Goa Is Not For BRICS Summit

By Manuwant Choudhary

I've  never been to Goa but this has nothing to do with me not being a beach person.

Yet when I watch the news and Goa these days its all about  not so great politicians and their arms deals.

Goa is about sun, sand and sea and definitely not about more nukes, missiles and terror !

So I just switch off !

A former Portuguese colony Goa is pretty and some 4 lakh tourists visit each year but this is less than in Bihar (although they may be spending more and staying longer).

The little bit I know about Goa is from my friend late Sauvik Chakraverti's blog The Antidote (now shut).

He would write some great stuff from Goa.

Like he would write against the indiscriminate mining in Goa, "Thank God I am a writer and I am not some guy digging dirt somewhere."

Or he would talk about where there should be  a road or a bridge to shorten distances.

And he would write about freedom.

Yet, Goa's peace has also been disturbed in recent years.

So has its image.

                                                       First, when Sarah Keeling, a British teen, was raped and murdered.

And after years of court cases, all the accused have been set free.

Recently, Monika Ghurde, India's famous perfumer, was raped and murdered in her apartment.

A former apartment guard has been arrested.

Law and order is a prime concern, unfortunately governments spend all their time elsewhere.

Like India's defence minister Manohar Parrikar is credited with first supporting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

In return he is India's defence minister.

And now he says he is India's best dressed defence minister. (He wears a crushed half-shirt with baggy trousers and chappals !)

What about Babu Jagjivan Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav in dhoti? I thought dhoti's are Indian and dignified.

In Parrikar's Goa, governments spend money on booklets on what tourists should wear and what they should not, like they must not ride a bike topless (in English and Russian).

Wonder, what booklet they gave Putin !

Just an after thought. What if Peru instead of Brazil was a member of this new club, what would it be called - PRICS .....