In the recent gang rape case which took place in calangute last week involving two escorts from Delhi who were reportedly raped by the group of 5 accused after abducting them from Arpora, the issue became sensitive after the tourism minister Dilip Parulekar issued the statement in the press saying that the accused were “Nadaan” and “Petty Criminals” and to condemn this, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, secretary Mr. Durgadas Kamat has written a letter to the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi asking for the sacking of the tourism minister from the cabinet.
According to Mr. Kamat The statement “Such stray incidents are bound to take place in a busy tourist destination like Goa,” Parulekar is highly irresponsible and shows that the Tourism Minister do not have the confidence in the Home Ministry and its administration to prevent such incident in the future.
The second statement in which Mr. Parulekar said that “The boys are ‘nadaan’ (naive) and they have small crimes registered against them…this will not happen in future,” this statement shows that BJP minister considers the crime aganst the women is “Petty” small thing which is in its own challenges the BJP ideology which reeks of a scant regard for women and consider them subservient to men.
Further the more ridiculous statement made by the minster who says that “Neither the accused nor the victims are Goans. The boys were outsiders and the victims were from Delhi.” Creates the discrimination about the people coming to Goa as tourist or tourism related business, We only want to say that being a tourism driven economy our mantra should be “अतिथि देवो भवः” and we need to treat our guests as avatars of god, however the above statement clearly shows that the Tourism Minister, who himself is a guest most of the times, travelling at the cost of the exchequer abroad does not know about this.
According to Mr. Kamat the job of tourism minister is to help boost the tourism in Goa and not discriminate saying that they are outsiders and that’s why rape took place. It is the duty of the Government to maintain law is order and to take all possible steps to work towards prevention of crime and speedy investigation. His statement only goes to show that the minister is not at all concerned about the safety and security of our tourists, which will only drive tourists away and hamper the tourism industry which in turn would have a telling effect on the economic health of the state.
HERE IS THE COPY OF LETTER
