Goa minister calls domestic tourists 'scum of the earth', Manohar Parrikar says 'point highlighted is right'

Manohar Parrikar said the minister was referring to an incident of a tourist urinating from a bus window, the video of which had gone viral on the social media.

PANAJI: Days after Goa Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai called domestic tourists visiting the coastal state the "scum of the earth", Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar defended him saying he was talking about a particular incident but was not able to convey himself correctly.

He said Sardesai was referring to an incident of a tourist urinating from a bus window, the video of which had gone viral on the social media. "He (Sardesai) should not have used very harsh words. I have spoken to him about it. He was not wrong in what he was highlighting. But he interpreted it in a wrong way or rather, he was not able to express it correctly," Parrikar said, adding that the minister, corrected his statement later.

However, he added that politicians need to be careful while making remarks. "Sometimes, a politician has to be careful while making a statement." Though he passed on the blame to media too for reporting such statements which may not be verified. "Sometimes, if a report is filed by a journalist who was not present at the event, there is a possibility of dilution or modification of the statement."

Sardesai had last week said claimed that most of the domestic tourists visiting Goa are the 'scum of the earth'. "Today, we receive tourists who are almost six times the state's population. Those tourists are not the top-end tourists. They are also the scum of the earth," Sardesai said.

Calling Goa a state "superior" to the rest of India, Sardesai had said it is difficult to control "irresponsible tourists" who have been coming from other states. "Are they responsible? Are they conscious? They are not. If you compare Goans to the rest of India, we are very high in per capita income, social and political consciousness, health parameters, and many other parameters. So, we are much superior than the people who are coming in. Those people -- how will you control?" the Minister had said.

He had also stated that north Indian tourists want to create a Haryana in Goa. "We are dependent on north Indians and this is what they do. They are not bothered about Goa. They will like to recreate a Haryana in Goa," Sardesai had said.

Meanwhile, Manohar Parrikar is himself caught in a controversy after he said that he was worried that girls are consuming liquor these days. Clarifying his remark, he said: "It (the statement) was twisted in such a way that finally the interviewer (the person who had taken the public interview of Parrikar at the event) had to intervene and tweet that I was referring to school and college students."