No apology will make any Indian forgive you, Mr Parulekar
Dilip Parulekar’s comments on the horrific double rape allegedly by five men, sourced from a local channel were aired repeatedly by Times Now. We play out the specific English translation
Parulekar: Goa is a tourism destination and in state where there is such flourishing tourism such small time incidents happen.
Reporter: But isn’t Goa getting a bad name..?
Parulekar: There is no issue of getting Goa getting bad name to state as no Goans are involved. Neither the accused men nor the victim girls are Goan.. Girls are from Delhi. Prima facie it looks like the entire incident is a stunt. Also the relationship between victims and accused is not clear
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From bad to worse: Pathetic gender insensitivity
by the Goa ruling coalition members
Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on the Calangute gang rape
“Such stray incidents are bound to take place in a busy tourist destination like Goa,” Parulekar had said. The boys are ‘nadaan’ (naive) and they have small crimes registered against them…this will not happen in future.”
Agriculture Minister Ramesh Tawadkar statement on LGBT youth
“They will be trained and administered medicine in order to make them “normal. We will make them normal. We will have a centre for them. Like Alcoholics Anonymous centres, we will have centres. We will train them and (give them) medicines too”.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on protesting nurses of 108 service
“Girls should not sit on hunger strike in hot sun as their complexion will become dark and they will not find a good bridegroom.”
PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar on pub culture and bikini dresses
“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. “The (practice of) young girls going to pubs in short dresses does not fit in our culture. What will happen to our Goan culture, if we allow this?…The scantily dressed girls visiting pubs project wrong culture and this should be stopped”
Factories Minister Deepak Dhavalikar on dress code
“ The way people dress today, fuels incidents of rape. When girls used to follow Hindu culture, there were no instances of rape. Now, people have changed the way they behave and dress and you have seen how the number of rapes are on the rise”.
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When so called leaders like Dilip Parulekar, who are not fit to be heads of villages, are made ministers in government, Goa will continue to be shamed and embarrassed. The crores spent on foreign junkets and road shows are an absolute waste ( In any case the returns on investment has not been proven and so far abysmal), if the minister says small incidents like rape happen in tourist places. The absurdity of the remark doesn’t even deserve to be dignified with a comment. But what the world will make of this is as follows a) If you are not a Goan, (and over 1.5 million tourists visit Goa annually and are not Goan) don’t expect any sympathy if you are gang raped. b) A rape is a small collateral, if you chose to come to a tourist destination like Goa to enjoy your holidays.
The tourism minister is so de-linked from reality that he thinks tourists will come to Goa because of Goa’s five star hotels, resorts or prospective golf courses. They come here for nature and its people. But if rape happens with impunity ( even if the victims themselves are victims of prostitution) and a minister calls it “small things” Goa tourism is on a one way ticket to a destination called disaster. Having a minister like Parulekar – who Times Now has called “Goa’s obnoxious minister”, makes the ride to disaster even shorter.
