Click to play videoThe culprit is clear and visible to Goa politicians when a foreign tourist is raped or assaulted in the state--it is the rape victim herself.
Shantaram Naik, Congress MP from Goa, shocked the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when he accused the media of playing up rape cases in his state and said a rape victim who was friends with strangers should be treated “differently”.
Rape is a heinous crime but “an alleged rape of a lady who moves with strangers for days together even beyond the middle of the night is to be treated on different footings,” said Naik.
He was speaking about the alleged rape of a Russian woman by Goan politician John Fernandes in Goa. The Russian consul general in Mumbai has protested against his remark; the National Commission for Women has called his statement derogatory and irresponsible, and women MPs have accused Naik of defending rape.
But Naik was the third Goa politician to have made “insensitive” statements about rape victims.
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamath told CNN-IBN in an interview the Russian woman shouldn't have been out late at night with men.
Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao, a former chief minister, followed that up by saying that the media ignored several other rape cases in Goa because of its obsession with white skin.
Ironically, state Tourism Minister Micky Pacheco has warned that assaults on tourists and police failure to punish the culprits may make Goa the “rape capital” of India.
When Goa’s politicians blame tourists are they denying their own inability to provide security and enforce the law in the state? Or has Goa been ruined by the foreign tourist?
CNN-IBN’s Senior Editor Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation to Oscar Rebello, convenor of Goa Bachao Abhiyan, Ranjana Kumari, director of Centre for Social Research, and Congress MP Naik, who made those controversial statements in the Rajya Sabha.
Naik said what he meant by his statement that investigation in rape cases must be “very careful” and catch the “correct culprit”.
Naik said he believed tourists in Goa must take care and precaution. “They should not move in isolated places--they must take precaution in their own interest,” he said.
Ranjana Kumari had a different take about safety in Goa. “When Goa is marketed as a tourist haven where tourists can come and have fun and that is a message conveyed globally, then it the responsibility of the government to protect tourists,” she said.
“A state where politicians, the Chief Minister are saying that women should protect themselves and they should not go out it means that the responsibility of protection is on women themselves.
“That is a very irresponsible statement in a state where 30 rape cases were reported last year,” she said.
Naik defended his statement by saying that “99.99 per cent” of foreign tourists behaved well in Goa and only a few were “culturally aggressive”. It was this “culturally aggression” he wanted to highlight through his statement.
“Any kind of rape should be severely punished (but) while investigating the police have to look into this aspect where a lady has been raped by a person whom she does not even know,” said Naik. The police should take the “total circumstances” into consideration.
Kumari rejected Naik’s argument, saying that to a tourist any person in Goa would be a stranger. The argument that tourists should not befriend strangers or trust them therefore doesn’t hold. “Rape is rape,” she said.
Marketing Goa
The point is not rape or crime in Goa, but the police’s response to them, said Oscar Rebello. “Have the police been prompt, have they been efficient, have they inspired confidence, and more importantly have they got results in solving crimes?” he said.
“There was a serial killer lose in Goa who raped and killed women of the lower socio-economic strata. The media brought this to notice and the police came to know after 10 years that there is a serial killer in the loose. Where is the culture clash in this case?” said Rebello. “This is a questioning of policing--and if the government talks in this kind of language it doesn’t inspire confidence.”
Kumari saw a dichotomy between allegations of foreign cultural aggression and the way Goa is sold to the world. “The tourism department and industry must tell tourists that enjoy in Goa but respect our culture. But that is not done--casinos are increasing, night bars are increasing, drug peddling is going on.”
Rebello concurred. “Goa has been marketed as some kind of hedonistic paradise where the good life goes on without any hindrance. That (image) certainly needs to be corrected,” he said.
Kumari urged Goa to be a responsible tourist state. “You have to be responsible for the protection of everybody--not just tourists but the people and women of Goa,” she said.
Goa does just that, insisted Naik. “I assure tourists Goa is very safe. There is no problem and all are welcome,” he said.
Results of the SMS/web poll: Has Goa been ruined by the foreign tourist?
Yes – 51 per cent
No – 49 per cent
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