is a slice of a life of enjoyment and pleasure in the embrace of nature.
While he did not let this flow stop, we must pause and realise that this wasn’t a worried outburst of a serious disciplined uncle, who has taken all the daughters, wives, aunts and other assorted women under his tutelage. His political game is obvious. Within the Sangh Parivar and other right wing hindu organisations, there is a growing belief that Parrikar may be one of Modi’s favorite Chief Minister’s but he cannot be a change agent for the parivars grand designs for a Hindu rashtra. The parivar realises that Goa comes in the way of this design, nestled between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Goa is not a pebble but a mountain when it comes to its independent liberal all inclusive culture.
Sudin Dhavlikar is cleverly positioning himself in that space to be the obsessive bigot and spearhead his way into the Hindu hardline space. This space is vast and enough to take dominant political control and revive his MGP with a clear Dhavlikar stamp.
In the process of doing this, he seeks to destroy much more than pubs. He seeks to destroy Goenkarpon or Goa’s spirit and ethos. We can’t let him.
