BY RAJAN NARAYAN

Womanising has been considered a perquisite of power in Goa as much as in other parts of the country. Goa has more than its share of N D Tiwaris.

WE ARE not very surprised about Shantaram Naik’s remarks in the Rajya Sabha that women who go out with strangers after midnight are asking to be raped. Or for that matter Chief Minister Digamber Kamat’s comments that foreign tourists in Goa should follow a code of conduct. The truth is that politicians in Goa have never had much respect for women. Particularly foreign women tourists who tend to expose a little more flesh than we are used to culturally. For the Goan politician and, indeed the over fifties generation in Goa, only women who dress modestly are considered ‘unmolestable’, whereas lasses who wear jeans, halters, figure-hugging clothes or skimpy skirts are considered ‘chaalu’ and are asking to be molested.

FOREIGN WOMAN

THERE is also an unfortunate belief that foreign women tourists who come to Goa in large numbers, particularly during the tourism season, are all sex starved and have no compunctions about sleeping around. Admittedly, it is possibly true that women abroad in the developed countries do not place as much sanctity on virginity or on waiting till marriage for sexual relations. But even a permissive society does not approve of molestation or rape and even when a young woman dates a young man, sex without the young lady’s consent, it is considered rape.

Goan politicians have historically behaved like spoiled brats who not only have a right to loot and plunder and misuse and abuse their position for their personal benefit but also believe that they can get away with coveting other people’s wives or daughters.

NARVEKAR CAPERS

AS far back as in 1989, a young woman claimed that Dayanand Narvekar had attempted to molest her in his chamber in the Adil Shah Palace when he was speaker. Though a police case was filed and Dayanand Narvekar was forced to resign his position as speaker of the then Legislative Assembly, the case never was charge-sheeted. Narvekar did not have as much luck with the charge of molesting and looting cricket fans during the one day match held in the Fatorda stadium in 2001. The case is still pending in the courts and Narvekar was dropped from the cabinet on the claim that since the case had been charge-sheeted, his continuance as finance minister in the cabinet of Digamber Kamat would not be ethical.

FEMALE BAIT

WHEN the present South Goa Member of Parliament, Francisco Sardinha, broke away from the Congress in 1999 and formed a new government with the support of Manohar Parrikar and the BJP MLAs, there were allegations of businessmen bribing the then chief minister with women of easy virtue to get their job done. While Sardinha had a reputation as a womaniser even before he became the chief minister, it was not taken seriously as it was believed that consensual sex between consenting adults even if they were politicians or ministers, was a private matter. But when women were used as bait by businessmen to get the chief minister to bend and break the rules, it became a scandal.

MEDIA SILENCE

BUT the media then did not pursue the matter, presumably under political pressure. I understand that one of the reasons why the BJP led by Manohar Parrikar decided to withdraw support to the Sardinha government was because he had allegedly converted the official residence of the chief minister into a bordello. Though there have been persistent similar allegations about the compulsive womanising of the former chief minister and the present home minister, Ravi Naik, it was not written about as Ravi was relatively discreet. Indeed, rumours persist on Ravi Naik’s womanising and the insinuation has been made that Ravi has been appointing his girlfriends to various committees and offices of profit in return for horizontal favours rendered.

During the tenure of Manohar Parrikar as the chief minister, there was the great Miramar sex scandal. Interestingly, it was Manohar Parrikar himself, who claimed to have uncovered the Miramar sex scandal. The allegation was that some politicians were running a call girl racket from a building opposite the Dhempe College of Arts and Science in Miramar, using a cybercafé as a contact point. The rumours were that the call girl racket was being operated by Babush Monserrate and that several other politicians had been patronising the prostitution den. Presumably, because very important people or their sons were involved and the political compulsions of running a coalition government, the police were instructed not to follow up the case. Parrikar himself, after igniting the flames of a sex scandal, sought to play it down if not hush it up. With the police unable to act and no witnesses willing to speak out, the Miramar sex scandal was hushed up. The only fall out was that the cyber café was closed and the Dhempe college, perhaps apprehensive that some of the girls might get lured by easy money to finance the lifestyles they could not afford, decided to start a cybercafé within the college premises itself.

BABUSH APPETITE

THERE have always been rumours about the voracious sexual appetite of the Taleigao MLA and the present education minister, Babush Monserrate. There were persistent rumours that the flats in the Kamat complex opposite the Dhempe college which were supposed to be the scene of the Miramar sex scandal, were owned by Babush Monserrate. Indeed, when I used to drop in occasionally to buy greeting cards from the Hallmark franchise shop owned by Babush Monserrate, several women were pointed out to me as Babush’s passions of the moment. Ironically, it was not Babush but his son Rohit who was publicly charged by the mother of a foreign resident of having sent lewd messages to her and of having molested her in an SUV owned by Babush. But against Babush himself, there have been no official complaints of molestation or forcible attempts at molesting women. The presumption is that Babush bought them off.

