With the creamy layer of Goa’s BJP leadership, Manohar Parrikar gone, the Parsekar government’s ineptitude in addressing and grappling with issues of the world of today, is showing up in its bare nakedness. While the ‘story’ of Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Ramesh Tawadkar’s purported remark of having shelter homes for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals, to medicate and train them, has been denied by the minister, the manner in which this incident was handled, was unprofessional and a massive PR disaster.
Firstly, there is no conclusive video footage to establish that the minister had indeed said he would set up Centers to medically treat LGBTs to make them normal. As more time passes, it is becoming increasingly clear that the truth lies between the questioner, the question, the minister’s interpretation of the question and the journalists’ interpretation of the answer. So it’s best to close this specific remark even at the cost of erring on the side of caution. However between all this, Goa, its image, and its tourism has suffered a massive PR disaster. As the ministers reported remarks flew all over cyberspace, generating heat, Goa was projected as a banana republic, light years behind in civility, civilisation, education and functional knowledge of the basics. And for those who do not know Goa, the message that went out was that if ministers of the government have views such as these, imagine the ignorant proletariat, that gets its fountain of wisdom, its sea of knowledge and its vast expanse of awareness from worthies like our honourable ministers. While Twitter, as always was buzzing with one member of the Twitterati, helpfully putting out the official details of Ramesh Tawadkar, in case someone wanted to get in touch with him, the butt of the jokes moved from the minister to the people who rule Goa and then alarmingly to those who live here.
With Goa, shamed, maligned and castigated in the social media and some uselessly persistent national TV channels, flogging the minister’s quote, we would have expected the Government to respond to do damage control. This was even more imperative since there was strong case to defend its minister and send out a clear message meant for the national, international and the social media.
On Tuesday, there was no response from either the minister, his office or the Department of Information and Publicity whose job is to place on record the government stated position on issues, and this includes issuing clarifications or rebuttals. Herald, as a part of its professional duty contacted the minister and published his compete version, stating clearly that what was reported could have been incorrect, but had gone viral.
More than 24 hours later, there has been no official clarification, from proper channels, either from the minister or the government. This, the chief minister should be aware, is a pathetic response to what it might consider a non event, but to the rest of the world, including those making decisions on visiting Goa, is a strong indicator of the kind of a mindset Goa functions in. They, who consume social media, live with it. A clarification and a strong denial and perhaps even an admonishment to papers who reported his purported remarks without checking with him, was important not for us, but for the world at large.
But to top it all, what did Chief Minister Parsekar do. He told the NDTV reporter who flew down from Mumbai, that his minister “was ignorant”, so he didn’t quite mean what he said, and then added for good measure “LGBTs are gifts of God”. We have heard of people having a food in the mouth ailment. Here our very dexterous ministers and CM manage to put their entire torsos into their mouths. Honestly we don’t care what the CM meant by his “Gifts of God” remark since there is no point going there, but if these are being filed away by others then it will affect Goa’s destination equity no end, which is already much maligned and criticized.