MICKKY PACHECO

MICKKY Pacheco, who has been shedding crocodile tears over the alleged rape of a Russian employee of a hotel and accusing the police of not pursuing the case seriously because of pressure from Churchill Alemao, is not a saint himself. Even before he could secure a divorce from his first wife and possibly still his only legal wife, Mickky not only had a torrid affair with a college girl but even claimed to have married her. Mickky has two children by his “second wife”. Mickky is also alleged to be a compulsive womaniser. It has been alleged that he was married to a woman in the United States where he is supposed to have a business operation.

But to be fair, there have been no allegations of rape or molestation against Mickky. What did shock me though was that at the Liberation Day reception at the Raj Bhavan, a senior politician insisted that the charges against John Fernandes could not be true because it was impossible to molest a woman in a car, even if it was one of the large SUVs. It shocked me because the politician concerned has a very good reputation and could not have been unaware of the fact that several such cases of rape and molestation in vehicles has been reported in Delhi.

The kith and kin of several politicians in the state have been involved in running call girl rackets and have been accused of large scale womanising. Which should not come as a surprise considering the morals of their fathers. It is a case of the sins of the fathers being visited on the children. But the media, including the Goan Observer, has been too lazy or timid to follow up on the stories of the wild oats being sown by the sons of politicians in power. And the fact remains that, except in the case of Babush Monserrate’s son, no formal complaints have been made. What is more likely is that, as in the case of the Russian girl, the police may have persuaded the victims not to register complaints against politicians and their sons. There have also been claims that many foreign women, particularly Russian women, are part of upmarket brothels and call girl rackets in Goa. Indeed, if you visit any sites on the internet offering escort services, you will find hundreds of pictures of semi nude women online waiting, willing and wanting to offer their expert services to you or anyone who is interested.

SHANTARAM MESS

THE reason why Shantaram Naik has got into the mess he has is because he publicly, and in as solemn a forum as the Rajya Sabha, sought to justify the molestation of the Russian girl. Shantaram Naik’s sin was his outrageous statement that any girl who went out with strangers and accepted their hospitality after midnight was asking to be raped and had no business to complain about molestation. Women have as much right as men to wear what they please, accept the hospitality of whomsoever they want to and stay out as late as they want to. Indeed, it has been a long tradition in Goa, particularly on Christmas night or New Year’s Eve, for young men and women to dance away the entire night without any censure or disapproval from their parents. So it is absurd to suggest that the young women who go out with strangers and accept their hospitality after midnight have no right to protection from the police.

COSTLY FARE

AND just as we were writing this, came the report that three Russian women who had gone to a night club in Saligao were threatened with molestation by an unauthorised taxi driver and his associates. It is not really relevant whether it was an unofficial private taxi or a licensed taxi. It could have happened in a licensed taxi also. The reason why rapes and assaults, and more often robbery and extortion particularly of foreign tourists, is so common in Goa is not just the fact that the police are corrupt, but that there is no public transport after 9 pm. The public bus services come to a full stop around 9 pm. Indeed, there is no public transport to the interior villages including villages in coastal areas after 7 pm. It would perhaps help if the tour operators who bring in the tourists or the night clubs that these tourists visit or the Goa Tourism Development Corporation or the Kadamba Corporation run a shuttle service from popular night clubs to the hotels in which the tourists stay. This will not only offer some protection from molestation to foreign woman tourists or for that matter single women domestic tourists, but will also prevent extortionate licensed taxi drivers and motorcycle pilots from molesting the purses of tourists.

There will always be scarlet men who believe that they have a right to impose their sexual will on women. There will always be insensitive perverted men who believe that any woman who is not in a purdah literally or metaphorically are women of easy virtue. There will always be scarlet politicians and scarlet men who believe that if a woman accepts an offer of a drink or dinner, they have a right to expect sex in return. This is true not only of Goa, but every metropolitan city or tourist destination in the world. What makes Goa different is that the victims are victimised by the police, in league with politicians. And as we pointed out, single women do not have a choice but to accept a lift with strangers and acquaintances because there is no public transport in Goa after 10 pm.

The attitude of Goa’s politicians is best described by the words of the anonymous wit who wrote:
Do not covet they neighbour’s wife.
Nor neighbour’s cattle slaughter.
But thank Good God,
It is no great sin,
To covet they neighbour’s daughter!